>>NADINE KASLOW: Hello.
My name is Dr. Nadine Kaslow and I am APA's 2014 president.
It is my hope that this short video will provide you an informative and helpful update on the
changes that are taking place within the APA governance structure.
Thank you very much for taking a few minutes to learn more about these improvements.
In 2010, APA embarked on an evaluation and potential re-design of its governance.
Our current structure, in place since 1945, was designed for a smaller association and
a slower world.
As you may have guessed, the evaluation, called the "Good Governance Project," found many
areas in which APA could be nimbler, more responsive and more effective.
The three year process culminated in the "Good Governance Project" team, a working group
of 16 APA members creating seven recommendations to strengthen the association's governance
process and better align it with the APA strategic plan.
Last August, in a historic meeting, the APA Council of Representatives, that is Council,
approved six of those seven recommendations.
The six approved recommendations were to: One, enhance the use of technology to bring
more member voices into governance and to expand communication among governance members
and between governance and the general membership.
Two, develop a program that would create a new pipeline for leadership in APA governance.
Three, create a triage system that would enable governance to work efficiently and nimbly
on new issues without duplicative efforts.
Four, expand the Council scope to focus on directing and informing major policy issues
and ensuring policy is aligned with APA's mission and strategic plan.
Five, delegate responsibility for budget and internal policy matters to APA's Board of
Directors for a three year trial period.
And six, change the composition of the APA's Board of Directors to be more representative
of APA's membership to include six members-at-large, including an early career member elected by
and drawn from the membership with the candidates selected based on a needs assessment following
an open nominations process.
These recommendations, all endorsed by Council, will allow this governing body to focus its
time and expertise on the mission-focused issues that confront psychology.
They will allow Council to more proactively address the issues and opportunities emerging
within the discipline.
Council also created an implementation work group charged with crafting plans for putting
the adopted recommendations into practice.
This work group, chaired by Melba Vasquez and co-chaired by Bill Strickland, has met
twice this winter and will deliver its first report to council in February in 2014.
Concerning the seventh recommendation, one that focused on Council itself, although Council
members agreed that a substantive change in its structure is needed to enhance the body's
effectiveness.
In their allocated meeting time, they were unable to decide on what form that change
should take.
As a next step for this recommendation, council asked the implementation work group to further
develop two proposed templates.
One template calls for modifying the current constituent base model by providing one unit,
one vote, for each APA division and state, provincial and territorial psychological association
and adding seats for other perspective groups and affiliated organizations.
The second template includes some elements from the first template, including providing
one unit, one vote, for divisions and state, provincial and territorial psychological associations.
It also adds disciplinary, that is mission-based, such as for education, science, public interest,
practice and health, as well as diversity representatives, such as from ethnic-minority
psychological associations, early career psychologists and graduate students.
Both models would result in a smaller council.
Currently, the council has 162 members from APA divisions and state provincial and territorial
psychological associations, plus, members of the Board of Directors.
It is anticipated that the new structure would result in 134-140 members, not including the
Board of Directors, a better-sized group for the think tank and policy formulation work
that is envisioned.
Many of the adopted changes, making greater use of technology, for example, can be put
into place without any changes to the association rules or bylaws.
Implementation of those changes will start this year.
Any changes to the Board of Directors or Council structure must be approved by the membership
through a bylaws amendment.
The bylaws ballot is expected to be sent to members for a vote this coming fall, once
the council has approved any structural changes.
What's particularly exciting about these changes is the way they will position Council to be
more responsive to the changing environment and utilize its time more strategically.
A new structure will allow Council to vote more of its time to issues members are most
concerned about, such as research funding, psychology's role in integrative health care,
the future of psychology education and training and advocacy for the profession.
I'm also extremely encouraged by the ways these approved recommendations will allow
for more participation by rank and file APA members in the association's governance process.
For example, we will make use of "quick polls" to survey the membership on issues before
the governance.
We want to hear from you and encourage your participation.
For my part, I will work hard to keep you up-to-date on the coming changes and improvements
and to share the ways in which we incorporate the feedback we receive.
Thank you for your continuing support for our discipline through your membership and
thank you for watching.