The APAGS ACT Campus Representatives Manual

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

FIRST THINGS FIRST

ADVOCACY CONCEPTUALIZED

CAMPUS/GRASSROOTS ADVOCACY: WHERE DO I BEGIN?

CAMPUS ADVOCACY

LOCAL/REGIONAL ADVOCACY: HOW TO CONNECT WHEN YOU FEEL DISCONNECTED

STATE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATIONS: AN INTEGRAL PART OF ADVOCACY FOR PSYCHOLOGY

FEDERAL ADVOCACY: APA, APAGS, AND YOU

YOU’RE READY TO BEGIN

Appendices:

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

Dear APAGS Campus Representative,

Thank you for accepting the offer to serve as the APAGS Campus Representative (CR) at your school. We want to extend a warm welcome to you and provide you with some materials to assist you in getting started in your new role as the APAGS Campus Representative.

The purpose of this Campus Representative Training Manual is to serve as an orientation guide and tool for you to use as you embark on your journey as an APAGS CR. Given that APAGS is the largest group within the APA, with student membership reaching over 47,500, we see you as our vital link to the graduate student constituency. It is important for information related to the profession to be filtered from the grassroots level up and from the administrative level down.

One of your primary roles as CR will be to ensure the appropriate dissemination of information from APAGS to the students and from the students to APAGS. Another one of your main tasks is related to advocacy work. We hope that you will position yourself on your campus to be a strong advocate for students and the profession as relevant issues arise.

APAGS-ACT is the branch of APAGS involved in advocacy work and the committee that links you directly to the APAGS Executive Committee. But before describing the committee functions of ACT, it may be helpful to provide a brief review of the organizational structure of APAGS -- which mirrors the governance structure of the APA.

Elections are held each year for the position of APAGS Chair-Elect and for three Members-At-Large. There are six elected Members-At-Large who serve as part of the APAGS board at any given time. However, the year in which office begins for each Member-At-Large is staggered to ensure continuity within the APAGS board. Members-At-Large have specific foci, mirroring the composition of the graduate student constituency. There are two Member-At-Large positions for General, Practice, and Research/Science issues. The APAGS Executive Committee is composed of the APAGS Chair, Past-Chair, and Chair-Elect. The Executive Committee members serve a three-year term and the Members-At-Large serve a two-year term. Elected members of APAGS are voting members.

APAGS Committee Chairs, on the other hand, are appointed by the previous Committee Chair in consultation with the Executive Committee and with approval (or a vote) from the full APAGS board. Committee Chairs are appointed due to the nature of the committee work being very focused and requiring some familiarity with the committee mission.

The current APAGS standing committees are the: Advocacy Coordinating Team (ACT), Committee on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns (CLGBC), Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA), Committee on Internship and Related Training Issues (CIRTA), Committee on Disabilities, and the Convention Committee. Standing committees are formed from a task force. Task force groups are created to address a current issue relevant to students which may or may not necessitate on-going committee status. For example, a task force was recently formed to address issues facing new professionals. When a student graduates and enters into the "psychologist" status, where do they belong within the APA and what advocacy group within the APA represents their need for mentoring and professional development? This New Professionals Task Force is looking at this issue, and it may find a home within APAGS or within APA without developing a new group specifically designed to address the questions and concerns faced by new professionals.

The standing committees each have criteria for committee membership and the number of committee members vary depending on the nature of the committee. For example, ACT is composed of the ACT Chair and 16 Regional Advocacy Coordinators (RACs). RACs are selected by the ACT Chair and his/her Executive Committee Liaison and they must "apply" for committee membership. To apply for a RAC position, a student must submit a 300-word statement indicating why they would like to be a RAC and what they have to offer, an abbreviated (2-page) resume, and a letter of endorsement from their department or program chair. RACs are appointed for one year with the possibility of reappointment for a second year of service. The other standing committees have similar application procedures and committee membership requirements.

With that explanation (And, it was, indeed, just hitting the highlights!), we can now turn our attention to the mission and function of ACT. As mentioned above, the ACT Chair is appointed by the APAGS Executive Committee. The ACT Committee itself consists of sixteen Regional Advocacy Coordinators (RACs), who work with YOU, the Campus Representatives, who work with APAGS members on your respective campuses throughout the nation. There is a RAC assigned to your particular geographic region, who serves as your coordinator and your direct link to the ACT Chair and his/her Executive Committee Liaison. A listing of the current ACT Chair, Executive Committee Liaison, and RACs is included in the appendix of this manual.

ACT is a group that advocates for students and the profession. Advocacy work can be broken down into important parts, many of which we will address in this Training Manual. For the purpose of simplicity, let us define advocacy as work on behalf of the science and profession of psychology, work in the interest of individuals studying, researching and practicing psychology, and work on behalf of individuals who are the recipients of psychological services.

As the new CR for your program, you are in a prime position to receive information about the profession in a timely manner. This will create opportunities for you and the students that you represent to provide input related to professional issues that will most certainly affect us all in our careers as researchers, scholars, practitioners and scientists. At the same time, you are also in a position to educate us about issues that are important to students and consequently facilitate the resolution of those issues.

We look forward to working with you during your tenure as a CR. Please contact your RAC, the ACT Chair, or ACT Executive Committee Liaison with your ideas, suggestions and questions regarding your advocacy work. We have outlined some specific tasks that we hope you will address while you are a CR throughout this Training Manual. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Good luck and welcome to APAGS-ACT!

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FIRST THINGS FIRST

Before you dive into this Training Manual and your actual CR work, we need the following information from you.

You can use the online self-nomination form at http://www.apa.org/apags/forms/actnomin.html

Or, please send your RAC the following information about YOU:

• Full name
• Type of program you are in
• University name
• Anticipated graduation date
• Your mailing address and an alternate address (if available)
• Your phone number(s)
• Your E-mail address

Please send your RAC the following information about your University and your Faculty Mentor (more information on the selection of your Faculty Mentor to follow) as soon as it is available:

• Faculty Mentor’s name and title
• University and program
• Mailing address
• Phone number(s)
• Fax number
• Faculty Mentor E-mail address

Please send your RAC the following information about the student you will be mentoring into your position this year (more information on the selection of your mentee to follow):

• Student CR Mentee name
• Type of program
• University name
• Anticipated graduation date
• Mailing address and alternate address (if available)
• Phone number(s)
• E-mail address

Please subscribe to the Campus Representative listserv. It is important that we remain in contact to enable us to exchange ideas and information in a timely manner.

Instructions for subscribing are located at http://www.apa.org/apags/members/listserv.html.

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ADVOCACY CONCEPTUALIZED

Carol Williams, PsyD
APAGS Associate Executive Director and Former APAGS Chair

The term "advocacy" seems very broad and encompassing, so, we have tried to conceptually break it down into a four-tiered level for the purposes of this Training Manual and in helping you to envision your CR role. There is a separate section in this Training Manual outlining each level of advocacy. We will discuss these levels briefly here to give you a general introduction about how we are thinking about advocacy.

The four levels of advocacy include:

1. Campus/Grassroots Advocacy
2. Local/Regional Advocacy
3. State Advocacy
4. Federal/National Advocacy

Because you are a Campus Representative, one of your main foci will be at the Campus/Grassroots and Local/Regional Advocacy levels. However, information related to State and Federal Advocacy will be disseminated to you on a regular basis for you, in turn, to pass on to your classmates. This process will be explained in further detail throughout this Training Manual.

Campus/Grassroots Advocacy concerns the advocacy work that you do on your campus on behalf of students. This involves creating a forum for students to express their training concerns and questions to faculty, developing APAGS bulletin boards, advocating for courses that are not currently offered, forming Student Government Groups, developing student-oriented colloquiums and workshops, and the like.

Local/Regional Advocacy refers to making connections with the local area Psychological Associations and creating avenues for students to become more involved in these local/regional associations. Smaller states may not have local psychological associations, however, relationships can be established with regional psychological associations (i.e. WPA – Western Psychological Association). This can be accomplished by asking the President to offer special student rates for membership and attendance at Local Psychological Association lunches and other events. Specific ideas are offered in this manual along with some examples of what others have done in their local areas toward this end.

State Advocacy involves becoming associated with your State Psychological Association and essentially advocating for the same type of student involvement as indicated above. Many State Psychological Associations have student divisions and many other opportunities for students to become involved in various other ways. The State Association Federal Advocacy Coordinator will be very welcoming of your interest and involvement.

Finally, Federal Advocacy revolves around becoming politically active with legislative issues that affect the profession and students of psychology. Please refer to the article titled, "Student Involvement With Grassroots Advocacy" (it is contained in this Training Manual).

The American Psychological Association is actively involved with monitoring federal legislation as it pertains to psychology. One of the major ways that APA communicates with members about such legislation is through a mechanism called action alerts. Action alerts come in both fax and E-mail form and they provide specific information about legislative activity. They also provide detailed, step-by-step actions the psychologist/graduate student can take in response to the legislation. Usually this entails writing a letter or placing a phone call to identified legislators concerning the issue. Your RAC will forward you E-Mail action alerts as they receive them from APA’s Central Office.

Advocacy is a two-way street. As students become more involved in advocacy work on behalf of other students and the profession as a whole, more opportunities seem to open up for student’s voices to be heard and there seems to be many more people ready and willing to listen to our voices.

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CAMPUS/GRASSROOTS ADVOCACY: WHERE DO I BEGIN?

Carol Williams, PsyD
APAGS Associate Executive Director and Former APAGS Chair

Your advocacy work will be multifaceted. But your efforts will likely not be fruitful unless you are able to create a sense of colleagueship and an attitude of "we’re in this together" among your classmates. This is a critical first step. You need to be known, noticed, and visible on your campus. You need to introduce yourself to students that you do not know and reintroduce yourself to students that you know well—because now you are the APAGS Campus Representative, which strategically places you in a very important position.

Your classmates need to know that you are the point of contact—the link—between them, your department faculty, and ultimately APAGS. APAGS will support you in this effort by providing you with materials to post in your department, as well as a sign for you to display that states your name and that you are the APAGS Campus Representative for your school. Furthermore, APAGS will automatically send you department chair a letter stating that you are the APAGS Campus Representative for your school, asking them to support your efforts.

Your advocacy efforts will be campus-based, locally-based, regionally-based, state-based, and nationally-based. This is quite an awesome task. We hope to give you some direction, through this Training Manual and from your RAC, regarding where to focus your advocacy energies depending on the "advocacy developmental level" of your particular school, what has been accomplished already, and what needs to be accomplished. This will be based on where you’d like to go and how you envision involving your classmates and program in building a strong professional network.

Here is a list of suggested tasks for you to complete at the Campus/Grassroots level:

1. Please talk with your Department Chair or other interested faculty about how you, as the APAGS Campus Representative, can increase student input into academic program development and policy-making at your campus.
2. Consider Developing a Graduate Student Government with elected officers to represent the needs and concerns of students on your campus.
3. Please begin to recruit someone that you can mentor into your Campus Representative position this year, who will be ready to step in and resume your Campus Representative responsibilities when you leave. Hopefully this will be someone who is willing to put in time and energy to the position, and someone who will be in your program for at least a year longer than you, if not more. It is important for there to be continuity within the Campus Rep program and it is critical for there to be a mechanism in place for the continued success of the work that you have started, including the further development of all your projects. Please provide the name and identifying information of the person you are mentoring to your RAC.
4. Please recruit a faculty member who is enthusiastic, motivated and concerned about student issues to serve as the APAGS-ACT FACULTY MENTOR for your campus. This Faculty Mentor should be someone who supports advocacy efforts on all levels—local, state, and federal; someone who is strongly supported and affiliated with APA. Included in this Training Manual is an information sheet for your Faculty Mentor recruitment process. It outlines some of the general tasks for their involvement and support of the Campus Rep program. When you have recruited a Faculty Mentor for your campus, please provide your RAC with their names and other important identifying information.
5. Please try to assist your RAC in identifying graduate programs in your area that may not have adequate APAGS representation and forward that information to your RAC for their follow up.
6. Please develop a system for disseminating information about Action Alerts to studens and faculty. You many want to ask for a bulletin board in your department designated specifically for APAGS information. To follow up on Action Alerts, you will likely be asked by your RAC to organize letter writing and phone calling campaigns when issues important to the profession are being considered in Washington, related to Action Alerts.
7. Work with your Department Chairs to create or expand the graduate student government to ensure that issues important to students are addressed and there is an avenue for student concerns to be heard in a safe manner. Unfortunately, some students feel that they cannot voice their true concerns. It would be ideal if you could serve as a liaison between students and faculty.
8. Have a graduate student representative attend each faculty meeting to advocate for students and to allow for student input on the development of new program policies, course scheduling/sequencing, etc.
9. Work with the Graduate Council and faculty in facilitating dispute resolution not only between students and faculty, but between students and other students to help ensure fair and equitable treatment among all involved.
10. Begin a department-wide consistent and reliable method of information dissemination, such as a departmental newsletter, edited by students, and an up-to-date professional development information bulletin board.
11. Work with Department Chairs and other interested faculty to develop a mentoring program for students and faculty to be paired together based on similar academic or professional interests. Develop a student-to-student mentoring program where new students are paired with more advanced students in the program.
12. Participate and/or facilitate a new graduate student orientation, providing students with information about the program, program requirements, and other information that you may have had to "learn the hard way" or informally.
13. Organize department parties to encourage colleagueship. For example, on my campus we have a large department party each term. Students bring pot luck foods and we enjoy each other’s company. We usually have party themes—last year we had a Halloween Party and costume contest. Another activity we routinely have is a biweekly "Validation Club." We choose a local bar/restaurant to meet at every other Thursday evening and invite anyone who is interested to join us at a designated time (which is consistent throughout the semester) to come and relax, socialize and informally "vent" our frustrations and feelings about classes or the program. This has been a great colleagueship-building tool. Many students bring their partners, which is a nice way to involve significant others in the graduate school process, for which they typically feel very disconnected.
14. Advocate for the addition of professional development courses or colloquium opportunities to be incorportated into training.
15. Develop projects and advocate for issues that are important to students on your campus.

You may already be engaged in many of the activities listed above. If so, that’s great! If not, perhaps this list has provided you with some ideas about where you would like to begin with your advocacy work at the campus level. You may have other ideas that are not included on this list. We would be interested in hearing about the kinds of things you are doing to promote students on your campus. Please contact your RAC if you need further direction in your advocacy efforts on the Campus/Grassroots Level.

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CAMPUS ADVOCACY

Carla J. Egyed, MA
APAGS-ACT: RAC
The University of Missouri

One of the most basic ways a Campus Representative can become involved in advocacy is on his or her own campus. A good first step is to become familiar with the governing body of the students on campus. You should make sure that psychology students are represented to this group. If a representative from your department hasn’t been appointed already, you can suggest that one gets appointed.

• Student advocacy and faculty liaison

The campus representative should be familiar with grievance policies and ethical codes. You should also familiarize yourself with departmental and university policies. This way, you can act as a student/faculty liaison to resolve conflicts between faculty and students. You should be visible to all students so that they know who their representative is. This way they will know whom to come to if they have a concern. The liaison should develop a good relationship between their departmental chair or training director. You should also be a spokesperson for students to make sure that students’ needs are being met. Advocating for a student representative to faculty meetings can be a good strategy for getting this done. A way to bridge the gap between students and faculty could be to organize functions such as social hours or to create a gathering place such as a departmental lounge where students and faculty can interact on a more informal level. Another way that you can advocate for students is by having input into course scheduling and sequencing. Often times, students can’t get the classes they need due to problems with when the classes are being offered and not being able to get into the classes they need. You can help with this problem by bringining this to the attention of faculty and advocating for more appropriate scheduling. Another idea is to conduct student surveys to find out their concerns and conduct a meeting with faculty to discuss these concerns.

• Dissemination of information

The campus representative needs to disseminate information relevant to students. This information could include topics such as comps, assistantships, research, dissertations, theses, courses, etc. This could be done in several ways. A listserv could be created for students on your campus to which information could be posted. Brown bag lunches or meetings could be held on a regular basis where speakers could talk about issues relevant to students. Speakers could be professionals from the field, faculty, or other students who have information to share. A student bulletin board is also another place where information could be posted. You could also make information available to fellow students about how to find information themselves. For example, listservs, professional associations, and newsletters. It would be good to connect with a faculty member who is familiar with the current happenings in the field, such as the status of the internship process or the job market. You can also advocate to have some of this information included in professional issues courses.

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LOCAL/REGIONAL ADVOCACY:
HOW TO CONNECT WHEN YOU FEEL DISCONNECTED

Carol Williams, PsyD
APAGS Associate Executive Director and Former APAGS Chair

Many students feel a complete disconnection from the real world of psychology as they endeavor to complete their academic requirements and contemplate how they will fit in, or not fit in, with "what’s really out there." Stated simply, the Ivory Tower is, indeed, very different from the real world of psychology. APAGS believes that it is important to bridge the gap between academicians, experimental psychologists, practitioners, and other psychologists with different career agendas.

One way to create less distance is by reaching out beyond the confines of the Ivory Tower by becoming involved in your Local or Regional Psychological Association. This is a wonderful opportunity to network with psychologists within your community and learn more about the possibilities that exist within your geographic area for students and new graduates.

Most Local/Regional Psychological Associations are listed in the phone book. Call and ask to speak with their President or Executive Director about your interests and needs as a budding psychologist. The stability and level of organization of the various Local Psychological Associations will vary depending upon where you live. Some are active and others just kind of exist. Some smaller states may not even have a local association. If this is the case, why not form a regional student group of your own, inviting schools in your area to participate? Whatever the situation, ask them what opportunities they have for student involvement and don’t be afraid to offer to create opportunities that are student-specific.

Rather than attempting to outline the steps in becoming involved in your local psychological association, it might be more helpful for me to describe the development of my involvement in such an association as one example of many ways in which you may want to consider becoming involved.

The Bexar County Psychological Association is a relatively active local area association serving San Antonio and neighboring cities. Austin, Dallas, Houston, and other larger cities in Texas also have splinter associations of the Texas Psychological Association and ultimately APA. I was interested in becoming acquainted with the workings of APA and decided that I’d take an "entry level" view as a strategy for learning more about the professional organization to which I intended to have a long-standing professional connection.

I was invited to attend an Executive Committee (EC) Meeting of the Bexar County Psychological Association (BCPA) and felt very lucky because I was greeted with warmth and enthusiasm for my interest. I accepted the newly developed position as Student Advocacy Committee Chair of BCPA and began attending all of the EC meetings. Soon after, I began writing a Student Column in the BCPA newsletter. The EC and members of the BCPA really nurtured me to become more involved as a result of some of my innocent and not-so-innocent inquiries about students and psychology.

I soon became their ad-hoc "volunteer coordinator," and they relied on me to recruit students to help with workshop preparation and registration in return for the student volunteer’s free admission to the workshops, due to my connection with the university and access to its students. I made my student-related agenda known to them, and received their full support in developing programs that targeted students. They assisted me in organizing and holding two annual "Psychology and Mental Health Providers Career and Networking Fairs" where several mental health employers and agencies participated in showcasing and recruiting for their agencies. BCPA was instrumental in providing financial support as well as brainstorming support for this project and for many other student-oriented projects that followed.

Through my involvement with BCPA, I was asked to participate as a member of the Local Arrangements Committee for the Texas Psychological Association’s Annual Conference for two years. One of the nicest and most ego-boosting comments I remember coming from the Past-Chair of BCPA, Dr. Beverly Alexander, was, "Carol, I keep forgetting that you are a student. I think of you as one of my professional colleagues." Wow. I don’t know how other students are, but for me, as a student accustomed to thinking of myself on the lowest end of the totem pole, I felt like a dog who had just been thrown a gigantic Flinstones-sized bone.

You might be thinking, "There’s no way that I have time to do all of that. My classes are too demanding, and they take up most of my time." My response to that is, YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. What I have done and continue to do with BCPA is very time consuming. But, the rewards are great. BCPA understands that my training is my priority. I look at it like this: my training isn’t going to do me a bit of good if I don’t have any professional connections when I complete my training. Furthermore, my involvement with BCPA has made me, I think, better prepared for my career. Additionally, as the Student Advocacy Committee Chair of BCPA, I can help my classmates learn about student opportunities as a direct result of my involvement with this organization. Some of my classmates are the most brilliant people I’ve ever met. I feel fortunate to have the chance to push them towards some doors that are open to help them pursue their interests. After all, this is what advocacy is all about.

There have been many other projects, some smaller and some as large as those I mentioned about, that BCPA has afforded me the chance to be involved in. Suffice it to say that local psychological organizations can open up many doors for you if you are willing to take the risk to become involved and to be firm in asking them what they are willing to do for students. Ask them for a student seat on the Executive Committee. Remind them that students are an important part of their constituency with a lot of power simply in numbers alone.

My purpose in sharing my experience is to hopefully stimulate some ideas in you for ways in which you might want to develop student relationships with your local professional organization. My way is only one of many ways of beginning this process. The point is to find a way to make the connections and lay the groundwork for student involvement to continue. I was fortunate to have very caring mentors within BCPA and at my university. We owe it to our newer students to mentor them into the profession and into the role of graduate student skills or desire to mentor us. We need to come together as a profession and as colleagues. I challenge you to find ways to develop and nurture the professional relationships that you want, through accepting the efforts of others in mentoring you and through your efforts in mentoring others. One way to develop these important relationships is to bridge the academic and real-life gap and connect with the students on your campus WHILE connecting a step beyond your campus, at local level.

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STATE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATIONS:
AN INTEGRAL PART OF ADVOCACY FOR PSYCHOLOGY

Scott B. Hamilton, MS
Former APAGS-ACT Chair
Indiana State University

Much of the activity to advance the profession of psychology occurs at the state level. Between organizing grassroots legislative activity, holding workshops and conferences, providing for continuing education, and producing newsletters and other publications, your SPA is actively involved in shaping the profession of psychology in your state. In addition, your SPA provides a vital link between the APA and the psychologists and graduate students across your state. The following section will provide you an overview of how SPA’s operate, as well as things that you can do as an APAGS Campus Representative (CR) to become involved in your SPA.

• The Structure of SPA’s

SPA’s tend to vary with respect to membership size and activity level. The more populous states tend to have higher membership numbers and activity, but this is not always the case. Some SPA’s have different divisions based on area of focus within psychology (e.g., science, practice, and student). With larger states, the SPA may be sub-divided geographically into regional psychological associations.

Regardless of these variations between states, SPA’s share some common elements. They each will have some sort of Executive Board, which typically includes a President, President-Elect, Past President, Secretary, Treasurer, and several "Members-at-Large" with various foci (often mirroring the four Directorates of APA). The SPA will likely have several other Boards and Standing Committees which address specific concerns. Other important roles within each SPA include the Federal Advocacy Coordinator, who serves as the link between APA and the SPA with federal legislative initiatives, and the APA Council Representative or liaison, who represents the SPA during the APA Council of Representatives meetings.

Each of these positions is filled by a psychologist who is willing to volunteer time and effort to advocate for the profession. In addition, the SPA will maintain a few paid employees: the "Executive Director," who performs the day-to-day operations of the SPA; a lobbyist, who monitors state legislative activity for the SPA; and clerical staff, who assist the Executive Director.

• What do the SPA’s do?

Your SPA is involved in a variety of activities. One of the most important roles of the SPA is representing psychology in the state legislative process. Your SPA watches the legislative activity in your state and becomes involved with shaping legislation that is relevant to psychology. For example, issues surrounding licensure, parity for mental health services, and allocation of federal money for research are often addressed within state legislatures. Your SPA may also approach legislators about introducing and sponsoring a bill authored by the SPA. Additionally, your SPA will be involved in lobbying your state’s U.S. Senators and Members of the U.S. House of Representatives concerning federal legislation relavant to psychology. In sum, your SPA plays an important part in ensuring that the interests of psychology are represented in the legislative process.

A major event for the Board of your SPA is the State Leadership Conference (SLC), organized by the APA’s Practice Directorate, and is held in Washington, DC every March. All the SPA presidents, executive directors, and members of the board involved in federal and state advocacy, as well as the APAGS Advocacy Coordinating Team, attend SLC. Each SLC has a particular theme around which the programming centers. SLC attendees are brought up to date on the latest legislative actions on bills relevant to psychology. The 4-day SLC culminates with a visit to Capitol Hill, where members of each SPA visit their Members of Congress and lobby for the interests of psychology in current or pending federal legislation.

Your SPA will also hold several conferences and workshops throughout the year. They will usually develop a theme for such events which reflects a current hot topic in the field of psychology. These conferences are a great opportunity for graduate students to meet psychologists across the state and also to learn more about special topics in psychology. Continuing Education programs are frequently a part of these workshops, and SPA’s take an important role in planning and regulating such events.

SPA’s also serve as a source of information for psychologists and graduate students. They are available to answer questions about such matters as licensure and certification or the latest legislative developments. Your SPA will publish a newsletter several times throughout the year, which provides information and updates across the various disciplines of psychology.

• What can you do as an APAGS Campus Rep to become more involved with your SPA?

SPA’s have been very receptive to student involvement. Many SPA’s have special student rates in order to encourage students to join. In the past few years, some SPA’s have created student seats on their Board. They have become quite interested in getting students involved with legislative initiatives. Some SPA’s have special research presentation sessions for graduate students at their conventions.

As an APAGS Campus Rep, there are many ways that you can become involved with your SPA. First and foremost, you should join your SPA as a student affiliate so that you can take advantage of what your SPA can provide for you. You can take part in legislative initiatives with your SPA, which can include letter writing campaigns and even visits to your state and federal legislators. You can ask to write an article for your SPA newsletter concerning an issue particularly germane to graduate students. You can ask for SPA support in identifying psychologists in your state who may be able to speak on your campus. You can work to develop a psychology mentoring program which would connect graduate students with SPA psychologists with similar career goals and interests. In talking with your Regional Advocacy Coordinator (RAC) or your faculty, you may learn about additional ways in which you can become involved with your SPA.

• How do I contact my SPA?

Contacting your APAGS RAC is a good step. Your RAC can provide you more information about the activities of your SPA and can provide you the phone numbers of key people within the SPA. You can also call your SPA directly. For your convenience, the phone numbers of all the SPA’s are listed on the APA Web site at http://www.apa.org/practice/refer.html

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FEDERAL ADVOCACY: APA, APAGS, AND YOU

Manuel Paris, MS
Nova Southeastern University

Carol Williams, PsyD
APAGS Associate Executive Director and Former APAGS Chair

Abstracted from APA’s Guide to Federal Advocacy.

The American Psychological Association focuses on expanding the recognition of psychology's scientific and professional contributions and achievements and uses these to further human welfare. Among its primary objectives are the enhancement of federal support for psychological research and practice and the application of psychological research to inform policy aimed at addressing public interest issues.

In support of that goal, APA sponsors an advocacy program that is the largest and most visible national presence advocating for psychology in the public interest. Why is it important to do this at the federal level? Because federal legislation in numerous areas affect every APA member in every state. For each APA member that impact takes shape in a unique way. For example, Congress makes decisions about the types of research that will be conducted and the level at which it will be funded. Congress also establishes federal policies in areas that directly affect the health care of Americans, such as policies regarding substance abuse and mental health services, violence prevention research and intervention projects, early educational interventions for at-risk youth, and other public interest issues.

APA is often called upon by Congress to offer advice in sensitive policy areas that involve psychological issues or where psychological research is viewed as relevant to a given policy issue. For example, the APA advises Congressional decision makers on a wide range of legislative and regulatory issues such as affirmative action programs, minority health and mental health services, and child abuse, to name a few. The APA maintains a close liaison with decision makers on Capitol Hill, working with them and their staffs as they formulate legislation of interest to psychologists. The advocacy program also maintains important connections among APA and other scientific and professional societies, organizations, and coalitions to advance common legislative interests.

APA advocacy is guided by the philosophy that public policy should be based on available scientific knowledge, and that psychological research can contribute to the formulation of sound public policy to both address specific social problems and to improve human welfare generally. The objectives of the APA advocacy program include:

• To inform members of Congress and their staffs about psychology and its relevance to federal policy.
• To advocate for increased support for federally funded psychological research and mental health services.
• To strengthen the voice of psychology at the regulatory level.
• To advance opportunities for the training of psychologists.
• To bring to bear the expertise of psychologists on our nation's challenging human welfare problems.

As graduate students in the field of psychology, we must take the first step in shaping present federal policies that will impact our profession for years to come. As an APAGS Campus Representative, you are in the unique position of being able to take a direct and active stance in advocating for federal policies and to motivate others around you to become involved. In order to become better familiar with the various programs and committees that make up the APA structure, you are encouraged to read the guide titled "Making APA Work for You: A Guide for Members." Another excellent source of information is the APA web site at www.apa.org. Please refer to Appendix 4 for a review of the organizational structure of APA.

Your job as an APAGS Campus Representative will be multifaceted. You will occasionally receive action alerts via e-mail or through your RAC from the various directorates. When you receive these action alerts, you can educate the students on your campus of the pending legislation and respond in a variety of ways. For example, you can:

1. Organize a letter writing campaign, informing your state representative of your stand and beliefs on the issue at hand, from the perspective of a graduate student in psychology and as a constituent. Often times, form letters will be provided to you and you can disseminate these letters to your colleagues.
2. Make an appointment to visit your congressman/woman when he/she is in Washington, DC or their home office. When Congress is in session, they're in Washington. However, they also have field offices in the states and districts they represent. Get a group of students together to make the visit to lobby on behalf of psychology.
3. Organize meetings in conjunction with your student government organization and local and state psychological associations in order to discuss and address those issues that affect you as graduate students in psychology.

In addition, you are encouraged to attend the State Leadership Conference and/or the APA Annual Convention in order to gain a better understanding of the advocacy process. The job of the APAGS Campus Rep will be as exciting and rewarding as you want it to be. Take advantage of this opportunity and make a difference for your profession.

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YOU'RE READY TO BEGIN!

Throughout this manual we have attempted to provide you with some basic, foundational information about the CR program to arm you with the tools to begin your advocacy work. How you choose to use these tools is up to you. These are preliminary tools and not intended to be an exhaustive representation of ideas for advocacy.

We are interested in learning about the types of activities and programs you are involved in within your role as an APAGS Campus Representative. Please contact your RAC and use him or her as a resource for ideas and suggestions. They want to help you succeed. They have been chosen as RAC's because of their demonstrated effectiveness as previous Campus Representatives. They've been where you are and have done what you are doing.

We hope that your advocacy journey takes you far!!

Good luck!

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Appendicies

APPENDIX 1: FACULTY MENTOR INFORMATION

The following pages can be duplicated and distributed to faculty members that might be interested in accepting the responsibility of becoming the APAGS Faculty Mentor.

CAMPUS REPRESENTATIVE PROGRAM

FACULTY MENTOR INFORMATION

 Dear University Faculty Member:

Each APAGS Campus Representative is asked to recruit a Faculty Mentor from his or her university to serve as a stabilizing force on their particular campus to ensure that continued, uninterrupted APAGS representation is present on their campus. You, as a faculty member of the current APAGS Campus Representative on your campus, have been selected by this same student as a possible mentor for the Campus Representative program. It is hoped that you will seriously consider serving as the APAGS Campus Representative Faculty Mentor because you were identified as being a strong student advocate who is interested in fostering the professional development of students, in addition to being involved yourself in the APA.

This informational sheet is designed to answer some basic questions about what APAGS hopes you will do as your Campus Representative's Faculty Mentor. General information about APAGS is also provided.

Thank you for considering the important position as APAGS Campus Representative Faculty Mentor for your university.

Sincerely,

Chris Loftis, MS Carol Williams, PsyD
APAGS-ACT Chair Associate Executive Director, APAGS
University of Florida American Psychological Association

WHAT IS APAGS-ACT?

• APAGS is composed of the student affiliates of APA. When students join the APA as a student affiliate, they automatically become a member of APAGS. APAGS is currently composed of approximately 41,000 active students, the largest sub-group within APA.
• APAGS is structured in a manner consistent with the leadership structure of the APA. APAGS has an Executive Committee and Committee Members, elected by their peers, in addition to various standing committees with appointed chairs. The APAGS Committee is composed of sixteen members. The APAGS committees focus on specific student issues as well as general issues related to psychology. The current APAGS committees include: the Advocacy Coordinating Team (ACT), the Committee of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues, the Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs, the Committee on Internship and Training Related Activities, Committee on Student Disabilities Issues, and the Convention Committee. One task force was recently formed. The New Professionals Task Force was established to address the needs of newly-graduated psychologists within the APA.
• ACT is led by the ACT Chair who works with 16 student Regional Advocacy Coordinators (RACs) throughout the nation, who in turn, coordinate the activities and advocacy efforts of the Campus Representatives in their particular region.

WHAT ARE THE OVERALL/GENERAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE APAGS CAMPUS REPRESENTATIVES?

• The Campus Representatives (CRs) are asked to perform various responsibilities on their campuses, in addition to being asked to become professionally involved at the local, state, and national level.
• The CRs are asked to be involved in their local and state psychological associations to ensure that student’s voices are collectively well-represented and that student needs are advocated for.
• CRs are asked to disseminate information campus-wide related to legislative issues that come in the form of Action Alerts over E-mail. They are also asked to organize letter writing and phone calling campaigns when issues important to the profession are being considered in Washington, DC.
• CRs are asked to contact their State Psychological Associations (SPAs) and advocate for the development or expansion of possibilities for student involvement within the SPAs (i.e. student position on the Executive Committee, relevant student committees, or student involvement on current committees, student membership rates to SPA-sponsored workshops and events, student involvement in state legislative issues, etc.).
• CRs are asked to contact their Local Area Societies/Psychological Associations (if they exist) to advocate for the same as above.
• CRs are asked to work with their Department Chairs and Training Directors to establish or expand the graduate student government with elected student representatives to address issues important to students of their campus, in addition to developing departmental or student-sponsored programs/workshops/seminars.
• CRs are asked to work with their established Graduate Council/Governmental body in facilitating dispute resolution between faculty and students and between students and other students to ensure fair and equitable treatment among all involved.
• CRs are asked to begin within their own department to develop a consistent and reliable method of information dissemination, such as a quarterly departmental newsletter, an up-to-date APAGS bulletin board, etc.
• CRs are asked to work with Department Chairs to develop a mentoring program for students and faculty to be paired together based on similar academic or professional interests.
• CRs are asked to identify a Faculty Mentor to APAGS-ACT who is motivated and willing to support the CR’s efforts in advocating for the above, in addition to supporting all of their students’ active involvement in the APA and APAGS.
• CRs are asked to identify a classmate who is willing to fill the CR position when the current CR leaves. The current CR should also serve as a mentor and train his or her replacement during his or her CR appointment, to facilitate a smooth transition when the current CR moves on. The Faculty Mentor can help facilitate this process and ensure that their institution always has an APAGS CR>
• Finally, the CR is asked to work with his or her ACT-RAC who is there to support, lead, and advise them in their CR role. The ACT-RAC can also intervene if students perceive that they are being treated unfairly in their programs, or if they have ethical concerns, and if it appears that fair resolution is not forthcoming within their department. The RAC can also utilize the resources within APAGS and the APA if problems persist.

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE APAGS-ACT FACULTY MENTOR?

• The Faculty Mentor (FM) serves as a stabilizing source for the CR program by ensuring that their institution always has a CR and communicates that information to the RAC and/or APA Central Office.
• The FM helps disseminate important APA/APAGS information to the student body in a timely manner to help bridge the gal between academia and professional practice issues as it relates to all levels of policy making. Furthermore, non-practice related issues are also addressed within APAGS and the legislature that necessitate student input and involvement, which the FM can be instrumental in facilitating.
• The FM helps the CR make connections with key individuals within the state and local psychological associations in order to help promote a higher level of student involvement within these associations.
• The FM serves as a liaison between CR and the program faculty in helping to make student issues a priority within their departments.
• The FM can help the CR in mobilizing student efforts in becoming actively involved in lobbying, and they can facilitate the interface between the CR and their SPA and local PA legislative chairs.
• The FM and CR can coordinate their efforts to ensure that professional development issues are addressed and incorporated into academia (i.e. make recommendations for specialized courses or seminars to address managed care issues, the changing role of psychology, psychology as a business, "cutting-edge" techniques in practice and research, and other specific/timely information that would be helpful for students to be oriented to).
• The FM and CR can work together to try to get their department to sponsor at least one student from their program to attend the annual APA Convention, so that there will be student representation from their institution. APAGS hopes that this student would be the CR, considering their key role within APAGS as the CR.

WHAT SHOULD THE FACULTY MENTOR AND CAMPUS REPRESENTATIVE DO NEXT?

• Strategize, strategize strategize!! Come up with a plan together of how you can begin to promote student issues and educate the graduate student body about issues that will affect them as professionals and what they can do NOW to have a direct impact on the types of policies currently being considered.
• The FM will be provided with addition information in the form of a copy of the APAGS-ACT Campus Representative Training Manual, as well as be placed on the APAGS-ACT mailing list to receive a copy of the newsletter. This can be used as a starting point for developing your own program-specific ideas.
• The CR and FM are both encouraged to be creative in developing projects that are in the interest of students. Student advocacy is important on many levels: federal, state, local, and at the grassroots level, in terms of political involvement as well as general student concerns.

Establishing a working relationship between your department, APAGS, and APA can be an enlightening and rewarding experience. Students need to be informed about the climate of the profession so they can make informed decisions about their careers and impact decisions made on behalf of the profession as a whole. A mentoring relationship is critical to this process. We hope that you will accept the challenge to become the APAGS Faculty Mentor at your university. APAGS and your students will greatly appreciate your involvement. Please feel free to contact us, or Jen Horvath (APAGS Program Coordinator at the APA Central Office) by phone at 202-336-6014, or by E-mail for any further clarification. Your support is very much appreciated.