The year in review

By Raymond D. Fowler, PhD
APA Chief Executive Officer

January newspapers are filled with year-end reviews, so in that spirit I'd like to reflect on the highlights for APA during 1998. The year began with the transfer of the APA presidency. Martin E.P. Seligman became the 106th president of APA, following the term of past president Norman Abeles, who had made many important and lasting contributions to our understanding of older adults during his term of office.

During 1998, President Seligman focused on two themes: prevention and ethnic political warfare. His Task Force on Prevention sponsored a very successful presidential theme at the convention and they continue to work on giftedness, positive psychology, a website, a textbook, and a special issue of the American Psychologist. The joint APA/Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) Initiative on Ethnopolitical Warfare led to a conference held in Derry, Northern Ireland. Plans are under way for a second conference, focused on applied aspects of ethnopolitical strife, to be organized by CPA.

Financial outlook

Financially, we faced challenges (as I discussed in my November column) resulting from a leveling off of revenue from dues and subscriptions. By working hard to cut spending, however, we have been able to avoid a dues increase in 1999 and keep the budget on track while continuing to explore new sources of revenue.

Real estate is still a very successful investment for APA. Our headquarters building is 98 percent leased and brings in over $1 million annually in revenue. Our second building is 91 percent leased and will soon begin showing a similar profit. Both help keep dues from increasing. The American Psychological Foundation has continued to grow with an endowment that has increased from $879,000 in April 1991 to over $6 million in 1998.

Membership

We continued to add many new members and affiliates to our total membership last year, although the net increase in paid, full membership was small. We grew from 151,000 members and affiliates in 1997 to 155,000 in 1998. Of the 5,400 new members, the largest number (2,100) came from the annual upgrade for graduate student affiliates. Our student affiliate population is vigorous with over 62,500 students, boding well for the future. We also have 3,800 international affiliates and 2,300 high school teacher affiliates-numbers that continue to grow. And, through our dual membership program, intended to make it easier for our members to afford multiple memberships, we have added 500 new members.

To serve our members better, in 1998 we created the APA Service Center so that members could make one call for many of their membership needs, instead of being referred to several different departments. Membership, subscriptions, book-order fulfillment and the main switchboard staff were consolidated into one center, with about 40 representatives to assist callers. Initial feedback has been positive and we will continue to work to make service even better.

Publications and electronic communication

In 1998, there were also exciting developments in electronic communications and publications. In September, we published the first article in the electronic journal on psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy for mental health problems edited by President Seligman. Staff also made great progress in adding information to the APA Web Site, which now receives over a half-million hits per week. In addition, APA offered to host web sites for the divisions, and we now host 12 division web sites as well as more than 200 listservs for APA-related groups. To make psychological literature more accessible, all APA journals dating back to January 1990 have been digitized and all will eventually be available.

Our book program has grown from publishing a book a month to a book a week, bringing in more than $8 million in gross sales. We are also exploring publishing three to four high-quality trade books a year. There is exciting news for the Monitor as well. We are exploring the feasibility of changing from a newspaper to a magazine format, to make it more attractive and convenient.

With just a little space left, I'd like to mention just a few other highlights of 1998: a beautiful exhibition of Native American artwork on display in the headquarters building until March 1; a highly successful Continuing Education cruise to Alaska this summer; and hosting the 24th International Congress of Applied Psychology which brought representation from 91 nations, and launching efforts to have the years 2000-10 declared the 'Decade of Behavior.' The Science Directorate has enlisted other organizations, and a 12-member national advisory committee will meet for the first time early this year.

Wouldn't a 'Decade of Behavior' be a fitting tribute to the behavioral sciences and a wonderful way to celebrate the new millennium?





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