VOLUME 30 , NUMBER 5 May 1999

To recruit diverse membership, get personal

Unless they attract more diverse members, state associations could put themselves in 'a dinosaur position.'

By Sara Martin
Monitor staff

Want to increase ethnic-minority involvement in your organization?

Then forego the mass mailings and newsletter articles that passively ask for minority participation and pick up the phone to personally invite someone you want to run for office, or join a task force, said a panel of six speakers at the March State Leadership Conference. That type of one-on-one personal contact is much more successful in recruiting people of color, they agreed.

Or, better yet, said APA President Richard M. Suinn, PhD, ask someone to lunch.

"Over a meal, you can have a more comfortable discussion on why you want them," he explained. "It's not just reaching out as a token motion. It's recognizing them for their professional expertise."

Once several ethnic-minority members are in influential positions, they'll help build the programming that will encourage others to join, said speakers at the session "Promoting ethnic diversity in state associations." The session served as an open forum for discussing ways to recruit ethnic minorities to state psychological associations and gave the 30 attendees an overview of an APA program that funds minority recruitment, retention and diversity activities at the state level.

Keeping pace

Most state leaders recognize that they must attract more minority members to keep pace with the nation's increasing diversity, the speakers said.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, in 1995, 26.4 percent of all Americans were ethnic minorities--a number that will increase to 47.5 percent by 2050. Yet few psychology organizations come close to attracting that many ethnic-minority members. (As of 1997, APA's membership was 71 percent white and 5 percent ethnic minority, although 24 percent of members did not specify).

Unless state psychological associations attract more people of color and provide the services they need, "state associations will put themselves in a dinosaur position," said Daniel Sanders, PhD, past president of the Ohio Psychological Association and chair of the session. "We need to figure out what people need, provide it and they will come."

Such recruitment efforts aren't only about boosting a membership base, said Suinn. More importantly, they serve to inject new life into associations.

"Ethnic minorities bring associations new energies and unique perspectives," he said.

Other recruitment tactics suggested during the session include:

* Hosting a special event. In Georgia, for example, on Martin Luther King's birthday, the Georgia Psychological Association invites the state's black psychologists to a reception, whether they are members or not.

* Charging the association's nomination committee with identifying ethnic-minorities for leadership positions.

* Making sure that a representative from ethnic-minority associations, such as the Association of Black Psychologists, is invited to attend the association's conventions and other meetings.

* Visiting schools of psychology to talk to ethnic-minority students.

* Developing a task force on diversity.

* Making membership available at half-price for members who also belong to ethnic minority psychological associations.

Although state leaders were receptive to these suggestions, they noted that promoting diversity and the "idea of the diminishing white male" is still frightening to some. For example, in 1997, when the Minnesota Psychological Association (MPA) encouraged the state to require psychologists to obtain continuing education in ethnic-minority issues, "this was a big step that some people weren't ready for," said Kathy Harowski, PhD, MPA's 1997 president.

Another concern is that there are still relatively few ethnic-minority psychologists to tap for association involvement. For example, as of 1993--the last year data were available--only 9.4 percent of Americans with doctoral degrees in psychology were ethnic minorities. As a result, "we run the risk of burning out the ethnic-minority psychologists already involved by asking them to take on more projects," said Alesia Williams of the Louisiana Psychological Association.

Overcoming the barriers

Despite those barriers, said the speakers, there's never been a better time to launch ethnic-minority recruitment programs. As the result of the work of APA's Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention and Training in Psychology
(CEMRRAT), APA's Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs (OEMA) has funds that states can apply for to spend on projects that promote cultural issues at the state level.

OEMA is looking to fund such projects as those that support the professional development of ethnic minorities or those that fund multicultural programming at state conventions. The committee expects state associations that receive funding to make in-kind contributions to their projects.

Such projects could get a further boost from other APA governance groups that have indicated their interest in supporting the program. So far, three states have sent proposals to OEMA.

For more information on APA's Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention and Training in Psychology grants program, contact Bertha Holliday at (202) 336-6029, e-mail bholliday@apa.org.

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