Our twin initiatives this year— “reaching in” and “reaching out” – have included changes and ongoing efforts to help our society continue to grow and to share our voices more widely with the scientific community, the broader membership of APA and the public. You can read about many of those efforts in articles within this newsletter and you may have already encountered them in our social media platforms and email list.
Last fall, I recruited a small committee of Society of Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology (SBNCP) members and officers who have worked together on a range of activities centered on communications within and beyond the Society. We have focused partly on social media – increasing the diversity of content and frequency of communications shared via our Facebook and Twitter accounts. At the same time, we are working with APA’s web team to redesign and refresh our website with content that is useful to a variety of audiences — students, early career psychologists and neuroscientists and others interested in the division and its history.
In light of the importance of communications within and outside of the division, I recently proposed an amendment to SBNCP by-laws to add a standing Communications Committee. That amendment passed vote of the membership, and we will now move forward with a group that can help sustain efforts to share SBNCP news, views and members’ work with the broader community and public. As with all our committees, if you are interested in playing a role, please get in touch. The division’s work benefits from a greater number and diversity of members involved in different efforts and activities. Committee service is a great way to learn more about SBNCP, to broaden your networks, to contribute perspectives and learn.
One of our other primary goals this year is to learn more about our members, build connections between them and share the value of SBNCP membership with others who may be encouraged to join our community. One way that we are doing that is by reaching out to SBNCP members to ask them why they are a part of the division. We have received many great responses that are included in our “Member Features” on SBNCP’s Facebook page. The features include a brief biography, quote, photo and website link. We’ve included some in this newsletter, and you can read more at our Facebook pageopens in new window. You do not have to have a Facebook account to view them. If you would like to be included in our member features and we haven’t written to you yet, please feel free to contact either me or President-elect Mike Beran.
As one of the “single-digit” divisions of APA’s more than 50 divisions, ours has a rich history that dates formally to 1944 and includes many founders in the areas of biological and comparative psychology. Continuing the division depends on maintaining our current membership while also continuing to grow in new members and a more diverse membership.
To facilitate membership growth by making it easier to join, we have worked with APA Division Services to streamline the process. The very brief membership application can be found on our division’s membership webpage and is emailed to our membership chair, Cynthia Crawford. There are no dues for the first year — so nothing to pay, just an email to get started in your SBNCP membership.
Another important change to our membership is the new amendment to our bylaws that will allow undergraduate students to become affiliates of our division. As with graduate students, the affiliates do not pay dues but are welcomed into our community. Affiliates can receive and send news via our division email list and are eligible to participate in committees. In addition, the bylaws were also amended to include trainees—those individuals between undergraduate and graduate school — to receive affiliate status with dues waived.
I, along with Membership Chair Cynthia Crawford and the Executive Committee, urge you to encourage colleagues, students and others to consider joining our SBNCP community. It is easy to join and as indicated by the member quotes below, valuable to students and to psychologists and neuroscientists at all career and life stages. Please consider sharing this newsletter, sharing the link and sharing your enthusiasm so that together we can build a stronger and more diverse SBNCP community.