2005 Minutes

Minutes of Eastern Psychological Association 2005 Board of Director’s Meeting

3:30 – 7:30 March 10, 2005

Gardner Room, Boston Sheraton Hotel

Call to order

In attendance:

Members of Board

Mark Bouton, Stanley Weiss, Peter Balsam, Arnold Glass, Sam Cameron, John Hogan, Susan Dutch, Lorraine Allan, Ted Bosack, Lynn Collins, Ruth Colwill, Jeffery Fagen, Sarah Leibowitz, Harold Takooshian, Debra Zellner:

Guests:

Philip Hineline, Norine Jalbert, Ralph Miller, Robert Sternberg, Jean Kelleher (APA)

Absent:

Sarah Leibowitz (Conflict with Neuroscience), Wendy Hill (Emergency Child Care Responsibilities)

Report of elections committee and introductions

Philip Hineline will be the next President-Elect. Norine Jalbert, Ralph Miller, and Robert Sternberg have been elected to the Board of Directors.

New Appointments.

Joseph Ferrari is the new Treasurer.

Wade Pickren is the new Historian

John Ackroff is the new Webmaster.

Program Committee has added Byron Nelson (Animal) Steve Sloman (Cognitive) and Vincent Prohaska (Teaching)

Approval of past minutes

Minutes approved

Representative of APA Science Directorate, Jean Kelleher

Jean Kelleher described new APA initiatives Psy21 and Reach Out. Asked for input on these initiatives. Thought that there could be collaboration. There will be a science leadership conference. Comments can be sent to website. Also gave us some neat pens.

Bouton: Bearish or bullish on funding?

Kelleher: Funding is uncertain.

Treasurer’s Report

Compilation report by accountant distributed at meeting. EPA ran a surplus in 03/04 instead of the projected $2,000 deficit in Washington. This was probably because a tight rein was kept on expenses. So the Board again can consider Washington as a possible future site. Net worth varies around $289,000. So we are in good financial shape. We have been successful in collecting late dues, which has recently resulted in larger income than expected.

Bob Sternberg: What does the disclaimer mean?

Cameron: It means that they didn’t check the raw data we gave them closely. That would require a full audit, which would be too expensive for us (over $6,000).

Sternberg: Why is there a loss on investment?

Cameron: The value of our mutual funds went down. This is not a real loss because we haven’t cashed them in..

Sternberg: We should have a finance committee to protect ourselves.

Cameron: Idea of more of a committee structure is a good one.

Sternberg: We need for the Board to put in the time for finance committee.

Allan: Moves finance committee, consisting of Treasurer and two others. Would over-see investments and review how budgeting is done.

Motion seconded and passed unanimously. Ferrari, Sternberg, Jalbert, and Weiss appointed to committee.

Membership Committee

Weiss: We need a membership committee. The whole Board should be put into action furthering goals of organization. One of the Presidents should be on the committee.

Allan: Membership committee should have an initial report.

Weiss: Initial report in three months.

Bouton: Roughly June 15^th.

The EPA membership committee was approved unanimously.. Members of the committee are the Past President of EPA (Bouton), the EPA Executive Officer (Glass) and two EPA Board members (Colwill, Jalbert). The committee was charged to develop strategies and programs to recruit new members, to retain current members, and to increase participation at the annual meeting. The committee was asked to make a report to the entire Board by June 2005

Executive Officer’s Report

EO acknowledged that due to his mistakes membership would be down at least 100 from previous year. In the coming year, the on-line registration and interface with Verisign would make these mistakes impossible. Each member will be responsible for maintaining their own contact information and will be able to check at any time what payments from them have been recorded. Members will be able to have their dues automatically deducted from their credit card accounts.

Program Committee

Hogan: John Norcross might be clinical member.

Weiss: Area of each committee member should be indicated on program. Perhaps committee should be bigger to include more areas.

Dutch: The appointment of teaching area member is new. We never had one before.

Invited Speakers

Compensation

Glass: Invited Speakers should have their out-of-pocket expenses fully reimbursed. This means that an invited speaker should get up to 3 nights (if he or she attends the entire meeting), up to $500 in transportation, and a $250 honorarium.

Cameron: These terms should be clearly stated in the invitation to the speaker.

Approved unanimously.

Named lectures

Cameron: Founders names need to be put back in the program, as we promised when they donated the money.

Cameron: The endowment will still grow if we offer one of the three lectures each year.

Hogan: We need to start having these lectures or we are liars.

Motion – Next year we will have a Sexton or Keller lecture.

Approved unanimously

Membership criteria

The confusing nature of the membership criteria were discussed.

Motion: Change one year of graduate study in psychology-related field to graduate student in psychology.

Weiss: Thought this would be lowering the standards.

Passed: All except one in favor

In order to bring the bylaws into compliance with the actual practice in admitting new members, the EO (Glass) recommended the following change in the bylaws.

Motion -

Delete III 1 [c], which currently reads: holding membership in an organization with membership standards which require contributions to and involvements in the psychological sciences equivalent t or exceeding [b] above. (Such organizations shall be approved by the Board of Directors and a list of them shall be maintained by the Executive Officer.

Change the following in III 5:

For persons applying under [a] or [b] of 1., an application shall contain information about the applicant’s academic and professional history and scientific publications as prescribed by the Members through the Directors, and it shall be endorsed by at least two members, one of whom shall have been a Member for at least (5) years.

To: A membership application shall contain sufficient information to verify that an applicant meets the qualifications for membership under [a] or [b], above.

The motion was approved unanimously. Since this is a change in the bylaws, it will also have to be approved by the membership. This can be done at the business meeting, by mail ballot, or by internet vote.

Dues

Glass; The current two-fee system, including late fees, is understood by almost no one, is expensive to administer and makes accurate record keeping difficult. Between February 9 and February 24 the Treasurer was forced to inform 81 members or student members that they had paid the wrong amount. (The most common error was paying the registration fee but not paying the dues.) I recommend going to a simplified system.

Motion for Simplified Fee – Member dues will be $35. Member registration will be $25 until February 28 and $40 thereafter. Affiliate dues will be $25 and affiliate registration will be free. Nonmember registration will be $75. Student nonmember registration will be $25.

Approved Unanimously

Review of Executive Officer’s performance in the first year

It was agreed to increase EO’s annual compensation from $12,000 to $14,000

Dues, registration, and preregistration

Simplified fee system approved.

Motion to adjourn approved.