President’s welcome

I would like to welcome you to the newly named Div. 47 (Society for Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology [SSEPP]). We believe that this new name more accurately reflects the backgrounds and interests of our 800+ members. I am excited to serve as your president this year and look forward to a great year of accomplishments. 

During 2016 (and beyond) I want to work with you to meet the following objectives:

1. Setting the professional standards for our field
   Developing practice guidelines to support your work in our field; informing and supporting local, state and national/international initiatives such as the new National Collegiate Athletic Association student-athlete mental health guidelines.
2. Invigorating and engaging you — our members — to be more involved and get more out of SSEPP
   Informing and engaging you with eblasts featuring member spotlights to highlight and promote your work, offering more online CE courses for both students and professionals, providing professional and social networking opportunities especially for students and early career professionals (ECPs), enhancing our programming at the APA convention and recognizing your professional accomplishments.
3. Capitalizing on the growth and leveraging the momentum in our field
   Highlighting for the public the roles and contributions of sport, exercise and performance psychology professionals like you; using social media to highlight timely issues in our field; publishing timely research in the quarterly Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology journal (free with your SSEPP membership).

In short, our goal is for SSEPP to be timely, relevant and useful to all members from students and ECPs to long-time members. To that end, the current newsletter and website features brief articles on violence in sport, fantasy sports gambling and concussion. Our member spotlight features Lindsey Blom, EdD’s applied research to promote peace through the sport of soccer with at risk youth in developing countries. In future issues we will focus on exercise and performance related topics, and encourage you to submit ideas for articles, as well as suggest members to be featured in our member spotlights.

In order to continue to grow SSEPP and meet the objectives above we need members like you to get involved and stay involved in the Society of Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology. After all, we are here to serve you — our members. If you have any questions, suggestions, comments or want to be more involved in the Society via committee work, running for an executive board position, or just voicing your opinion about the society and its direction and focus, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

I look forward to hearing from you and wish you a happy and healthy new year.

Regards,
Anthony P. Kontos, PhD
President- Society for Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology