Attending in person: Amy Damashek (President), Christina Rodriguez (MAL Advocacy Coordinator), Stephanie Block (Section President), Earl Turner (President Elect), Sonia Rubens (MAL Communication & Technology), Colleen Cullinan (Program Chair), Summer Chahin (Grad Student Rep), Mirian Ofonedu (MAL Task Force Coordinator & Diversity Activities), Paula Fite (Treasurer), Jenelle Shanley (Secretary)
Attending by Phone: Mindy Willing (Membership Chair), Jen Kaminski (Past President), Christy Olezeski (MAL ECP), Mary Ann McCabe (APA Council Rep), Lisa Gennetian (Advances)
Reports
Colleen Cullinan (Program Chair) and Miriam Ofonedu, Past Program Chair
Mirian provided recap of the peer matching process for international attendees at the APA convention. Need someone who knows the program to be present and help out with coordination. “Blitz” option considered but glitches with the process. The submission process was not ideal. We got three or four submissions, so not realistic to offer this option for a full hour. Considered if we could use this as a presidential hour. Amy will put out a call for this for topics related to presidential mission.
Keith Cooke has the division banner; need to ask him to bring it. In the past, program chair reached out to students to see who could volunteer to carry it around. Colleen will develop and send a template slide to each presentation chairs to indicate the presentations are sponsored by the division. Mindy will update flyer with a QR code and send it to Colleen and Sonia. Sonia will order the flyer printed and send to whomever will take them to the convention. Stephanie asked if we could also have a QR code to join the section. Sonia will find a group of social media people to create division hashtags for our division at the convention. Summer and Colleen will work together for the student mentor breakfast.
Sonia Rubens (MAL Communication & Technology)
Now have access to division’s Facebook account and Twitter account, and now have an Instagram account. She is working with a first-year student (Alyssa) to develop content for these media sources. Revisit previous idea of how to ensure content on social media. One option is to rotate the board members each month who have to come up with content ideas. Checking with APA about social media rules.
Amy proposed a new MAL for social media with support from students. Would require full membership vote. Group discussed option for “appointed” position. Maybe best at first to try out this new position. Recommended two-year appointment.
Anne Culp (Fellows Chair) presented by Amy Damashek
Anne is asking the board for nominations. Send emails to Anne for any suggested nominations. Current fellows who are members of division or section to nominate prospective nominees. Amy will send suggested list to Anne.
Summer Chahin (Grad Student Rep)
Summer sent out another call for student board member applications. Send suggestions to Summer. Will have one or two students to help Sonia with social media. One or two students to help Colleen with programming.
Amy Damashek (President)
Amy working to disseminate InfoAboutKids.org.opens in new window Require identifying a volunteer to do this for a year. Then rotate among involved divisions, as long as Div. 37 is interested. There is a monthly blog, so the main task is to post this blog on social media. We need to decide if:
- Okay for Div. 37 to participate in this
- Who will volunteer (e.g., new social media person)
Mary Ann suggested that all divisions should post simultaneously rather than rotating. The group is in support of the division engaging in this.
Coalition for the Advancement and Application of Psychological Science (CAAPS) summit on evidence-based practice (EBP). Division voted to endorse it. Looking for representatives to get a little more involved. Five follow-up initiatives. Jenelle is interested and will complete the survey.
Feedback for National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Christina, Amy and Jenelle will review and submit feedback for the division.
Liaisons for other divisions. For CYF, many other divisions have a liaison for CYF. Mirian is a liaison to Committee on International Relations in Psychology (CIRP). Christina is considering Board of Scientific Affairs (BSA). Other APA boards looking for nominations can be found on APA's website. Christina clarified that liaisons are less involved versus board/committee members. Anyone interested in becoming a liaison for a board or division needs to reach out to Mirian so she can track all of our division’s liaisons.
Amy asked to brainstorm ideas about “value added” to join the division. Sonia suggested connecting members attending other conferences together. Mindy and Sonia will follow up with each other after the meeting to talk about how to optimize the application process and online advertisements. Discussion on how to keep “free” first-year members (students and ECP). Christina suggested better advertisement to current members how their dues are being spent. Sonia suggested better communication of what initiatives division is sponsoring.
Jen Kaminski (Past President)
Jen sent the awards and candidates slate to the Board and asked for a motion to vote. Second: Christina. All in favor; none opposed. Awards voted on.
Lisa Gennetian (Advances)
Receives recommendations from Board members and other APA members, as well as leads from her own experiences. Interested in hearing from others about recommendations. Amy will help Lisa to figure out how members get access to Advances. Lisa’s goal frequency is two a year; no minimum for the contract. Lisa will meet with Judy Jones in person at the Society for Research in Child Development meetings this March 2019.
Christina Rodriguez (MAL Advocacy Coordinator)
APA resolution on parental physical discipline will go before Council next week. Christina is working with Cindy Miller Perrin and others to develop a toolkit on how to talk with others about this topic. Will reach out to listserv once the Council meeting occurs.
Stephanie Block (Section President)
Currently holding an election for president elect. Two new MALs. All meeting next week to discuss projects. Waiting to see who president elect will be and then refocus section efforts and increasing membership. Stephanie is working on regrouping the interactions between the Section and division. The section experienced back-to-back losses of presidents, which impacted the functioning of the section board. Section is looking for a communication chair—send nominations to Stephanie.
Paula Fite (Treasurer)
We are regularly under spending our budgeted amount each year. Paula suggested to reduce the anticipated number of paid members to have a more realistic budget. Discussed budget line items and where to increase or decrease to have a more realistic budget. Paula revised budget and sent to board for vote. Paula motion the board to vote. Christina second. All in favor; none opposed.
Christy Olezeski (MAL ECP)
Recruitment efforts—interest in mentorship match. Christy developing survey to assess past mentor match. ECP social happy hour had lower attendance (last one scheduled at the same time as the APA-wide ECP social hour). Christy looking into why and how to better address this year. Discussion to open up the ECP happy hour to be more generally for the division but hosted by the ECP Committee. Also discussed the Early Career Award to allow the honorable mention.
Earl Tuner (President Elect)
Discussed the possibility of working with APA to do a congressional briefing on his presidential task force: “Advancing Resiliency and Socio-Emotional Development of Black Boys Through Research, Advocacy, and Community Engagement.” The task force will also plan a Twitter chat on a topic related to families and children in collaboration with other APA divisions. Finally, he attended the annual APA Division Leadership meeting in January 2019 and has discussed with Div. 18’s president-elect about collaborating on a Committee on Division/APA Relations (CODAPAR) grant.
Mary Ann McCabe (Council Representative)
Reviewed highlights from the August Council meeting. There is a new APA expanded advocacy model and newly appointed Advocacy Coordinating Committee. A workgroup formed by BSA and Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest (BAPPI) was approved to update the literature on violent video games. A Board of Educational Affairs (BEA) task force will be preparing a blueprint for accreditation of masters programs. Two child/family-centered resolutions will come before Council next week: physical discipline resolution and revision of 2003 resolution on children’s mental health.
Mary Ann McCabe (National Academies Forum)
Div. 37 has been a sponsor of the National Academies Forum on Children’s Wellbeing for five years (co-sponsored by Div. 54). In 2018, forum staff time was diverted to other projects, with an impact on the quality of forum activities. The director of the forum recently and co-chairs will reach the end of their terms in Sept. 2019. Div. 37 needs to consider whether to continue sponsoring. Agreed to wait to make a decision until after their regrouping this fall.
Mirian Ofonedu (MAL Task Force Coordinator & Diversity Activities)
APA would like to continue the “Walk a Mile” programing for Convention but would like a new theme each year. Sonia suggested that we have a midwinter meeting agenda item to discuss possible collaboration programs for the following year to support the subsequent year’s program chair.
Mirian suggested a potential section on diversity. Another option Christina suggested is a “special interest group” for diversity issues as another option to consider which will require less staffing/resources or alteration of bylaws. Discussed and agreed on starting a Racial and Ethnic Minorities Special Interest Group (REM SIG) instead of adding another section. As a part of Mirian’s new role, she will write up the SIG description and goals and also put together a survey to explore members’ interest on possible activities for the SIG. Mirian will see about finding someone to take the lead on it.
Mindy Willing (Membership Chair)
Had more memberships in December this year than last year. Free memberships going up; paid memberships going down. Seem to be attracting new students but not retaining paid members. Need to focus on strategies to retain members. Mindy presented several ideas to attract new members and retain existing members. Mindy makes calls to members who did not retain and many asked for more face-to-face time. Suggested sending out a call for non-Board members to suggest an event and the Board work to make it work.
Discussed strategies to retain members. We discussed the reoccurring idea of members-only on listserv. Group agreed that before a trial run, we would send a notice to those on the listserv who have not renewed their membership and will ask them to renew. We’ll see how successful this is before removing people from the listserv.
Clarifying for non-APA members, people can still sign up for division without an APA membership. Need to be strategic in how this is communicated to non-APA members. Mindy is working on the website and link for this to facilitate non-APA members.
Div. 37 is a participant in the APA CODAPAR grant titled “On the Shoulders of Activist Scholars: Building Healthy Environments for Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum-Seekers.” Div. 24, Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, is spearheading the grant. Main contact person is Mary Beth Morrissey, Div. 24 president. Other participating APA divisions include Divs. 5, 9, 24, 27, 32, 39, 45, 48, 52 and 56. To address growing concerns about treatment of immigrants and asylum-seekers in federal detention centers, 11 APA divisions propose to use best psychological science and research-informed practice to document detention policies/practices and lived experience of persons held in detention. Suggestion to reach out to membership to see if someone would be interested in participating. Amy will initiate a follow up call with Mirian and Anita to discuss this further to help facilitate identifying a person from our membership to get involved and discuss other ways in which the division might participate in this grant.