Open Session on May 28, 1997, convened following the 1997 Biennial Pre-Conference Training Session.

Meeting began at 4:30 p.m. and ended at approximately 5:45p.m.

In attendance:  Executive Board Members:  Cary Cherniss, Marc Goldstein, David Lounsbury, Greg Meissen, Cliff O’Donnell, and Leah Gensheimer.  Also in attendance were a number of Council members and other interested persons.

The following is a summary of agenda items, discussions that transpired,  and Board decisions.

1.  Welcome.   Chair Greg Meissen welcomed Council members and distributed the meeting’s agenda.

2.  Treasurer’s Report.  Treasurer Marc Goldstein distributed copies of the Treasurer’s Report which contained a detailed listing of expenditures and income for the calendar year of 1996 to the present (May 28, 1997).  He also distributed the 1997 Membership List.  For a discussion of this report, see notes from the Business Meeting (which follows this set of minutes), agenda item #3.

3.  New Board Member Election Results.  Election results of new Board members and leadership positions were presented.   Pat O’ Conner of Sage College was elected representative of Master’s programs, and Stephen Small of the University of Wisconsin was elected representative of Interdisciplinary Community programs.  Congratulations!  It also was announced that, at the Mid-Winter Meeting of the Executive Board, Alan Tomkins of the University of Nebraska was elected as Chair-Elect to the Executive Board.

4.  Annual Report.  Greg distributed copies of the 1997 Annual Report of the CPDCRA Executive Board to those in attendance and summarized the major activities of the Board during the past year.

5.  CPDCRA Home Page with Link to SCRA Website.   David Lounsbury discussed the most recent developments with the CPDCRA web page.  Information on the web page include:  Council membership list, current Executive Board, annual reports, Council by-laws, and the most recent survey of Training Programs in Community Psychology.  Ideas were solicited from Council membership on other information which would be useful to include on the web page.  Suggestions offered included:  course planning material (including sample syllabi),  latest version of the Community Reading List prepared by Cliff O’Donnell and Jim Dalton, and links to important sites, e.g. APA.   A special round of “thanks” was paid to David for all his work on this project.

6.  Jobs on the Website.  The recurrent issue raised by graduate students regarding concern and anxiety about employment opportunities in the field was raised for discussion among Council membership.  The general membership agreed with the Board’s position that employment opportunities did exist for community graduates, and that graduates typically did not have difficulties finding jobs.  The Board presented their plan to establish  mechanisms to better inform students of the type of employment available through providing them with information on the type of positions recent graduates have obtained and how they secured them.  The Board’s plan include posting this information on the Council’s website  where “exemplars” of recent graduates of community programs would be featured.  Nominations of these “exemplar community graduates” were solicited from Council members.  David Julian from Michigan State and Charlie Brown from Maryland were two specific individuals mentioned who came to the front of members mind.  Beth Shinn commented that some community graduates secure positions that could be described as academic jobs of “a different sort”, e.g., a research position in a School of Public Health.  This discussion concluded with the suggestion and request for each program to keep a running log of what their graduates are doing, and for the Board to include on the Council’s annual survey an item asking Directors to provide a brief profile of their most recent graduates.

7.  Continued Discussion of Training Issues.   The following is a summary of discussions which stemmed from the information presented at the Training Pre-Session at the Biennial Conference organized by the CPDCRA.

a.  Prevention as a Specialty.    A lengthy discussion transpired surrounding what action CPDCRA should take to address this issue.  Three options were presented for discussion:  1) take the initiative to petition APA for the designation of prevention as a specialty in psychology;  2) take a “wait and see” approach, closely monitoring what others are doing and, if and when, some other group acts, then intervene and respond through established APA procedures; or 3) do nothing.

It was proposed that CPDCRA, SCRA and the Prevention Interest Group create a task force to track what’s going on and make recommendations on how these groups, collectively, should proceed.   Motions were made to ask Meg Bond (President of SCRA) to take this suggestion to SCRA Executive Council for their consideration and to ask the Prevention Interest Group to put it on their agenda.

Cary Cherniss was appointed to be the CPDCRA representative to the proposed three group task force.

b.  Consortium.   Cliff discussed what he saw as the next steps in establishing a consortium among community graduate programs based on discussions during the Board’s Pre-Session on Training at the Biennial Conference.  These steps included:

1)  Put together a flyer/brochure on the various free-standing community psychology programs that could be given/sent to students who apply to any of the free-standing programs.
2)  Explore the possibility of future multi-site collaborative research among interested consortium participants.  A suggestion was made to have the Board obtain information on what faculty at various programs were doing on an annual basis for this purpose.  Related questions could be included in the Council’s Annual Survey.
3)  Build in a reminder about the Consortium into the Council’s Annual Survey of program directors.
4)  Use e-mail to keep programs up to date on the Consortium.
5)  Explore funding options to support a structure for the Consortium. One suggestion made was exploring SCRA and APA for this possibility.
6)  Schedule further discussion on the Consortium during the Biennial.  Note: a follow-up meeting for all interested was scheduled and held  Friday, May 29, 1997 at 5:15 p.m.

Business Meeting held on May 31, 1997

Meeting began at 12:12 p.m. and ended at approximately 1:55p.m.

In attendance:   Cary Cherniss, Marc Goldstein, David Lounsbury, Greg Meissen, Cliff O’Donnell, and Leah Gensheimer.

Prior to the start of the meeting, an agenda was generated containing the following items:

1.  Mid-Winter Meeting
2.  Report on the Council of Chairs Meeting (Cliff)
3.  Board Treasurer Election and Report & Status of  Budget
4.  CPDCRA Web Page
5.  Consortium
6.  Community Reading List
7.  Prevention as a Subspecialty
8.  Diversity Statement
9.  Jobs of Exemplar Community Graduates

The following is a summary of the discussions which transpired surrounding these agenda items and the Board decisions.

1.  Mid-Winter Meeting.   A discussion was held surrounding the location of the Council’s next mid-winter meeting (i.e., 1998).  Budget concerns were raised, and the Council recognized that efforts needed to be taken to minimize the costs of the next business meeting.  Two options were proposed:  a) instead of convening a meeting, hold a conference call meeting or b) identify a meeting location that would involve reduced cost, e.g., a location “home to” one Board member or one where at least one member’s travel expenses could be picked up by some other entity.  Cary suggested New Brunswick, which would save on his travel expense and where a university room could be secured to hold our meeting at no cost.  It was agreed that this would be a good location.  Cary offered to look into this possibility.  The date for the Mid-Winter Meeting was set for Saturday, February 28, 1997.

2.  Report on the Council of Chairs of Training Councils (CCTC) Meeting.  Cliff presented several important issues raised at the CCTC meeting.

a.  Large federal moneys (estimates of 5-6 billion dollars) have been targeted for medical school education and training.  The idea that psychology should qualify for some of these funds was raised and that APA plans to lobby for this.

b. The internship crisis was another concern discussed by the CCTC.  A conference is scheduled for the Fall of 1997 wherein representatives/delegates from each division affected by this issue will be invited to participate and to outline and discuss the issue.  The CCTC does not see increasing the number of internship slots as the solution to this problem; rather, programs will need to cut back on the number of applications accepted.  Further, it was suggested that schools may have to start informing potential students of the status of employment opportunities (i.e., the job market) once they secure their degrees.

3.  Board Treasurer Election and Treasurer’s Report & Status of Budget.

a.  Election.  The election of the Treasurer was postponed from the Mid-Winter Meeting till the present meeting, so the newly elected Board members (i.e., from the Spring elections) would be eligible to participate in the election process.  In her absence, Pat O’Conner was nominated and unanimously elected as Treasurer.  Congratulations!  Cary will contact Pat about the vote and ask if she accepts the position.

b. Treasurer’s Report & Status of  Budget.  Treasurer Marc Goldstein distributed copies of the treasure report which included a detailed listing of Council expenditures and income for the 1996 and 1997 calendar years.  Overall, the financial status of the Council is not very good.  The balance on January 1, 1997 was $3,178.97; however, expenditures to date were $3,037.85, making a balance of $338.94 (as of May 28, 1997).    All but $21.50 of 1997 expenditures were related to the 1997 Mid-Winter Meeting.

Since the account balance dropped below $1,000,  service fees of $10.00/month plus .$30 per check have been incurred.   Several  Board members commented on how some banks have less service fees and are willing to negotiate this.  Marc volunteered to check into this and see what other banking options the Council may want to pursue.

Concern was raised over the current low balance of the CPDCRA budget (i.e., $338.94).  The past Mid-Winter Meeting was more expensive than past ones, contributing to the budget’s current status.  Marc’s budget projections for next year (based on the receipt of 1997 dues) was $2,100.  It is for this reason that creative alternatives for the 1998 Mid-Winter Meeting were proposed and are being considered.  See agenda item 1.  Mid-Winter Meeting.

4.  CPDCRA Web Page.  David provided an update on the status of the web page (see related agenda item from notes on the Open Session of May 28, 1997).  A round of thanks was extended to David Loundsbury for all the work he has done setting this up. David suggested building links to APA and SCRA.  Other ideas proposed were:  a) making links to university websites (i.e., Council members’ institutions), and b) adding functional descriptions of Executive Board’s positions (e.g., Chair, Treasurer, etc.)  and what interest they represent.  It was agreed that the web page may become a nice incentive for institutions to join the Council.  David requested the Board to direct future comments, suggestions and feedback on the web page directly to him.

5.  Consortium.  Cliff summarized discussions and outcomes of the Consortium follow-up meeting held May 29, 1997.  One of the immediate activities of this meeting was for interested programs to prepare descriptions of what their institutions have to offer in way of student exchange opportunities, and forward this information to Cliff by September 1, 1997.  Cliff will compile this information for a flyer and put it on the web page.  Also, Cliff requested that programs check into what opportunities are available at their institution for long distance learning.

6.  Revised Community Reading List.   Cliff stressed that the reading list was not designed to be comprehensive, but rather to highlight major topics and articles in the field.  Factors determining the deletion of articles on the original list were based on a) the publication year/date of the article and b) whether a newer article had been published that captured the essence of the earlier piece.  Cliff requested everyone to review the list and provide him with feedback.  The Reading List will be put on the website.

7.  Prevention as a Subspecialty.  Cary discussed the outcome of the CPDCRA’s request  for the Executive Council of SCRA to discuss the “prevention as a subspecialty issue” and the suggestions raised during the CPDCRA Open Session of May 28, 1997 (see agenda item 7a. from that session).  A task force was established to determine what actions would be taken by SCRA and the CPDCRA.  The task force membership includes:  Melvin Wilson (SCRA representative), Ray Lorion (Prevention Interest Group), Heather Barton (Student representative), and Cary Cherniss (CPDCRA representative).  Cary mentioned that the task force will be proceeding quickly in order to be on top of the situation by the APA Conference in August.

8.  Diversity Statement.   Several resources and key people knowledgeable in the area of diversity were mentioned.  Marc mentioned an organization called a World of Difference offers diversity training and has an office in every state.  Cris Sullivan at Michigan State University is currently teaching a course on diversity.  Cliff had contacted two experts on the topic, Shelly Harrell and Roland Tharpe.  Harrell (Chair of SCRA Committee on Racial and Cultural Affairs) was pleased to hear that the Council is planning to address this  and is willing to offer her services.  Tharpe has put forth a concept of “cultural compatibility”.   He suggested that the Council:  a) develop a reading list on “Cultural Compatibility” and b) establish a resource list of people around the country who would be willing to serve as consultants.  Tharpe has a list of people that could serve as a starting point.  It was stated that the CPDCRA web site would be a logical place to post this information.

9.  Jobs of Exemplar Community Graduates.   A discussion surrounding means of identifying the types of positions recent graduates of community programs have secured, and who we might profile on the CPDCRA web site was discussed.  As mentioned during the Open Session of May 28, 1997, it was determined that the Council would include items on the annual survey asking Directors to provide a brief profile of recent exemplar graduates.  Other suggestions included contacting David Julian who is working on a similar project for the Applied Interest Group and Joe Galano who is writing an article on jobs and careers in community psychology.  Leah agreed to follow-up on these leads.

The meeting concluded with acknowledgment that Greg Meissen and Marc Goldstein were completing their terms on the Council.   A formal thank you and statements of appreciation were made to Greg Meissen and Marc Goldstein for all their work on the Council during their terms.

10. Adjourn.   Meeting was adjourned at approximately  1:55 p.m