The August Council meeting will be held August 3 and 4 at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis. APA has not shared any agenda items to date. They have not scheduled any townhalls or other pre-meeting meetings today. The caucuses will be held all day on Friday, July 29.
The preliminary August agenda has just been issued. Agenda items include:
- APA’s racial equity plan
- The equitable treatment of graduate students
- A proposal to include graduate students on certain boards and committees.
- And the healthcare guidelines pPolicy
It is unclear what the Council Effectiveness Implementation Oversight Task Force will bring forward to this meeting and what will be addressed next year. The Council Leadership Team Evaluation Task Force will ask for an extension to continue their work into next year.
I have some good news. The Exploratory Committee for Applied Psychology is not bringing forward their proposal for a permanent Board of Applied Psychologists.
The next part of my message became obsolete before I could submit it. The Exploratory Committee for Applied Psychology (ECAP) did not submit a new business item (legislation) for the upcoming Council meeting. So, P&P is not pushing this scheme forward this year, but they could try again in the future. I am going to tell you about the draft we have seen, so you are aware and will be attuned in the future if ECAP brings it forward.
The ECAP draft proposed the creation of a Board of Applied Psychology. This board would be created as a fifth pillar board (with practice, science, public interest and education). We have significant concerns about the proposal:
- The proposal included in “applied psychology” everyone who works in non-healthcare settings. Practice would be divided by work setting. That would be divisive to efforts to promote and support practice in all its diversity and complex forms.
- It included “school psychology” as an applied field, but school psychology is a health service according to APA accreditation standards, and it is a regulated practice, where much of applied psychology is not.
- All practicing psychologists use and engage in applied psychology in the course of their work.
- It is contrary to the central tenant of the “one APA” transformation of 2018. It would be politically divisive and counterproductive.
We appreciate the desire of APA members who identify as “applied psychologists” to have a committee that focuses on their interests and promotes their work, but to do this as a fifth pillar board would be counterproductive. We would have supported the creation of a permanent Committee for Applied Psychology that reported to one or more of our existing boards.
It is clear to me that the best interests of all practicing members are better served by a unified Practice Directorate that includes the diversity of our practice and serves the broad diversity of our membership.
This will be my last meeting as our division’s Council representative. It has been an honor to serve you all. Chuck Hollister will serve the next term. Chuck’s extensive experience as both the executive director and the director of professional affairs of the Missouri Psychological Association prepare him well for this roll. The Division 31 representative has a special role as the liaison for our division to all 60 SPTA representatives, and often as the organizer of this group. Thanks to all the hard work of our division leadership and the many SPTA and division representatives with whom I have had the privilege to work with in support of our SPTAs and our members in our jurisdictions.
Best wishes to you all. I look forward to seeing you at the Convention in August.