The Executive Board members of the Council are pleased to present this annual report of Board activities. The Council consists of all directors of community graduate programs who join the Council, and the Board is made up of members elected by the Council. During 1998-1999, the Board members (and their program-category representation) included:

Chair:            Alan Tomkins, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Community Other)
Chair-Elect:   Clifford O’Donnell, University of Hawaii (Free-Standing)
Secretary:      Cathy Stein, Bowling Green University (Community-Clin ical)
Treasurer:      Patricia O’Connor, Russell Sage College (Masters)
Member:        Steve Small (Interdisciplinary)
Student Rep:  Alison Martin, University of Missouri, Kansas City

A summary of Board activities is presented below:

1. CPDCRA: A Critical Assessment, Board Reorganization and Representation, and the Budget

As did many committees and groups in the time period leading to the turn of a new century, the CPDCRA Executive Board engaged in a serious assessment of the value and viability of the Council. After considerable and critical deliberation, it was the Board’s unanimous opinion the Council should continue its work. The focus on training in community psychology, it was determined, continues to be a need not otherwise addressed. The need for close connections to SCRA was recognized. The Board agreed to be mindful of the purpose of the Council and to periodically consider the degree to which it is meeting its goals.

It was agreed to make a structural change to the composition of the Board itself. Due to the small number of programs in each category, the Board voted unanimously to combine the Council program categories of "Community Interdisciplinary" and "Community Other" into a single category, "Community Interdisciplinary/Other." The combined "Community Interdisciplinary/ Other" category will have one representative on the Executive Board. In order to keep the Board size the same, the Board voted unanimously to increase the number, from one to two, of representatives from “Free-Standing Community Programs” category on the Executive Board. The Board members felt there was a need to maintain the number of members in order to preserve a manageable and equitable work-load for Board members; consequently, it was deemed desirable to add one, additional, at-large representative to the Council from among the other programs, instead of the additional Free-Standing representative.

It is recognized the Mid-Winter meeting is the major expense of the Council. In order to reduce the expense of the meeting in 1999, the Mid-Winter meeting was combined with a conference in which several of the Board members participated. This has been the historical practice. In 1998, the Mid-Winter meeting was held in conjunction with an APA meeting attended by several of the Board members. This helped to considerably reduce the costs of the meeting. Over the next few years, Board members should continue to discuss ways to continue to minimize costs of the Mid-Winter meeting. The hope is that the Council will have enough money to fund programs and activities benefitting community psychology students.

2. Award for Contributions to Training in Community Psychology

The first awards for Contributions to Training in Community Psychology were presented on June 9, 1999, prior to the “Training Pre-Session” (see # 3, below) at the Biennial Conference of the Society of Community Research and Action in New Haven, CT. This award recognizes training accomplishments (as opposed to research accomplishments). The inaugural awards were given to the founding members of the Council: Richard Price, Kenneth Heller, Edward Seidman, N. Dickon Reppucci, Murray Levine, Anthony D'Augelli, Edwin Susskind. A training award will be given coinciding with each SCRA biennial conference.

3. Training Pre-Session at Biennial Conference of the Society of Community Research and Action

The Board organized a session in which community psychologists with long histories of involvement in training matters discussed community education and training over the past decades. Participants discussed trends in community education and training, and reflected on what the past might tell us about the future.

Participants: Cary Cherniss (Rutgers University); Marc Goldstein (Central Connecticut State University); Christopher Keys (University of Illinois at Chicago); Julian Rappaport (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Beth Shinn (New York University); Rhona Weinstein University of California at Berkeley)

4. Survey of Community Programs

David Lounsbury (Michigan State University), a former Student Rep, coordinated the survey of Community Programs with the assistance of two other MSU graduate students, Stephanie Skourtes, and Daniel Cantillon. The results of the survey will be printed in the fall 1999 issue of The Community Psychologist and are available at the CPDCRA web-site (http://www.msu.edu/user/lounsbu1/surv1999.html). David and his colleagues are working on other papers emanating from the survey, including one on diversity among community faculty and students, one on community psychology curricula, and one on career paths in community psychology.

5. CCTC Statement Encouraging Credit for Community Psychology

The Council of Chairs of Training Councils (CCTC) issued a policy statement encouraging clinical practicum and placement credit for clinical students who are involved in community work. Board member Cliff O’Donnell represented the Board on the CCTC, drafted the statement, and distributed it to APA-accredited graduate and internship programs.

6. Employment Project

This project resulted in the following: O’Donnell, C. R. & Ferrari, J. P. (Eds.) (2000). Employment in Community Psychology: The Diversity of Opportunity. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press. It is the first book on employment opportunities in community psychology

As the publisher’s copy explains (see http://www.haworthpressinc.com/):

         Employment in Community Psychology: The Diversity of Opportunity is the first
         psychology career reference book for undergraduate psychology majors
         deciding on graduate schools, for graduate students in psychology seeking
         employment, and for psychology faculty advising their students. This book
         answers the questions “What can you do with a graduate degree in community
         psychology?” and “Who employs community psychologists?” Employment in
         Community Psychology addresses these questions through examples of
         graduates educated in community psychology and employed in diverse applied,
         research, and academic settings.

         In Employment in Community Psychology, you will explore the diversity of
         community psychology employment opportunities through the stories of current
         graduate students, community psychologists on their first job, and psychologists
         who have well-established positions in community research and action. Each
         experience is told in a story-telling style allowing the reader to grasp a deeper
         understanding of the employment opportunities that cannot be obtained through
         abstract description alone. Some of the experiences that highlight opportunities in
         the field include:

         •working in the Institute for Families in Society at the University of South
         Carolina as a Research Associate
         •working as a researcher at the Korea Institute of Social Psychiatry to determine
         how primary prevention and action research can be applied to the promotion of
         adolescent mental health in Korean society
         •doctoral studies that developed into the first community psychology position
         focusing on the issues of social justice and reconciliation between Indigenous and
         non-Indigenous groups in Australian town
         •non-traditional academic positions in psychology
         •working as a social worker for Native non-profit health corporation in Alaska
         •a policy-oriented community psychologist, or a c.p. in the disabilities field
         •entering a second career in community psychology at mid-life

         Employment in Community Psychology is an essential tool for undergrads and
         graduate students considering a career in community psychology. The rich palette
         of community psychology experiences that are laid out for the career researcher
         and advisor are sure to assist students in deciding what area of community
         psychology they would like to pursue.

7. Cultural Compatibility Project

Cary Cherniss completed a survey on cultural diversity in community programs and Cliff O’Donnell completed a literature review on cultural compatibility issues. Both were published in 1999 inTCP.

8. Recruitment of Additional Programs into CPDCRA

Board members continue to be interested in recruiting new programs into the Council, and the Board pledged to continue its efforts during the year.

9. Student Exchange and Distance Learning

These are two programs initiated by the Board, but neither has taken root yet. Although solicitations for exchanges went out to program directors from the Council and to students (via the SCRA listserv), the Board knows of no exchanges that occurred. One suggestion to encourage exchange activity is the possibility of the Council funding a $500 student scholarship to defray costs for a student who participates in the exchange project. Council input about this idea would be welcome.

In addition, the Board put together information about distance learning and websites that might be helpful to people interested in the topic and plans to publish this information in TCP. Again, Council input about this idea would be welcome.

10. Partners Program
A suggestion was made to initiate a "partners in graduate programs."  The idea is for CPDCRA and SCRA to work together encourage community programs partner with one another to critique each other’s program. The goal is to encourage (and facilitate) positive program change. It was agreed that the Board will try to work on this initiative as one of its future activities. Interested persons should let us know of their willingness to work with us on this initiative.

11. Board Members for 1999-2000

Chair:            Clifford O’Donnell, University of Hawaii (Free-Standing)
Chair-Elect:   Jim Emshoff, Georgia State University (Free-Standing)
Secretary:      Cathy Stein, Bowling Green University (Community-Clinical)
Treasurer:      Patricia O’Connor, Russell Sage College (Masters)
Member:        Alan Tomkins, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Community Other/  Interdisciplinary)
Student Rep:  Alison Martin, University of Missouri, Kansas City