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)
