Meeting began at 9:05 am and ended at 4:00 pm. In attendance were Cliff O'Donnell, Marc Goldstein, Greg Meissen, Arthur Reynolds, Cary Cherniss, and Leah Gensheimer.

1. Welcome. Chair Cliff O'Donnell welcomes the Board members and distributes the meeting agenda.

2. Approval of minutes. Secretary Arthur Reynolds distributed final copies of minutes from the June 1995 meeting. After a motion, the minutes were unanimously approved.

3. Treasurer's report. Treasurer Marc Goldstein distributed the balance sheet of Council operations. The balance on January 1, 1996 was $3,358.57;on January 1, 1995 it was $4,144.63. Income generated during 1995 was$2,836.52 and expenditures were $3,622.40. Council has received dues from 19 of 30 institutions and from 3 of 5individual members.

A question was raised concerning how large of a pool of institutions the Council has collected dues from. The size of the pool could be small to moderate, depending on how we define the pool. Certainly, a larger pool of programs is desirable, especially given the broad focus of community psychology. Marc asked if interest income of approximately $56 is reportable to the IRS. Affirmative is the answer. The report was unanimously accepted.

4. By-Laws/Council practice conflict. Eleven possible conflicts were indicated and copies of these were distributed. Possible conflicts are as follows with Board responses.

1. The individual directly responsible for training in community psychology is eligible for Board membership (III, 1). Also note that "interdisciplinary programs" (III, 1)and "generic kinds of training programs in community psychology" (III, 3)are undefined.

Response. Board members agreed that these are major issues to resolve. By-laws should clearly indicate that membership on the Council is not limited to community psychology programs and that interdisciplinary should be defined better. All agreed that the Council should be interdisciplinary and attract members with similar interests as community psychology such as human development, social work & welfare, and anthropology. The larger issue discussed was whether the name of the Council should be changed to reflect the interdisciplinary interests in training in community research. The term "community psychology" may be too narrowly focused.

Arthur agreed to make recommendations on changes to by-laws and to explore alternative titles for the Council. These titles should connote community research and action as much as possible because of relationship with Division 27.

2. Board members may serve two consecutive terms (IV, 2, c).Therefore, members completing their first term may be elected to a second term.

Response. Board will alter practice.

3. The Board Chair shall present a statement summarizing the affairs of the Council over the last year. (IV, 4, b).

Response. Board will alter practice. Cliff will prepare a written summary at the conclusion of his term in summer 1996.

4. The term of Secretary is two years (IV, 4, c).

5. The term of Treasurer is two years (IV, 4, d).

6. The Mid-Winter meeting needs to be announced to the Council membership at least four weeks prior to such meeting. (IV, 5, a).

Response. Board will change practice. Cliff put out message on the mailer prior to meeting. Board also agreed to invite geographically-close members to midwinter meetings in the future.

7. Election to offices needs to be by secret, written, ballot (IV, 5,g). Response. Board will change practice.

8. Elections to the Board need to occur after the mid-winter meeting with ballots received by June 1 (V, 2, b).

Response. Amend to indicate elections will occur after the mid-winter meeting with ballots received by May 1 (rather than June 1).

9. In addition to mid-winter meetings, there is supposed to be an annual business meeting at APA each year with Council members included (VI,1). Response. Board will recommend that Council amend so that meetings will occur at biennial rather than at APA.

10. Dues for the following year are payable by the annual business meeting at APA. Response. From now on, dues will be sent on October 1 and will be payable by January 1.

11. Amendments to the By-Laws must be voted on by the Council (XI).

Response. Board will change practice.

5. Elections. Chair-Elect Greg Meissen will run the election this spring. Both election ballots and by-law changes will be mailed separately.

Since Cliff's and Arthur's term is up, two new members need to be elected. By written and secret ballot, the Board elected Cary Cherniss as Chair-Elect and Leah Gensheimer as Secretary-Elect. The votes were unanimous (6 to O). Congratulations.

On a related matter, Cliff agreed to attend the March 1996 meeting of the APA Board of Education Affairs. Irwin Sandler started this practice and Board agreed this should be continued.

Cliff raised the possibility that the Mid-winter meeting also could be held in Washington in March and would have the advantage of saving the Council money. APA pays for the Council Chair's trip.

6. Student issues. Student rep Becki Campbell (not in attendance) will bestepping down. Another will need to be elected in 1996.

Several new issues were raised by discussions among students at the1995 biennial. (a) student column in the student newsletter needs to be filled more often, (b) student listserve is not used very much by students, (c) eco-community conferences are not very well attended, (d) in response to job market concerns, several students are keeping track of their job search procedures (a summary will be put together by summer), (e) students are interested in information on community-based practicum, and (f) what is the status of accreditation and the specialization in prevention?

In response to (c), it was recommended that student rep link up with national student coordinator for Division 27 at Arizona State. In response to (e), sending information on courses at different universities would be helpful.

Finally, some new activities were suggested. First, students would like greater coverage of cultural and racial issues in the curriculum. Second, students are interested in having a web site. See item 15 below for responses to these issues.

7. Minor survey of community Programs. Cliff reported his conversation with Cathy Stein about the necessity of sending another survey to Council members before the major survey in l999. Cathy indicated that it would be a good idea.

In discussion, it was agreed that the existing survey information should be better disseminated before another survey is attempted. The Board agreed that dissemination should be emphasized through preparing a summary for the APA Monitor. To facilitate, Cliff will ask the Division 27 president to contact Monitor editor and will try to get SCRA to pay for and distribute a special issue of the survey and send it to Psi Chi, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the NASW Newsletter (in addition to APA Monitor). Moreover, Cliff will report survey findings in his summary statement this summer. The special journal issue on training also will help disseminate information on community programs.

8. Uses of community reading list. Cary and Leah discussed ways to distribute the readings list that was previously sent to textbook publishers. Recommendations included (a) send to program directors and Council members and (b) put on listserve or webpage (if one is created). Both were approved. Cliff agreed to put the reading list on the SCRA listserve. Other possible uses were discussed including assisting prospective graduate students as well as non-academicians. Further suggestions should be directed to Cary. Updating readings list will be addressed in the future.

9. Recruitment of community programs. Marc contacted the Participatory Action Research listserve at Cornell University and mailed applications to prospective members. Arthur reported that applications were mailed to several human development programs. Both agreed to follow-up on applications that were sent out.

Cliff presented a proposal for involving individual members on the executive Board and that a representative would join the Board meetings. This may help in the development of new community programs. Board unanimously agreed to the proposal. Three programs were unanimously approved as institutional Council members-University of Waikato in New Zealand and the Departments of Social Work and Child & Family Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

10. Accreditation & Specialization Issues. Cliff indicated that the APA Board of Directors has accepted the new accreditation/specialization document. There was a discussion of the role of the Council in discussing future directions for accreditation in community psych and related areas. Among the questions arising were whether programs can apply for a specialization without accreditation and if the Council should take amore active role in considering these issues. The consensus was that the Board will coordinate discussion of this issue with Division 27 as the process unfolds and that further discussion will continue at the next meeting. The Board will coordinate with SCRA on an open meeting at the next biennial on accreditation and specialization issues. Of course, if the Council becomes more interdisciplinary, accreditation/specialization issues may be moot.

11. Consortium Possibility. Overall, the reports from the different program areas indicated a fairly strong interest in developing and implementing the consortium concept within the Council. In the master's programs, Marc reported positive reactions from the programs he contacted. One issue raised was that faculty/student exchanges may pose difficulties in implementation, especially student exchanges given the local needs that most students try to satisfy. Leah reported that interest among the free-standing programs was high and that most would contribute as much as possible. Two issues that arose were that student program exchanges were not feasible and that admission deadlines across schools are different. This would need to be taken into account.

Greg and Cary reported that the community/clinical programs by and large thought the consortium concept was a good idea and could be implemented well. Faculty exchanges, cooperation in admissions, and information exchange among programs could occur on a regular basis. The possibility of a meeting among program directors was raised. Arthur discussed the community/other programs and reported that programs contacted were positive about the idea, especially on information exchanges among programs. The implementation of faculty/student exchange, and cooperation in admissions would need further consideration. It also was evident that the commitment among programs to the consortium will vary substantially.

The Board agreed to the following: (1) try to hold a meeting of program directors as a follow-up. Cliff and Cary agreed to get involved; Cliff will ask Bob Newbrough to get involved with the possibility of meeting at Vanderbilt. Ray Lorion was identified as another individual who would be interested. To facilitate information exchange, Greg agreed to send out program descriptions to all Council members. Marc agreed to put together example course syllabi for distribution as well.

12. Special Issue on Community Programs. There was a discussion about the requirements of the articles for the special issue of the Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community. An outline of the special issue was distributed. Authors agreed to the following: (1)manuscripts will be no longer than 20 pages (including references), (2) they will describe programs and provide case studies with interviews of former students, (3) authors will provide as much information as possible on how to develop programs, and (4) authors will include a table of programs within each chapter.

13. Cultural/Ethnic/Race Differences. In response to a request from the SCRA Cultural Affairs Committee about the lack of coverage of race/ethnicity, the Board discussed a number of possible responses. These included (1) requiring courses in race/ethnicity within the community program, (2) covering race/ethnic topics within existing courses, (3) encourage student teaching and discussion sections about race/ethnicity, and (4) encourage students to enroll in courses in departments that provide courses on the topic such as sociology or Afro-American Studies.

In recognition of the importance of these issues, the Board prepared the following statement:

The Executive Board of the Council of Community Psychology Program Directors strongly believes that all community psychology training programs should include high quality, competent training in cultural, ethnic, racial, and gender differences. The Board recognizes that the means used to provide this training will differ from program to program and may include required courses, integration within service courses, inclusion in comprehensive examinations, etc. To facilitate training related to cultural diversity, the Executive Board has begun to develop a collection of various strategies which community programs can use, and the Board will make this information available so that programs can use the most appropriate ones.

14. WEB Site. Board discussed developing a WEB site in coordination with SCRA. Because it requires significant effort, it was suggested that the Council hire a graduate assistant or staff member to work on it. Cliff agreed to try to identify possible individuals at his institution and will sent out a note on the listserve. The Board agreed to discuss further.

15. Elections Process. Chair-Elect Greg Meissen will be running the elections process in the spring for two new Council members. Cliff's and Arthur's term is up. The terms will be for free-standing community and community/other. Greg will send out ballots on March 15, 1996.

16. Summer Meeting. Because no one on the Board will be attending the APA meetings in August, a telephone conference of Board members was suggested for the week of July 15, 1996. Greg will send a note to members by April15 to confirm a day and time.