I’d like to welcome all Div. 21 members to the summer newsletter for 2018. We and APA have had a busy year, and this issue of the newsletter provides an update for you.
First, I am glad to announce our new members of the Executive Committee for 2018 to 2019:
- Kim Vu, President-Elect
- Nathan Ward, Member-at-Large
- Shawn Doherty, Program Chair 2019 Meeting
On April 5-7, APA held an interdisciplinary conference, Technology, Mind & Society, which provided a venue for reporting and assessing current efforts to understand and shape the interactions of human beings and technology, for identifying priorities for future work and for promoting exchange and collaboration among participants. The conference was successful, and a similar conference is planned for the spring of 2020. I served on the Steering Committee that organized the conference, and the Senior Program Committee included Div. 21 members Wally Boot, Jing Chen, Nancy Cooke, Peter Hancock, Jerry Krueger, Dan Morrow and Kim Vu. Members of Div. 21 on the Review Committee included Beth Blickensderfer, Neill Charness, Sara Czaja, Jing Feng, Anne McLaughlin, Richard Pak and Scott Shappell. The division was well-represented in talks and posters. A summary of the conference, including the program and proceedings papers, is available onlineopens in new window.
The division has been working with APA member services in an attempt to increase membership. Surveys were sent out to both current and former members. All were asked to identify benefits that would add value to membership and what would improve their experience. Current members were also asked about the benefits of membership they most valued and whether they were satisfied with the level of communication within the division. The APA membership manager will discuss the results with Div. 21 leadership in the near future.
APA Council voted in favor of an expanded APA advocacy model this past spring. The model calls for a portion of APA to remain as a 501(c)(3) organization (tax-exempt) and the formation of a 501(c)(6) organization, the proposed name of which is the APA Institute for Psychology (APAIP). This effort is designed to expand lobbying and advocacy efforts beyond what a 501(c)(3) is allowed. It will also permit APA to form a PAC under the new organization.
The model was opposed by Div. 21 leadership, and our representative, Dave Schroeder, voted against it. In April, the APA President Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, appointed a presidential workgroup to provide input into the design and implementation of the new governance structure. At the June 20 meeting, the work group recommended that 60 percent of the allocation of the 2019 dues should go to the (c)(6) and 40 percent to the (c)(3). Of the potential benefits, there is limited reference to how this would support science. Representatives from the group of science divisions have sent two emails to the APA president and workgroup expressing our concerns and recommending that additional time is needed to clarify some of the issues and concerns. Concerns were also expressed regarding a lack of representation in the workgroup for divisions operating at the intersection of research and applied psychology. Consequently, Arthur Evans, Jr., PhD, the APA CEO, has organized an Applied Psychology Kitchen Cabinet advisory committee, for which I was invited to be a member. The committee has held two conference call meetings, and others will be scheduled in the near future. Arthur Evans mentioned that he worked in a human factors position in the past and emphasized that he is committed to understanding the issues of concern to our division and others that are at the border of research and application. He has assured the committee members that the process followed by the presidential workgroup will be open, with opportunities for input from all APA members. If you have any issues or concerns that you think should be brought to Arthur Evans' attention, please contact me or Dave Schroeder.
Kim Vu and I are co-editing a special issue of the American Psychologist titled “Multidisciplinary Research Teams: Psychologists Helping to Solve Real-World Problems.” This issue is an outgrowth of a symposium on the same topic held at the annual APA meeting last August. The purpose of the issue is to highlight the types of team research that have been conducted with psychologists as integral members of the team. Papers will focus on the composition of the multidisciplinary team, highlighting how each component contributes to solving real-world problems and emphasizing the process and issues involved in conducting the research. Manuscripts were invited from initial short proposals submitted in February and are currently in the review process. The issue is intended to be completed in December of this year, with publication in 2019.
Finally, we have an excellent program for the 2018 APA conventionopens in new window (PDF, 56KB) in San Francisco, Aug. 9-12. The meeting provides an opportunity to attend interesting sessions and interact with members of Div. 21 and other divisions. We think that all participants will come away feeling that their attendance was well worth the time. In this newsletter issue are notes from the program chair, which includes mention of an APA poster competition and a link to the Div. 21 program listing. We urge you to socialize with your colleagues at the division dinner on Friday night. Lastly, there is a flyer for a Thursday night Happy Science Hour, which we encourage you attend, in which our division is one of several that are participating. This flyer is followed by a call for membership, both of which are available in the PDF version of our newsletteropens in new window (PDF, 332KB).