A Message From The President: A Few Things To Share

It really happened.  Sigmund Freud came back to life through Erik Craig’s narratives, and let us touch his cane and even take a group picture with it in our mid-winter board meeting at Santa Fe.  And that was not the only magic Erik worked.  Let me skip the details of his hospitality and thoughtfulness as our host, and go right to the heart of the matter—Erik had initiated us into a nice tradition that he started:

I don't know if you are aware but I was the character who started having these mid-winter meetings way back in 1993 when I was president, right here in Santa Fe. . . . I am so glad the tradition continued and it seems to do a lot for the relational and working spirit of our board and other key society members.  (personal communication, 1/19/2011)

Like an apprentice following the master’s footsteps, I tried my very best to make the Santa Fe meeting as successful as the first one.  You can’t imagine my excitement when Erik told me afterwards how he first organized the board meeting there in 1993: I set the meeting for April (way too late) hoping to avoid the winter's cold, high mountain desert weather but it snowed anyway!!! We didn't even have so much as a single snow flake this year in January. What’s your secret?  (personal communication, 1/19/2011)

Erik really made my day!  

“The oldest, and still the best,” says Frank Farley in reference to our Hospitality Suite at the APA Convention.  I believe this applies as well to The Society as a whole.  Let me mention just a few of the highlights this year that can well attest to the innovativeness and youthful energy of this division:

• The Chicago Conference of Humanistic Psychology—organized by Todd DuBose, Brent Robbins and Louis Hoffman --was a smashing success.  Read more about it in forthcoming reports in The Humanistic Psychologist, and the Journal of Humanistic Psychology.

• Our program chairs, Scott Churchill and Fred Wertz, have put together a program for the APA Convention this year that might very well expand your consciousness.  Come to the sessions and find out for yourself.

• Task force on Communication and Humanistic Training Programs offers a dazzling array of CE and networking possibilities, thanks to the joint efforts of Louis Hoffman, Richard Bargdill, and Brent Dean Robbins.  Get on the Division website and find out more.

• The Award Ceremony Task Force, chaired by Susan Gordon, has some neat ideas about making our awards more meaningful for the participants. Come to the APA division awards, and find out for yourself.

• The Task Force on Indigenous Psychology, chaired by myself, has established a Special Interest Group, which is growing into a truly international community on psychology. Check it out.

There is a lot happening in the Society these days! Get in the action. Don’t miss out.

Looking forward to seeing you at the APA Convention in DC!