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APAGS-ACT Seeks State Advocacy Coordinators and Campus Representatives

The APAGS-Advocacy Coordinating Team (APAGS-ACT) is soliciting self-nominations from motivated students to serve as State Advocacy Coordinators (SACs) and Campus Representatives (CRs). The ACT committee was recently reorganized to streamline our advocacy and communication efforts, and we are seeking to fill several newly created SAC positions. Serving in ACT is an excellent opportunity for students to be knowledgeable of, and active participants in, shaping current and future policy affecting the profession and practice of psychology! The following announcement details the new structure of ACT and describes the responsibilities of the SAC and CR positions.

ACT is the subcommittee of APAGS whose mission is to educate students about federal and state legislative issues that affect students and the profession of psychology. The committee is responsible for maintaining an active grassroots legislative advocacy network and for serving as a conduit for information between graduate students and APAGS. ACT engages in legislative efforts on behalf of the science and practice of psychology, in the interest of students studying, researching, and practicing psychology, and on behalf of individuals who receive psychological services.

The ACT committee consists of a chair and six regional advocacy coordinators (RACs), who coordinate the advocacy efforts of 50 state advocacy coordinators (SACs) and over 400 Campus Representatives (CRs) throughout the country. In turn, the SACs and CRs facilitate the exchange and dissemination of information between the APAGS board and our 46,000 active APAGS members.

The RACs are divided into three regions: East, Central, and West. Under the direction of APAGS and the ACT chair, RACs assist APA Staff, state psychological association leaders, and SACs to develop and maintain the Campus Representative grassroots network in the graduate and undergraduate psychology programs in every state. In addition, RACs work with SACs to coordinate the work of the ACT committee. The ACT committee (chair and the 6 RACs) has monthly conference calls to coordinate and review local and federal activities.

SACs are essential in coordinating the Campus Rep program, and it is preferable that they have served as CRs before becoming a SAC. In addition to recruiting and mentoring new campus reps, SACs help to familiarize incoming students with the structure of APA, their state psychological association, and other psychological associations. SACs organize graduate student forums in their state and work with local students, psychologists, and community leaders to advance state/national legislation relevant to the practice and science of psychology. It is also strongly encouraged that SACs attend a local/state psychological association meeting, as this is an excellent way to become intimately involved with legislative issues and to meet your politically active local leaders in psychology.

The APAGS Campus Representative (CR) program is a medium through which APAGS communicates with students across the country. ACT ensures student representation by recruiting a campus representative from each undergraduate and graduate department in the nation. CR's advance the goals of ACT on a more local and state level. In addition, CRs serve as the link between APA/APAGS and the graduate students in their departments. Some schools have more than one Campus Rep, one for each discipline of psychology (i.e., counseling, school, experimental). Both CRs and SACs are in a unique position to gain first-hand experience with advocacy efforts and legislative policy affecting the practice and science of psychology. These positions carry many important and exciting responsibilities, with opportunities to develop local and national professional relationships with members of the psychological community.

To ensure that ACT continues to mirror the diversity of APAGS, nominations are encouraged from students within all psychology subfields, racial and ethnic minority students, students with disabilities, and/or gay, lesbian, bisexual students. To nominate yourself, please fill out this form. If you have further questions about the position or want to learn more about APAGS and ACT, please contact your Regional Activity Coordinator.

This article first appeared in the Winter 2000 Edition of the APAGS Newsletter, Vol. 12(1)

 


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