Candidates for APA President
How are you going to recruit, retain and involve individuals primarily engaged in scientific research?
Assuming we're talking about membership, not staff, I'd first ask scientists what they want. Surprisingly, as a member of APA for a quarter century, nobody at APA has ever asked me what I thought APA should be doing or what I think the priorities of the organization should be! As president, I would establish a biennial questionnaire to ask the membership a simple question, "What do you want APA to do for you over the next two years?" Several state and provincial associations do this regularly and it forms the basis for the organization's strategic plan. Relevance is key.
Approximately one-third of APA members work in educational settings (across all levels of education). What would you do as APA president to address their issues of concern?
This question is obviously similar to the first. My impressions of what educators want should not substitute for a broad sampling of the membership's thinking. We are a membership organization; our primary purpose is to serve the membership. But we spend too little time listening to and being responsive to our individual members. A biennial questionnaire would form a basis for such judgments and, given current technologies, we are capable of polling a large sampling of our members on a frequent basis via the Internet in a cost-effective, meaningful manner. What do educator-psychologists need and want? Let's ask them.
