This is my last Group Psychologist column as 2021 president of The Society of Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy, and I hope it finds you well. This has been a difficult year for most of us as we made our way through the second year of pandemic lifestyle and lived its impact on our work. Despite the year flying by so quickly, the society has done well given what we have faced and the challenges we acknowledge moving forward.
It does not seem long ago that a group of us responded to the events of January 6 when we were able to get some words on paper approved by APA Legal, such that we were an early and clarion voice about matters that still today await hearings and likely litigation. Thanks to those of you who made this come to pass. It was an early excellent Board accomplishment and it was good the way that worked out.
The Board believed that society leadership would be enhanced by achieving a change from a one to two-year presidential sequence and this has been an aspiration since I served as Education and Training Chair. Thanks to the graceful administrative and editorial skills of Jennifer Martin, PhD, our 2021 president’s chair on documents, we were able to complete a multi-year project involving the update of our society Bylaws as well as our Policy and Procedure Manual. These documents, which outline and describe how we accomplish business-related mandates from APA as well were approved by a vote of our membership. We have these on the books. Our next election in 2022 will include a slate with a president with a two-year term. We are good to go.
I want to thank everyone who contributed to the 2021 APA Annual Meeting and our society awards and leadership meetings. So many people worked diligently to accomplish our second virtual conference under the siege of the pandemic. Thank you to everyone who made these events as lovely as they were. We have a lot of long-term relationships in this society and so many of our leaders and members can point to colleagues who impacted their skills and their careers. Our society offers opportunities that we cannot get anywhere else and I hope that we see continued growth in our membership numbers and that they better represent our population and the communities where we live and work.
I am very excited about our new institute and the process by which it has come to pass. The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee has increased in leadership, representation, and voice on our Board and I am so appreciative of the members who have contributed to this work in their professional service and as theorists and teachers in the academy and the clinics. I hope this year has witnessed progress in meeting the needs of our constituency and membership because of the full range of our group psychology and group psychotherapy endeavors. We have great leaders in place and significant assets in the membership of our Board.
2022 President Amy Nitza and President-Elect Noelle Lefforge will be starting their term in the next couple of months and this will have a huge impact because they are going to be awesome leaders. I hope that achieving some resolution with the movement to a two-year division trio cycle and membership ratified bylaws and policy and procedure document give leadership more room to focus on the great projects in motion across the society. There are many good things ahead and some of these are the result of how we are change and grow as a society.
My leadership was clearly informed by the health service provider end of our membership continuum. I believe I was elected president on the merits of my work as an internship and post-doc group psychotherapy trainer. I hope we have brought more clinicians into the society who have needs for training, mentorship, and continuing professional education in the GPGP Specialty. I expect we will see more health service provider psychologists joining the society as the Group Specialty Council and its missions are better established over time.
I leave this year with so much appreciation for colleagues who do work both similar and different from my own. I have had so much exposure to the ideas and approaches of my colleagues that will continue to inform me over time.
Thank you to the 2021 Board of Directors and Committees for your good work and support.
Best wishes for a lovely holiday season.
Go Div. 49!