TO: Members of the Executive Board of the Council of Community Psychology Program Directors (CCPPD)

FROM: Melvin N. Wilson, Secretary

RE: The minutes from the Mid-Winter Executive Meeting of the CommunityPsychology Directors' Board of February 4, 1995 (Submitted to board forreview on April 24, 1995; corrected and redistributed June 1, 1995).

On February 4, 1995, the Executive Board met for the mid-winter meeting. Those present included Arthur Reynolds, Cliff O'Donnell (Treasurer), Rebecca (Becki) Campbell (Student Representative), Cathy Stein (Chair), Marc Goldstein, Greg Meissen and me, Melvin Wilson (Secretary). The following items represent a summary of our discussions and decisions.

1. Student Representatives. Questions regarding the voting status of the student representative were considered. After a discussion, a motion and second were made to change the by-laws such that the student representative would have the vote. The motion was approved by voting members to take effect immediately.

2. Election of new Officers. Cliff O'Donnell, Marc Goldstein, and Arthur Reynolds agreed to serve as Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary respectfully.

3. Treasurer's Report. Cliff O'Donnell reported that the balance at the end of 1993 was $4,679. The balance at the end of last year was $4,138.There are 29 dues-paying institutional members and 6 dues-paying individuals. We discussed a membership recruitment strategy and approved negotiating past dues accounts with institutional members. We considered raising dues, but tabled the motion.

4. Strategies for increasing membership. We discussed at length ways to increase our membership. Art proposed to use the human development mailing list to see if there were departments who here close enough to our interest. Marc suggested that we check out the action research network sponsored by Cornell University. We will also compare our membership list with the Society's List. At the biennial we will include our brochure and invite potential members. This strategy involves checking the biennial list with our own and inviting those who aren't on our list.

5. Annual survey of membership. Similar to our first survey of membership, each member will be contacted via phone before the next midwinter meeting. We spent a great deal of time reviewing and discussing our telephone conversations with liaisons about the status of their community psychology programs. Overall, the programs appear to be maintaining a steady course. Some programs have experienced real growth and expansion (Penn State and South Carolina), others no longer sponsored a community psychology program, and still others were experiencing declining enrollment and interest.--- has agreed to summarize the results and provide information to ________ who will write the community psychologist article. The target date is _______ to coordinate with annual mailing. (I don't have the volunteers for these assignments).

6. Student Perspective. Becki Campbell talked about 3 issues that emerged from student discussions. Recruiting new students: she talked at length about graduate concerns about teaching and recruiting undergraduates about community psychology. Graduate students wanted a strong effort made by faculty to continue to offer courses and recruit undergraduates into the field. There was much discussion about job issues. How do young professionals position themselves for jobs in academic, medical, and/or applied settings? Professional members need to assist emerging members with this. More emphasis on training programs that deal with placement in entry level jobs, professional development, and mentoring process.

Another issue involves the difficulty of organization-wide communication among students. Communication that does exist is pretty informal and infrequent. The student newsletter, conferences and e-mail system are potential avenues for student communication, but students are not taking advantage of these opportunities. Help from programs are needed to promote these avenues of student communications. Also, specific assistance should include a network among recently graduated students, a student e-mail network, and lists of graduate students in the various community psychology programs. Increased communication among graduate students could foster help in locating internships, externships, and job opportunities, and enlightening contacts with key community psychologists and leaders.

A final concern involved students getting information from Division27 and Plenum Press. Graduate students were frustrated by the in consistent and delayed patterns in receiving important organizational documents. It was suggested that they contact Jean Ann Linney and Bill Davidson for the newsletter and the journal respectively.

7. Survey Cycles. We discussed the cycle of surveying community psychology training programs. A regular surveying cycle should not be difficult since it is can be updated from the prior survey. It was decided that the major survey will be done every 4 years starting with 1995. The minor survey will be completed on the off-biennial years starting with 1997, and then 2001 and so on. Greg Meissen has agreed to serve as editor of the 1995 and 1999 major surveys. The Board will need to develop a dissemination and distribution plan. The delivery date for the completed write up of the survey to the Community Psychologist April, 1995.

8. Book Project: We discussed the importance of completing this project. It was agreed that a reading list for textbook authors was critical for the inclusion of a community psychological perspective in current psychology introductory textbooks. A draft Reading list was presented and approved. Cliff O'Donnell agreed to send the List to publishers and authors.

9. Student internship and job information. Art and Greg discussed various outlets available for student internship and job opportunities. It was clear from their discussion that programs and the Council needed to do more in the way of identifying such opportunities. Possible leads include: a) research andstudy institute e.g., Chapin Hall Institute and Urban Institute, b) fellowship program, e.g., APA and SRCD Congressional Fellows, c) center research, e.g., UIU and ASU Prevention Centers, and d) resource guides.

10. It was agreed that Art and Cliff should continue to compile examples of contributions to "basic" knowledge from "applied" research for the purpose of showing that the distinction between basic and applied research in human psychology is increasingly dated and invalid.