Council considers ways to improve itself

Every five years, a group of six APA members known as the Committee on Structure and Function of Council (CSFC) takes a hard look at APA?s Council of Representatives to ensure it is functioning effectively.

As part of its 1998 study, CSFC hosted 12 breakout sessions during APA?s Council of Representatives meeting Feb. 20?22 to glean council?s insights on two issues that members have identified as problems:

? What suggestions do you have to increase council?s effectiveness and council members? sense of participation and inclusion?

? How do we increase the participation of ethnic minorities and other underrepresented groups in divisions and states, thereby leading to increased representation on council?

'We got some very good ideas,' said Sandra Tars, PhD, past CSFC chair who helped run the groups. 'All the breakout groups had active participation and came up with a wide variety of recommendations.'

On the question of increasing council?s effectiveness and member participation, the breakout groups recommended that APA:

? Provide on-going mentoring and education to council members on how APA?s council functions as part of the overall association. This includes acquainting new council members to APA?s governance process and developing a mentoring system that helps council members translate their ideas into resolutions or motions.

? Develop more efficient processes for the council?s deliberations. Ideas for making this happen include allocating more discussion time to items that have a high priority in the association, limiting the number of times one individual can speak on the floor and scheduling caucuses so that they don?t overlap.

? Structure council presentations and debates to incorporate more diverse perspectives and enhance council members? understanding of complex issues. Suggestions for doing this include beginning council discussions on complex or controversial issues with overviews or pro/con presentations, and holding focus groups on key issues.

On the question of ways to increase involvement of underrepresented groups, council members recommended that APA:

? Develop strategies to entice ethnic-minorities to psychology careers early on, including outreach to schools with large minority enrollments.

? Foster more ethnic-minority leaders in psychology by developing ethnic-minority slates for elected offices and having every division or state psychological association commit to mentoring an ethnic-minority student.

? Develop a clearinghouse of strategies aimed at increasing ethnic-minority presentation. To find out which strategies work, members suggested that APA conduct focus groups with ethnic minorities, asking what would promote their participation. Council members also recommended that APA look at the success other associations have had in increasing their diversity, such as the National Council of Schools of Professional Psychology.

CFSC is studying the breakout session ideas and will forward them as needed to the appropriate APA boards and committees for discussion or action.

?Sara Martin