by Arlene Noriega
The Executive Committee met for our midwinter meeting in Houston, following the National Multicultural Conference and Summit. The Summit was a wonderful success both academically and financially. The Division owes a sincere debt of gratitude to Michael Mobley who worked very hard on behalf of our Division. His tireless efforts in coordinating this conference, along with the other divisions’ coordinators, were exceptional. LGBT issues were well represented in the programming throughout the conference. Thank you, Michael, for your hard work!! A highlight of the NMCS was the Elders’ Ceremony where two of the most accomplished members of our Division were honored. Our esteemed colleagues, Beverly Greene and Kristin Hancock, were honored for their years of contribution to LGBT psychology. Their acceptance address will be posted on our Web site soon.
Our midwinter meeting started early on Saturday January 19 and we worked all day and half day on Sunday. In that short period of time a great deal of work was conducted on behalf of the Division. Much of our meeting was dedicated to the overarching theme of increasing our membership and developing more benefits to membership in Division 44. Our Membership Committee, under the leadership of Laura Alie and Franco Dispenza with guidance from our APA consultant, Chad Rummel, has conducted a membership drive that has almost doubled our membership. Their outstanding work has been strategic with a focus on increasing the diversity of our membership.
An important benefit to membership will be our Division’s new journal, Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. The highlight of the meeting was the approval of John Gonsiorek as our founding Editor-in-Chief. This promises to be a superb benefit to membership. In addition to our journal, the Executive Committee voted to continue the Book Series, Perspectives in Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, as another benefit to members under the editorial leadership of Marie Miville. I want to welcome John and Marie back to leadership in the Division and know our publications are in excellent hands.
The Task Forces and Committees have been hard at work and I encourage our membership to contact the chairs and become involved in the leadership of the Division. There are many areas where your involvement is not just appreciated but needed. I have created two new Task Forces to capture some areas in our work that have not received sufficient attention. A Task Force on Disabilities will be chaired by Dee Brobar and Franco Dispenza. An Oral History Task Force was established to continue the work of documenting our history and our stories that make up this Division beyond this year. This Task Force will be chaired by Kris Hancock and me.
If you have wanted to participate in leadership, contact us. If leadership is not something you are interested in, then know that your Executive Committee is working on behalf of this Division. Thank you for your support.