Letter
from the President
First, I would like to thank
I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Mark Stern, who has been my friend, guide, mentor, and confidant during my many years on the executive board. He continues to inspire me to do my best and to do what is right, and my recent visit with him during his convalescence at his beautiful farm in the country renewed my own spirit as I prepared this letter.
Let me outline some of my "initiatives" for the year:
(1) I wish to strengthen our divisional
influence within APA by establishing active lines of communication between the
executive board and the four Directorates (Science, Education, Public Interest,
Practice). I will appoint liaisons to the Directorates and personally involve
myself in communicating our intentions to APA in
(2) I would like to use our status as an
approved CEU provider to increase attendance at our annual convention programs,
and also to advance the interest of humanistic psychology among colleagues who
are not familiar with us. I propose two action items: (a) Following the suggestions
of David Cain (Membership Chair) and April Metzler (Member-at-Large), I would
like to have as many of our convention programs as possible registered for CEU
credit. Everyone submitting programs now for
(3) I would like to strengthen our alliance with other divisions, through our convention programming and our representation on Council. It is time for marginalized divisions to unite, having their collective voices heard. I have worked behind the scenes with Division 24 (as Secretary-Treasurer) to encourage its use of our hospitality suite. Proactively, I would like to encourage co-sponsored programs at the upcoming convention, both in regular programming and in the hospitality suite. Rather than merely renting our space to other divisions for their "own" programming, we should also encourage "cross-attendance" of each other's programming, in a move toward forming coalitions with other small divisions. I also ask that members submitting programs for the convention indicate on the electronic submission forms the names of other divisions whose members might be interested in the content of your proposal. By simply suggesting a cross-listing (not to be confused with co-sponsorship), you will automatically have the other divisions listed, along with Division 32, next to your session in the convention program. The power lies literally at your fingertips! This is an excellent way of increasing attendance at your sessions.
(4) Earlier this year I attended Council (as a substitute for Division 24) and pushed for an action item relating to better representation of "diverse theoretical and philosophical positions." I had Division 32 in mind when working on this proposal. Diversity in all of its emerging vicissitudes seems to be the central issue within APA. About the only area of diversity that has gone unspoken for is theoretical diversity (with the exception of Division 32's own Diversity Statement, which was drafted in 2000). APA has not once demanded that humanistic psychologists be better represented in their publications, or that individuals representing minority philosophical or methodological perspectives be better represented in the work of the various Directorates. Nor have I been aware of any incentive programs to encourage the acceptance of humanistic psychologists into graduate programs, convention programming, or APA-sponsored travel grants. Is qualitative research fairly represented in The APA Monitor and the APAGS gradPSYCH publications? At Council, I spoke privately with minority representatives who generally supported the idea of including theoretical and philosophical diversity as among the interests of the APA. The time is right for humanistic psychologists to be given equal time in publications and public venues of all kinds, including APA journals, classroom textbooks, and specially sponsored APA programs.
I would be happy to email a more detailed plan to anyone who is interested. Let me close with a familiar solicitation regarding the apportionment ballot. I learned two things about this ballot when I attended Council:
(1) the apportionment ballot is used only to decide the number of representatives on Council. It is not used in any way to determine the number of hours of convention programming, contrary to what many people believe or have been told. (Convention time is calculated by means of a formula that I will be glad to email to anyone who would like to see it.)
(2) Division 32 is very close in line to receive a second Council Representative! Anyone with multiple division memberships would be well advised to apportion all ten of their ballots for Division 32; voting for other divisions won't make enough of a difference to change the outcome in those divisions.
I invite communications and ideas from the general membership as well as from the executive board. Let's work together to make Division 32 stronger, and to fortify our place within the landscape of psychology.
Scott Churchill
Letter from the Past President
Aloha! It was great to see a number of you
at the recent APA convention in
We also had an informative informal discussion in the hospitality suite with James McHugh, Senior Counsel to APA, regarding listserv restrictions as a function of APA's nonprofit status. An ongoing issue on our listserv prompted this. Specifically, a number of listserv subscribers have stated that their freedom of speech is unfairly restricted by the manner in which APA's legal services interpret tax code law that was first enacted by Congress in the 1930s. According to Jim's interpretation, no APA-sponsored listserv can legally post statements, opinions, or any materials that could be interpreted as supportive or in opposition to any publicly announced candidate for office. If we did so and the IRS chose to prosecute, this could jeopardize APA's tax-exempt status. He also pointed out that if board members knowingly allowed violations of this prohibition to continue and did nothing to curtail them, in his opinion, they would probably not be protected by APA's blanket liability insurance. He did not express any willingness to test this interpretation nor for APA to challenge this tax law, with the exception that he did seek out independent legal counsel, which concurred with his opinion. He also told us that no other division has challenged this restriction.
In the past month no one has posted any items that might violate this prohibition. I want to personally thank everyone for abiding by this restriction. A number of listserv subscribers are continuing to explore ways to protest, challenge, and perhaps even get the law rescinded. If you are interested in learning more, please join our listserv.
One of the most important tasks assigned to the Past President is to present a slate of nominees for positions opening up on our board at our midwinter retreat in the beginning of January. The positions that we will be voting for this spring are President, Secretary, and two Member-at-Large positions. The Secretary and the Member-at-Large positions are both three-year terms of office. The person elected to the presidency also serves a three-year cycle (President-Elect, President, Past President). Self-nominations are welcome for any of the above positions. Please feel free to contact me at lyonsa@moravian.edu if you would like further information and/or are interested in becoming involved on the board.
Our board minutes appear in this newsletter and give you a feel for the issues that we are discussing. One item that I do want to highlight is a direct result of the hard work done by our new Membership Chair, David Cain. Membership in Division 32 increased by 8% in the past year, the single largest jump in membership that we have had in many years!
I also invite you to think about the spring letter that you will get from APA asking you to apportion your 10 votes to various divisions and state associations. The results of those ballots determine how many council representatives each division gets. Last year, our division received more votes than any other division that has only one representative. So please consider casting all of your votes for Division 32 and help us earn a second council representative seat.
Thank you for allowing me to serve as your President this past year. I know that the Division is in very capable hands under the leadership of Scott Churchill, our new President. I look forward to serving the Division in my new capacity as Council Representative.
Letter from the Editor
Hi All:
Humanists come together to fight the
injustices that induce stressful times. Compassion abounds, evidenced by the
increase in the Division's membership, and thanks must go to David Cain and
Thanks also to Ilene Serlin for her tireless work as our Council Representative and a Chair for the Committee on Division/APA Relations (CODAPAR). She generously shared her insights into the issues most on peoples' minds--including terrorism, women's rights, gay and lesbian rights, and war's effect on soldiers--with the other divisions throughout APA, and this further increased our presence. Her strong voice and passion truly represent the passion and compassion that fuel all who join Division 32, subscribe to the listserv, read the publications, and visit the website. An advocate for human rights, Ilene is also a talented artist who has contributed sketches for past newsletters; her artwork will be featured again in future issues.
Because of the small number of people
present for the Annual Business Meeting in
Outgoing
Board Meeting
Chair:
New board members.
President-elect:
Treasurer: Sara K. Bridges.
Members-at-Large: Virginia Stern and Daniel Holland. Council Representative:
Retiring board members.
Past President: Franz Epting. Treasurer: Marc Celentana. APA Council Representative: Ilene Serlin. Members-at-Large: Bob Frager and Marsha Hammond. President Lyons informed the board that Division Officers have insurance coverage in their performance of Division business under APA's umbrella policy.
Secretary's Report. April Faidley.
The Midwinter Meeting minutes were circulated, perused, and approved.
Treasurer's Report. Marc Celentana
Although the Treasurer submitted a balanced budget for 2005, during the discussion, three problems with expenditures were noted, which, when corrected, created an approximately $2000 shortfall. Bob Frager proposed we accept the budget with the deficit and make efforts to arrange CEU offerings during the next year to reduce the deficit; seconded by Scott Churchill. Discussion followed. It was suggested that a Member-at-Large might take on the responsibility of planning and promoting Continuing Education offerings. The efficacy of preparing a budget that included allotting some revenue to a "slush fund" was proposed. Maureen O'Hara noted that it is not a good strategy to go forward with a budget in the red, unless the deficit is planned as part of a strategy to improve future revenues. The motion carried. It was suggested this be an item on the Midwinter agenda.
Membership. David Cain.
Membership has increased approximately 8%
since the end of 2003, to 749. The largest increase were students. David
reported that the application is revised, a credit card payment option has been
added, and first-year APA members will receive a 20% membership discount. An
arrangement has been made with Prentice Hall to send a copy of Fadiman and
Frager's Personality and Personal Growth to each new member. A flyer was
created with advantages of membership on one side and an application on the
other side, and applications are included in every issue of the newsletter and
the journal. Although David proposed to several divisions that we work out
joint membership discounts, there was little positive reception to that idea.
Letters went to 114 members who had not renewed their membership; David
recommends that the Division continue this effort.
Journal.
The third issue of The Humanistic Psychologist for 2004 is in process.
The journal has stayed current and is, to
the best of
Newsletter.
Listserv.
Program Committee. Scott Churchill.
Hospitality Suite. April Metzler.
Division 32 thanks the following for
donating to support the 2004 Hospitality Suite in
APA Council. Ilene Serlin.
Ilene was thanked for her 6 years as Council Representative. See separate Council Report.
Fellows. Maureen O'Hara.
Three nominations were received by the committee. Two were accepted by the Fellows Committee and were sent to APA, where they were approved: Harris Friedman and David Lukoff.
Transpersonal Section. Bob Frager.
ITP and ATP held a successful joint conference with over 200 participants. Bob noted that all promotion was electronic. The International Transpersonal Association also held a successful conference in March. ITP is planning a conference on spiritual guidance and psychology to be held over Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend. ITP now offers a doctoral program in transpersonal clinical psychology, designed to meet APA accreditation standards.
Human Science. Scott Churchill.
Scott reported that we are gaining momentum on research-based literature, with several new books coming out.
Marsha Hammond, Mike Arons, and Fred
Massarik were not available to give reports on the Listserv, the Archives,
and Development, respectively. Franz Epting and
Incoming
Board Meeting
Honolulu, Hawaii, July 28, 2004
Chair: Scott Churchill.
Awards.
All the nominations for awards must be in to Kathleen, by email, by November 1. Kathleen presented a proposal specifying details of the Early Career Contributions Awards and the procedure for nominating and awarding them. She will contact board members by email in regard to her proposal. Maureen O'Hara noted that if the selection is done by committee, it needs to be a fairly large committee to be unbiased and fair. She suggested that Awards could be a committee. Further action was tabled until the Midwinter Meeting due to the lack of a quorum.
New Business. Scott Churchill.
Scott has conferred with several past presidents in regard to the size of the current informal board, which has increased significantly over the last 8 years. All agreed to consider reducing this number in order to function more effectively, particularly at the Midwinter Meeting. For example, the Section Chairs could report to the President, who could convey these reports to the board. For the upcoming Midwinter Meeting, Scott requests that all nonvoting board members please email or call him with input by late summer, so that he can determine what business needs to be conducted at the meeting and who should attend. In this way, he will monitor the size of the growing group. Scott also noted that some of the tasks currently being carried by individuals appointed by past presidents could be assumed by Members-at-Large. He further recommended we consider three-year terms for appointed positions. Discussion followed. Kathleen commented that some individuals "carry the culture" while new participants are getting up to speed as members of the board. She added that she considers her participation at the meetings as one of the only rewards for the hard work her position requires, and she might resign if that reward was not available. Scott indicated that his primary concern was with the Midwinter Meeting, and that all board members would continue to be invited to the meetings held at the annual convention. Art noted that the composition of the Midwinter Meeting can be designed by the President. Maureen discussed accountability to the membership: at board meetings both the elected members and the informal members have equal say, although only the elected board members have the official approval of the membership to carry out Division business. She suggested we might begin a gradual process of rolling back the numbers, just as there was a gradual increase. Scott invited further email discussion of this issue.
Due to a new APA mandate that all division "sections" make both annual reports to the APA as well as reports to the IRS, Scott suggested we drop Sections and have Advocates of "interest areas" instead. This will be taken up at the Midwinter Meeting.
Connie Fischer raised an issue about the description of the Carl Rogers Awards, and discussion followed about whom that award was designed to honor. Maureen suggested the wording be altered. Scott reminded the board that the certificates used to be individually designed for the recipient and could vary somewhat from year to year.
It was noted that Mary Fox, Member-at-Large, has been unable to attend two meetings in a row. Her availability for future service will be investigated, with the possibility that the board may need to elect a replacement.
The Midwinter Meeting is expected to be
Submitted by April Faidley, Secretary.
Celebrating
the spirit of aloha in
|
|
|
Charles
Tart, left, receives the Abraham Maslow Award, |
|
|
|
Past
President |
|
|
|
From
left: David Cain, Connie Fischer, |
Council
Report
July 28 and 30, 2004
Greetings! I write this last Council Report
with mixed feelings of relief and regret as the end of my second term
approaches. But I know that Division 32 is in good hands with
This meeting was full of a number of hot issues, but the following are particularly relevant for our division:
1) Working Group on Same-Sex Families and Relationships. This was an unusual example of APA responding swiftly and appropriately to a current social issue. While gay marriages were being performed in San Francisco, a small group of council representatives created and fast-tracked policy recommendations to be used to counteract discrimination.
2) Interdivisional Grants. As Chair of CODAPAR, I helped pass a resolution to restore and even increase the amount of money for Interdivisional Grants to $12, 500. These are small grants of up to $5,000 that pay for collaborative projects between divisions. When the call from CODAPAR comes out soon, Division 32 can apply. One idea that has some interest is to sponsor a conference on diversity in research methods, for example. I recommend choosing a point person who will coordinate the proposals and application process.
3) Resolution on sexual orientation and the military. This was also an example of effective conflict resolution skills and collaboration among divisions. Over a resolution to eliminate APA's ban on advertising in APA's publications by the Department of Defense, Divisions 19 (Military Psychology) and 44 (Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns) worked for a year to find a compromise.
4) Report of the Task Force on the Psychological Effects to Prevent Terrorism. This task force resulted from a resolution that Division 32 co-sponsored one year ago. We introduced a substitute motion to get feedback from APA's standing committees before receiving the report. It will come back to Council in February in the form of a new proposal to continue the work of the task force.
5) World Conference Against Racism
Report. Council was asked to receive a report from members of the APA
delegation who went to this conference in
Thank you for having chosen me as your Council Representative for these past years. It has been enormously interesting, and I hope Division 32 continues to make its voice heard!
Respectfully submitted, Ilene Serlin, Council Representative.
|
Welcome To Our New Officers! President-Elect: David L. Rennie Treasurer: Sara K. Bridges Members-at-Large: Daniel Holland, Virginia F. Stern Council Representative:
|
YOUR SAY
Division 32 member Dr. Tom Greening has contributed some of his poetry on the Division's listserv. He wrote the second poem for the Division's 2004 convention program "The Paradox of Ideals," in which he served as a discussant.Thank you, Tom, for sharing your verses in the newsletter too.
FLU
My friend has flu
that will not go away,
and what can I, a paltry poet, say?
She's caught a germ and grown quite sick of war, and that's what makes her soul and body sore.
For that there is a potent medicine to heal the dreadful, fevered state she's in.
It soon could make her chills and fever cease, but it's quite scarce, and sometimes is called peace.
It's esoteric, unapproved and rare,
and not provided by her managed care.
THE TYRANNY OF THE IDEAL
There is a subtle form of tyranny
that tells us how
we should ideally be.
Rebukes us for performing under par,
commands that we reject the way we are.
And so we strive to reach some high ideal,
a dream of excellence that is surreal.
Exalted standards make our lives too hard,
then each of us becomes our prison guard.
We live in shadows, worshipping the sun,
and when at last our darkened days are done
We do not know what light we could have made
if we had learned to flourish in the shade.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Call For Student Papers For The Sidney M.
Jourard Student Award Symposium: Please
submit a 1,500-word summary of a completed paper or a work-in-progress for
consideration to our program committee, utilizing the official APA electronic
submission format, which you can find online at http://apacustomout.apa.org/ConvCall/.
Work already completed is appropriate for consideration, as long as the paper
has not been previously presented at another conference. Please contact the
Division 32 President Scott Churchill (bonobo@udallas.edu)
and/or the Program Chair
Students whose papers are selected for this award symposium will be given a free membership in the Division of Humanistic Psychology for one year, including subscription to our journal The Humanistic Psychologist. Also, any member of APAGS (American Psychological Association of Graduate Students) who is presenting as first author within a symposium or paper/poster session at APA will have his/her advance registration fee waived.
International
Congress on Personal Construct Psychology,
Holiday Inn on the Lane,
The next International Congress on Personal
Construct Psychology will be held at the Holiday Inn on the Lane in
A website for the Congress will be up
shortly. For further information, contact
Dr. Steven Hendlin, announced the recent publication of Overcoming the Inheritance Taboo (Penguin/Plume). It is the first book on the psychology of financial inheritance. You may see the table of contents and read the introduction at www.hendlin.net
FELLOWS OF DIVISION 32
The deadline for receipt of completed
dossiers is
Congratulations to Dr. Ilene Serlin, voted a Fellow of Division 35.
Dr. Kirk Schneider was a guest on two Bay
Area radio programs to discuss his recent book, Rediscovery of Awe:
Splendor, Mystery, and the