Division Representatives

July 5, 2004

Dear Editors (Kristi and Mark),

It's so nice to be on the writing side of a letter to the editor instead of the requesting side. J

The purpose of my letter is two-fold. First, I would like to congratulate the two of you for bringing Division 3 into the 21^st century. Both the website and The Experimental Psychology Bulletin have a classy and up-to-date look. This should help the division in its attempt to recruit new members. Because everything is web-based, we'll be more likely to catch the eye of the undergraduates as they gather information about graduate schools, and because the newsletter is more personalized (e.g., through the addition of pictures), we might pique their interest enough to return to the site while they are in graduate school and, eventually, to join the division. Congratulations!

My second purpose is to encourage the members of Division 3 to take the time to vote in this year's APA presidential election—I hope they vote in the national election, too, of course! Ballots will be out in October, but just as in a national election, the campaigning has been going on for months. It's now time to start tuning in. Division 3 does not endorse candidates, but individual members are free to do so. Exercising that privilege, I encourage members of the division to consider joining me in support of Sharon Brehm.

There has been a lot of discussion about getting involved in prior issues of the newsletter. In his words-of-wisdom presidential column in January 2001 Doug Nelson urged us to get involved. Kurt Salzinger did the same in January 2002. Harry Bahrick and Bill Howell described somewhat different views on how to have an impact on APA governance (see the January and June 2002 issues). Voting is the EASIEST way for all members to get involved. Although science and practice are not mutually exclusive, the majority of APA members do see themselves as more closely aligned with practice while the majority of Division 3 members likely see themselves as more closely aligned with science. I urge you to check out the information on all five presidential candidates, http://www.apa.org/governance/elections/04candidates.html and then to selfishly vote for the person who is more likely to represent your point of view. If you do that, my prediction is that you will agree with me that the person is Sharon Brehm.

That's it for now. Thank you again for doing a wonderful job.

Best wishes,

Veronica

Veronica J. Dark, Iowa State University, vjdark@iastate.edu