Division 49 Board Minutes

2023 Division 49 Board Meeting

October 23, 2023 Via Zoom

Attendees Present: 

Noelle Lefforge**, President	Nathaniel Wade*, Domain Rep, Group Practice
Amy Nitza*, Past President	Rita Rivera*, Student Rep
Francis Kaklauskas*, President-Elect	Michele Ribeiro*, Council Rep
Amy Black*, Secretary	Giorgio Tasca, Editor, Group Dynamics
Debra O’Connell*, Treasurer Aziza Belcher Platt*, Domain Rep, Education Eric Chen*, Domain Rep, Diversity VACANT*, Domain Rep, ECP David Marcus*, Domain Rep, Group Psychology	Thomas Treadwell, Editor, The Group Psychologist Shala Cole, Membership Committee Vinny Dehili, Program Chair Leann Diederich, Chair, Foundation Committee

*Voting member per division bylaws

**Voting member only in the case of a tie per division bylaws

In attendance at start of meeting:

Noelle Lefforge Francis Kaklauskas Amy Black Vinny Dehili Leo Wilton David Marcus David Chirko Ronn Johnson

Rita Rivera Tom Treadwell Nathaniel Wade Eric Chen Shala Cole Les Greene Debra O’Connell Michele Ribeiro Stacy Graves Misha Bogomaz

Dr. Lefforge

Dr. Lefforge welcomed the group. Dr. Kaklauskas led introductions.

Dr. Black (Minutes Approval)

Minutes for April, June, and August were voted on. Motion by Eric and seconded by Francis. Approved unanimously with no abstentions.

Dr. Lefforge (Board Staffing)

Dr. Lefforge stated our ECP position is still vacant. The board needs to fill the vacancy; the person would take over the remaining part of the term (remainder of 2023 + next two years). Dr. Wade discussed a potential candidate: Kayla Wang. Dr. Wade moved and Debra seconded to elect Kayla to the ECP position. It passed unanimously. Dr. Wade will reach out to her and will let Francis know if she is willing to move forward.

Dr. Lefforge revisited the topic of hiring a paid staff member for the board, such as an ED. Dr. Kaklauskas discussed his findings based on the research he has been doing on this since the last board meeting. He noted many other divisions use a paid ED and indicated he recommends we do so as well. Dr. Ribeiro added it would free up time for the president especially, which would help with the transition to the two-year presidency. Dr. Bogomaz asked about the cost of an ED to the board; Dr. Kaklauskas noted with the agencies he spoke to it is generally about $45-50/hr with a minimum of $20k billed per year. He noted some boards pay up to $70k per year. Dr. Kaklauskas noted that we could also hire someone ourselves, though the agencies do have some benefits. Dr. Marcus expressed concern that the “buffet” option may make the board hesitant to utilize them and recommended creating a job description. Dr. Lefforge suggested timeline/deadlines, election administration, awards administration, website administration, file keeping and archives, and assisting with convention planning would be minimum duties. Dr. Chen added help with CE administration would be useful. Dr. Johnson noted an ED would be helpful with institutional memory for the division. Dr. O’Connell expressed that we likely have room in our budget, though our return to in person events will likely mean an increase in some of our expenses compared with pandemic years. She checked the budget and confirmed the board does have room in the budget. Dr. Lefforge noted that if the ED helped to increase membership and CE events, it could help pay for itself to some extent. Dr. Kaklauskas suggested forming a committee to discuss job description. Dr. Lefforge suggested the board approve up to $30k to start. Board discussed. Dr. Wade motioned and Dr. Ribeiro seconded to approve $30,000 for a year, with the intention of getting this person started sooner than January. The motion passed unanimously. Drs. Kaklauskas, Lefforge, and O’Connell agreed to form a committee to discuss the job description. Dr. Kaklauskas agreed to chair. They will send a proposed job description to the board via email.

Dr. Cole (Membership Committee)

Dr. Cole shared that the membership is 402 members total currently; 74% are renewing members and 26% are new. We already have people renewing for next year. We have many exempt members who do not pay fees, but we are also getting a lot of new members. Dr. Cole reported she has closed the institute due to not having any new mentors. She requested the board forward interested mentors to her. Dr. Cole will be meeting with the new membership and DEIB reps to discuss the future of the institute.

Left meeting: Dr. Marcus, Dr. Cole, Dr. Green

Dr. Lefforge welcomed Dr. Graves as the incoming membership chair. Dr. Ribeiro encouraged board members to consider mentoring in the institute and noted it is not too heavy of a burden. Dr. Graves expressed eagerness to continue with the institute.

Left meeting: Dr. Dehili

Dr. Lefforge (EBGT Website, Research Domain Rep)

Dr. Treadwell noted the website is live at evidencebasedgrouptherapy.org. Dr. Lefforge will reach out to web services to link to our website.

Dr. Lefforge advised the board to consider adding a research domain rep, and this person could be the clear representative for the steering committee for the EBGT website. Dr. Lefforge indicated adding a research domain rep would be a bylaws change—must be approved by board and then approved by the membership. This does not have to be coordinated by APA. We could have the position filled the next election cycle (February, 2024). Board discussed potential duties for the position. Dr. Lefforge volunteered to draft bylaws language. She recommended it be approved by MWM, and noted the board could approve/finalize the duties at MWM and then submit candidates for election after MWM. The first person elected would start January 2025. We may be able to elect an interim person. The board discussed that this may be a time-consuming position and perhaps would be better as a paid, non-voting position. Dr. Lefforge suggested starting with a board position and considering alternatives in the future. The board expressed general support.

Dr. Lefforge (CE Committee)

As Dr. Belcher Platt was unable to attend, Dr. Lefforge reviewed the updates she submitted via email prior to the meeting regarding the speaker agreement draft that is ready to be reviewed, and the last CE of 2023, which will be given by Dr. Martyn Whittingham and his colleagues. Dr. Lefforge reminded the board we have set funds aside for CE honorariums.

Left meeting: Dr. Johnson, Dr. Bogomaz

Dr. Lefforge noted some divisions do ore-convention conferences before APA convention; this is something the board has explored in the past and may be interested in revisiting.

Dr. Kaklauskas

Dr. Kaklauskas thanked Dr. Lefforge for her service to the board; board members joined in offering thanks as Dr. Lefforge rotates off the board.

Left meeting-Dr. Lefforge

Dr. Chirko indicated he has an idea for a T-shirt design he would like to show the board; Dr. Treadwell agreed to forward the design to the listserv.

Dr. Kaklauskas (Publication Committee)

Dr. Kaklauskas reported on his research regarding various publisher options for the journal contract and stated that APA appears to be the best option in terms of reach and resources. He noted they agreed to increase the stipend for the editor, and will increase more if we get 100 submissions (last year we got 88). He expressed support for Dr. Marcus’s suggestion to sign the next contract for 7 years rather than 5 or 10. Dr. O’Connell moved to sign the new contract with APA for 7 years, Dr. Wade seconded. Motion was unanimously approved.

Dr. Kaklaukas (Midwinter Meeting)

Dr. Kaklauskas stated MWM will be held in Kansas City and expressed hope that as many board members as possible can attend in person. Expenses will be prepaid (room, flights, meals) and transportation to and from airport will be reimbursed.

Dr. Kaklauskas requested the board consider the group as specialty rep attend the MWM. Dr. O’Connell moved to fund and invite the group as specialty rep to attend the MWM. Dr. Wade seconded. Motion was unanimously approved.

Dr. Kaklauskas

The board said goodbye to Dr. Chen and Dr. Wade as they are rotating off the board.

Left meeting- Dr. Ribeiro, Dr. Rivera, Dr. Wilton, Dr. Chen

Future Items:

• Creating a standing CE Committee
• Position description for research domain rep

Return to Board Minutes

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2023 Division 49 Board Meeting

Αug 4, 2023

APA Conference – Live attendance – Marriott Marquis Hospitality Suite

Board Members: 

Noelle Lefforge**, President	Nathaniel Wade*, Domain Rep, Group Practice
Amy Nitza*, Past President	Rita Rivera*, Student Rep
Francis Kaklauskas*, President-Elect	Michele Ribeiro*, Council Rep
Amy Black*, Secretary	Giorgio Tasca, Editor, Group Dynamics
Debra O’Connell*, Treasurer Aziza Belcher Platt*, Domain Rep, Education Eric Chen*, Domain Rep, Diversity Katie White*, Domain Rep, ECP David Marcus*, Domain Rep, Group Psychology	Thomas Treadwell, Editor, The Group Psychologist Shala Cole, Membership Committee Vinny Dehili, Program Chair Leann Diederich, Chair, Foundation Committee

*Voting member per division bylaws

**Voting member only in the case of a tie per division bylaws

Meeting Minutes

Attendees present at start of meeting:

Board Members:

Noelle Lefforge

Aziza Belcher Platt

Francis Kaklauskas

Shala Rae Cole

Debra O’Connell

Eric Chen

Vinny Dehili

Leann Diederich

Members:

Misha Bogomaz

Martyn Whittingham

David Songco

**send out minutes**

EBGT-Dr. Lefforge

Dr. Lefforge indicated that we do need to host our own independent website for this purpose; we can link it to APA’s division website. Page Crafter would cost us $300 per year to host. We could also use this same platform to host the newsletter. It can’t go live until we purchase the domain.

Francis motioned, Eric seconded to approve Page Crafter hosting: all present voting members voted in favor. Motion passed.

Next step is to form a steering committee to take over development; Dr. Lefforge indicated we need to think about who to nominate to represent the division on the steering committee. There is not time in the board meeting to discuss this, so it will be a future meeting item.

CE PROGRAMMING-Dr. Belcher-Platt

Dr. Belcher-Platt noted we did get CESA approval. Dr. Belcher-Platt has drafted a speaker agreement and would like feedback. She noted that one speaker is lined up, and we are hoping for 1-2 more by end of year.

Dr. Diederich noted that we could use content from past popular division Facebook posts to create easy to produce CEs. Dr. Whittingham added that there seems to be a hunger for basic information and training that could be relatively easy for us to generate but well-attended.

Dr. Lefforge reminded us that CEs must be above graduate level, so we need to be careful in the marketing of “basics” CEs.

Dr. Dehili noted that convention programming seems to have been well-received and well-attended so far. The demo group went well, and volunteers were eager to participate. The board briefly discussed ideas for future CE events and convention programming.

PUBLISHING COMMITTEE-Dr. Kaklauskas

Dr. Lefforge expressed that we are far behind on this; the new and old contracts need to be compared to see if the terms have changed significantly. We needed to make sure that the pay rates haven’t decreased etc.

Attendance Change:

*Giorgio Tasca joined on Zoom*

Dr. Tasca does not have any information on the new contract, but noted he has encouraged the board to look into this. He agreed with Dr. Lefforge that we may end up wanting to stay with APA, but it is important for us to do due diligence to be sure we are happy with the conditions of the contract.

Dr. Tasca sent the most recent version of the contract to Dr. Marcus; Dr. Kaklauskas requested a copy sent to him and Dennis Kivlighan as well. Dr. Tasca was not sure if inaction would result in the contract being automatically renewed, but cautioned against this strategy as this would not allow us to negotiate. Dr. Tasca indicated that he would distribute the most recent version of the contract to the whole board.

Dr. Diederich wondered if there’s anything other than more funding that we would want to negotiate for; Dr. Tasca indicated that Dr. Kivlighan might have some ideas about this, but agreed that funding seems to be the main issue.

EDITOR SEARCH-Dr. Tasca

Dr. Tasca reported the committee has met; we have put out a call and got two great candidates for the position. Either would seem to be qualified for the position. The committee will meet again 8/7/23 to discuss interview questions and set up interviews for late August/early September to hopefully come up with a recommendation soon after. The committee has yet to discuss recommendations for increasing editor stipend but plans to do so.

Dr. Tasca added a quick update on the journal–impact factor for past two years remains above 3. Will likely drop a bit next year due to content. We have seen an uptick in submissions. APA has not sent their most recent journal report to us, so he does not have further information at this time. Drs. Tasca and Lefforge will work to schedule a meeting with the APA rep.

Dr. Diederich suggested inviting authors of most valuable paper nominees to do 1-hour CE presentations. Dr. Tasca will send the list to Dr. Belcher-Platt.

Dr. Tasca is in his position until the end of the year, with the new editor starting at the beginning of 2024 for a transition year. Dr. Tasca will be fully done at the end of 2024.

Dr. O’Connell noted our royalty payment was over $57k this year, which is higher than past years.

Attendance Change:

*Giorgio Tasca left meeting.*

PAID BOARD MEMBERS-Dr. Lefforge

Dr. Lefforge led the board in discussion of hiring an executive director and noted this would help take the administrative load off the president and also assist with continuity from year to year. When other organizations she has been a part of have used EDs, she has seen this be very helpful. We seem to be in a financially secure position enough to consider this.

The board discussed how having an ED could help to take administrative load off of many board members, and could also help the board be more efficient and profitable. Dr. Lefforge recommended forming a small ad hoc committee to take a look at options and consult with other similarly sized boards that have paid staff. She will send out an email after convention to recruit committee members; Drs. Bogomaz and O’Connell both expressed interest.

Dr. Cole noted we are growing and currently have over 400 members; we need to think about how this will mean increased organizational tasks.

Dr. Chen raised possibility of grad student as paid ED; board discussed briefly pros and cons of this and suggested perhaps ED could have a grad student assistant.

The board agreed to meet for one more board meeting in the fall.

Dr. Songco recommended starting to create lists of administrative tasks.

Dr. Whittingham reminded the board that we can pay APA to have a few national press releases per year through their news wire.

TOWN HALL- Dr. Lefforge

Dr. Lefforge expressed one of her main interests in the town hall is exploring relationship between group psychology and group psychotherapy, especially given that our major revenue comes through the journal while our leadership tends to be psychotherapy.

Town hall is not in the program, but is on facebook and on our flyers and will be held in the suite.

SOCIAL-Dr. Lefforge

We are feeling prepared for the social; raffle has changed a bit to encourage first time attendees and returning/new membership in the division.

 BUSINESS MEETING-Dr. Lefforge

We can use this to provide updates and take questions. Dr. Dehili noted that there may be some confusion in the materials about the town hall vs. business meeting; Dr. Lefforge indicated she would facilitate the meeting and adapt to what is needed based on who attends.

Dr. Cole added that people can now opt in to sharing demographics with their membership applications, but a lot of people aren’t filling it out yet. We can see that we have at least 2 research-based psychologists in the division based on that data.

MIDWINTER MEETING-Dr. Kaklauskas

Dr. Kaklauskas is considering Atlanta as a location; the board did not express any objections to this location.

*Non board members left for closed session, as did Leann*

POSTER AWARDS-Dr. Lefforge

Noelle briefly reviewed order of presentation of awards.

As Drs. Dehili and Kaklauskas both attended the poster sessions, the board agreed that Drs. Dehili and Kaklauskas could review submissions and select winners after the board reviewed available submissions. Board reviewed eligibility requirements for the awards.

2023 Division 49 Mid-Winter Meeting

Denver, CO January 28-29

Attendees Present: 

Noelle Lefforge**, President	Nathaniel Wade*, Domain Rep, Group Practice
Francis Kaklauskas*, President-Elect	Rita Rivera*VP, Student Rep
Amy Black*, Secretary	Michele Ribeiro*V, Council Rep
Debra O’Connell*V, Treasurer	Giorgio TascaVP, Editor, Group Dynamics
Aziza Belcher Platt*, Domain Rep, Education Eric Chen*, Domain Rep, Diversity Katie White*, Domain Rep, ECP David Marcus*VP, Domain Rep, Group Psychology	Thomas TreadwellVP, Editor, The Group Psychologist Shala Cole, Membership Committee Vinny Dehili, Program Chair

Absent:

Amy Nitza*, Past President

Leann Diederich^VP, Chair, Foundation Committee

Sean Woodland, APA Services Inc. Liason

Division Membership Present:

David Chirko

*Voting member per division bylaws

**Voting member only in the case of a tie per division bylaws

^VAttended by Zoom

^PAttended Partial Meeting

Saturday, January 28

Welcome (Dr. Lefforge)

• Dr. Lefforge welcomed board members participating in person and virtually and reviewed meeting procedures. Participants introduced themselves.

President (Dr. Lefforge)

• Passed: Approval of November 2022 Board Meeting minutes: Motion: Dr. Chen; Second: Dr. Ribeiro. Present voting members unanimously voted in favor.
• Dr. Lefforge reminded the board that she is last president to be elected on one-year term and indicated time is set aside for the board to discuss by-laws and logistics for smooth transition to a two-year presidency later in the meeting.
• Dr. Lefforge reported that the petition to renew group as a specialty is due Jan 1, 2025. Much of this work falls under the Specialty Council. Div 49 helps to meet the criteria—need strong literature base and proof it is being translated into practice/implemented in training. Gary Burlingame is working on launching the EBGT website to be repository of group materials which will help us to organize the literature base.
• Dr. Lefforge recommended that Board host a town hall meeting with division membership for open discussion on direction of division and associated issues (e.g. balance of group psychology and group psychotherapy). Dr. Lefforge asked for input from the board on when, what format, and what agenda items a town hall would cover. The board discussed these matters. Drs. Ribeiro and Cole recommended a pre-meeting survey to help gather membership input before the town hall. Dr. Lefforge raised the idea of advertising through Group Dynamics, and Drs. Chen and Kaklauskas further suggested reaching out directly to authors who have published in the journal to invite them to attend. The board also discussed ways to expand opportunities to participate, with Dr. Chen suggesting holding multiple town hall meetings and Dr. Belcher Platt recommending recording the town hall for those unable to attend to be able to view and send comments to the board after it is held. Dr. Dehili also suggested publishing a summary of the town hall in the journal. Dr. O’Connell suggested holding the town hall meeting(s) during APA convention in the division hospitality suite, noting that it could be a hybrid meeting. Dr. Lefforge agreed that reaching out to other divisions who might have members interested in division 49 (e.g. Psyops, Social Psych) could help to recruit attendees during the convention. Drs. Ribeiro and Dehili commented on the possibility of obtaining data on how division members self-identify with regard to group psychology and group psychotherapy, perhaps by adding a question to the division membership application. Dr. Cole indicated she sends out a welcome letter to new members of the division inviting them to let her know why they joined and indicated she does receive responses from individuals who are active in group psychology. The board discussed clarifying the purpose of the town hall. Dr. Lefforge referenced wanting to address equity between group psychology and group psychotherapy within the division as well as membership growth. She noted that engagement from group psychologists is particularly helpful in building board certification guidelines for group psychology. Dr. Chen added that the town hall could help to invite students and members of color. He also noted that given the transformation the field has seen with the pandemic, the town hall provides a natural opportunity for the division to reflect on its direction. Dr. Chen recommended focusing on listening during the town hall, with opportunity for the board to reflect on what we have heard and responding after the town hall. The board discussed possible explanations for why division leadership is more heavily inclined towards group psychotherapy, with Dr. Lefforge hypothesizing that APA’s shift towards health service psychology may be attracting more folks involved in psychotherapy. Drs. Dehili, Ribeiro, and Belcher Platt suggested asking questions in the town hall such as “What is the division giving you? Is this a division where your energy goes? What direction do members want to see?” Dr. Cole also suggested inviting past members of the division and asking for insight regarding why past members chose not to renew. The board expressed broad support for hosting a town hall during APA convention, engaging stakeholders in the process, recording it and posting it to the division’s Youtube channel for viewing and comments after the meeting, and a formal response and action planning from the board. Dr. Belcher Platt noted that if some participants are uncomfortable with having their comments recorded, they can request to be edited out of the video. Dr. O’Connell also suggested soliciting anonymous comments ahead of the meeting.
• The board briefly discussed activity on the division listservs. Currently the division has an announcement listserve that does not allow for responses as well as a second, unmoderated listserv that members must request to be added to. The board discussed the possibility of alternatives to the unmoderated listserv, which has low activity. Dr. White suggested that other formats (e.g. message boards) might appeal more to ECPs.

Past President (Dr. Nitza)

• This agenda item was skipped as Dr. Nitza was not in attendance.

Attendee Changes:

• George Tasca joined the meeting via Zoom.
• Francis Kaklauskas stepped out of the meeting due to a scheduling conflict.

Treasurer (Dr. O’Connell)

• Dr. O’Connell reviewed the 2022 budget. She noted final numbers may change a little bit after a few last things are paid out. Dr. Lefforge noted the need to add separate accounting for funds the division holds for Group Specialty Council to track contributions from AGPA, ABGP, and Div. 49. The board agreed to revisit discussions regarding APF in August when more information is available to support decision-making.

Attendee Changes:

• David Marcus joined the meeting via Zoom.

Fellows Committee (Dr. David Marcus)

• Dr. Marcus reported the committee has received one application this cycle. He noted formal recruitment for the next round of applications will be with an October/November announcement. Dr. Marcus further noted here are good candidates who aren’t division members who should be encouraged to join.

Journal (Dr. Giorgio Tasca) (This part of the meeting was recorded to enable Dr. Kaklauskas to view it later).

• Dr. Tasca reported Jay Jackson has rotated out as associate editor and Torsten Reimer has joined as a new associate editor. He also reported Shanique Brown has been recruited as an associate editor from historically excluded group.
• Dr. Tasca reported the journal will have a special issue on research methods in 2023 and a special issue on evidence-based group methods in 2024.
• Dr. Tasca reported that the journal continues to get reasonable level of submissions.
• Dr. Tasca reminded the board that the general publishing agreement comes to an end in 2024 and an ad hoc committee is needed. The committee would be tasked with shopping the journal to various publishers to decide either to stay with APA or find a new publisher with similar reach.
  • ACTION ITEM: Noelle will reach out to Dennis Kivlighan about joining ad hoc publication committee.
  • Passed: Constitution of ad hoc publication committee with Drs. Marcus and Kaklauskas as co-chairs and Drs. Tasca, O’Connell, and Dr. Dennis Kivlighan (pending his agreement) as additional members: Motion: Dr. Wade; Second: Dr. Belcher Platt. Present voting members unanimously voted in favor.
• Dr. Tasca reminded the board that the journal will need a new editor for 2023 and a search committee for a new editor is needed.
  • ACTION ITEM: George to reach out to associate editors to serve on committee. David to be back-up if no associate editors are available.
  • Passed: Constitution journal editor search publication committee members Drs. Black, Tasca, Treadwell, Dehili, Chen (or his appointee from DEIB committee), a current associate editor of the journal (or Dr. Marcus if one is not available). Motion: Dr. Belcher Platt; Second: Dr. White. Present voting members unanimously voted in favor.
• Dr. Tasca was briefed on the earlier discussion regarding hosting a town hall meeting. He advised that advertising in the journal was unlikely to be seen by many, since few readers receive paper journals. He indicated that he would recommend instead posting in forums, and that APA could provide emails of published authors in journals for outreach for town hall.
• Dr. Tasca requested that the 2023 budget discussion include a discussion on increasing stipends for future journal editors, as this will help us to recruit future editors. He noted our journal provides a comparatively low stipend with regard to other similar journals.

Elections (Dr. Noelle Lefforge)

• The board reviewed what positions will be up for election in the coming cycle. This includes treasurer, president, group psychology rep, group psychotherapy rep, and DEIB rep. Board discussed recruitment strategies. Dr. Lefforge reminded the board that candidates need to be full paying members of APA as well as division members. Student and affiliate members are eligible for appointed positions, including program chair and membership chair.

Attendee Changes:

• Francis Kaklauskas returned to the meeting.
• Tom Treadwell joined via Zoom.
• David Marcus, David Chirko, and George Tasca left the meeting.

Education and Training (Dr. Aziza Belcher Platt)

• Dr. Belcher Platt noted that two CE events have been scheduled so far for the year, with approximately 2 registrants. Past CEs will be uploaded to Youtube.
• Dr. Belcher Platt reported that the CE committee is working on creating a speaker’s agreement to offer honorariums.

Newsletter (Dr. Tom Treadwell)

• Dr. Treadwell presented to the board on a proposal for a new newsletter website and indicated it could be ready for the fall issue.
• Passed: Approval of Dr. Treadwell’s website proposal. Motion: Dr. Ribeiro; Second: Dr. Wade. Present voting members unanimously voted in favor.

Board members should reach out to folks to ask to provide content for newsletter.

Council (Dr. Michele Ribeiro)

• Accreditation of masters programs call for comments (COA accreditation public comment system). https://apps.apa.org/accredcomment/seeComments.aspx?ProjectID=57
• Only 3 comments so far.
• Discussion in the meeting—Nathaniel: these standards look similar to PhD requirements which is already tight in 6 years. How is this possible for masters programs. Masters folks consume research not do research. Noelle: this document does not delineate masters vs PhD https://www.apa.org/about/policy/health-service-psychology-masters-programs.pdf
• As a board we are invested in seeing that group psychologists and psychotherapists emerge from masters programs and we don’t see that reflected in that document. No room for specialization in group to continue because too many boxes to check. We want to see SoA that support this—because too close to PhD with no language to show difference.
• Do we want to make a comment as a division, and if so, need a committee to do that. Feb 2 deadline. ACTION ITEM: Michele says she can type something up and send it tonight and then we look at in tomorrow’s meeting. We will comment and edit/wordsmith tonight.
• Council is meeting at the end of February.

Membership-Dr. Shala Cole

• Updates: able to reach out to past members now. Shala has reached out to 120ish past members with reminder emails or asking for feedback about why didn’t renew. Much of the feedback is about funding.
• Current membership is 317. Last year 2022 ended with 378 and 2021 we had 335. People are still renewing for this year (grace period til Feb).
• 150 have free membership (post career)
• 48 new members, 269 renewed. Last year 93 new people.
• Institute: 27 people. Last year was first full year of Institute. 3 members attended APA. Nathaniel and Michele will help Shala with conversation hour meeting this year at convention.
• Connected with APAGS
• Informal conversation hours held
• Budget for Institute—same as previous year

Program committee—Dr. Vinny Dehili

• We were allotted 12 hours of division programming, same as last year, we donated 1 hour to joint session on reproductive justice.
• We have an excess of hours. APA has talked about basing hours on submissions.
• 2 hours extra allowed for poster presentations
• 1 extra hour of social, can be longer than an hour
• 3 extra hours for executive committee board and business meetings
• 11 poster submissions, 6 session submissions.
• Might be contributing 1 hour for DEI social?
• Need to use an hour for fellow addresses (could do 2 if we have extra hours, which we seem to) joe and tom.
• Presidential address and awards
• Could use some time for the town hall. Maybe 2 (1 hour each)
• Shala wonders about expo booth, wouldn’t take hours but would have to pay for booth
• Noelle reminds that div 49 swag passed out at div events is a helpful recruitment tool
• Logo is in Dropbox, lots of vendors online. Vinny will work on swag
• Need to make sure that APA has our ribbons available during registration (Shala will do that)

• In the past, Debra emailed program chairs of other divisions to ask if they had any high quality submissions relevant to our division that they didn’t have room for to please send them to us. Vinny can do the same for posters since we are low on those

• In the past we have talked about a training or demo group. We could make it a program event. We could also do off-program member-targeted in hospitality suite. Nathaniel or vinny?? Aziza or noelle 2-hours. Either way you’re in the hospitality suite?

FINAL program: Nathaniel moves, Eric seconds. Passes unanimously (though probably not really needed)

6 hours submissions

1 hour donated

1 hour fellows

1 hour town hall

2 hours demo group

1 left over flex: for town hall, +1 fellow or extra submission

+3 for board/business mtg

              1 hr board

              1 hr presidential address/awards

              1 budget

+2 for posters

+1 hour official social

• Student social hour+ Div social (traditionally do off books because it is cheaper, but harder to get the word out)

• Could organize something structured like an open night/moth thing during the social

• We don’t need a big space for our social, just a matter of whether we care about APA having it in the program
• In 2020 we were planning to try it through APA but it didn’t happen

• Vinny to get more info about the formal social–Need to find out how much it would cost for a multi-hour social and can you linger etc.

• Debra looked at how much had been budgeted for formal social in 2020–$7500. Probably about 10k this time around

• Could partner with/exchange advertising with other divisions like div 17

APF-Noelle

• Last year we gave three grants.
• Cameron never got his plaque. Noelle to reach out to folks who might have it. Otherwise, we will reorder.
• In report, Leann recommends that we continue to have APF manage funds while she keeps working with them. Will revisit in august and either stay in APF or look at other investment strategies. APF management fees are very high.

Noelle—how we are storing accounts/using

• Have been doing Dropbox, but 2-FA and same password makes it tough because who knows who has it
• Main account is the Gmail account. Div49group@gmail.com password: Division49!
• If it asks you to verify, choose “verify recovery email” and enter the div board email: DIV49BOARD@LISTS.APA.ORG
• Need Gmail to access the Youtube and 2-FA
• We also have a division award account, not everybody needs it. President elect does.
• Noelle suggests we move everything from Dropbox to drive managed by the Gmail account
• Secretary to move from Dropbox to google drive and then add everyone’s preferred google account to sign in. secretary will then be the one to transfer access each year
• Update P&P to assign annual managing accounts and security to secretary duties: Eric motions, Aziza seconds. Passes unanimously. Amy Black to do that update

E&T- Aziza

Working Sessions (Dr. Lefforge)

• Present board members divided into two working groups to work on CESA Renewal Application and clarify questions related to transition from one-year to two-year presidential terms.
• CESA Renewal Application was completed.
• Reviewed current terms.

CESA workgroup

• Logged in and are copying, pasting and updating past application
• Will validate form and have Debra make payment. Noelle sent invoice to Debra.
• Will make Feb 19 deadline
• After the application is submitted, Aziza will request transfer of account from Noelle to Aziza

Nathaniel indicated he is willing to do 4-8 hour group training week of APA (group foundations and experiential) for CE. In person or possibly hybrid. Associated costs would be reserving suite earlier. How much would we charge? Nathaniel to talk with Aziza

Offer Youtube training for free but charge for CEs

President workgroup-Amy Black

What happens to past president duties

When is president elect elected and is it 1 or 2 years

What we found:

Pres elect is 2 years

• Pres elect now chairs nominations and elections committee (+3 past presidents willing to serve)
• Pres elect chairs awards committee (+2 past presidents)

Pres is 2. Years

No more past pres

We need to elect another president elect this year, Francis will serve 1 year as pres-elect and 2 as president

Francis is now chairing the two committees, Amy Nitza will serve on the committees. +1 past pres for awards and +2for elections

If it doesn’t work to find a 4 year pres then Nathaniel suggests we consider getting rid of president elect and give duties to the rest of the board, or Noelle says maybe make it a 1 year “in training” with no duties, just shadowing.

Vinny indicated he has some info back from APA—looks like no cost for the program listing, just have to use the catering, can choose the cost more.

Michele to check in with Rita about whether she will be able to attend tomorrow’s meeting

Discussion of burnout and accessibility, how best we can support each other and be more inclusive, perhaps be more intentional about checking in with each other in future meetings

Important to know about systemic issues so we can advocate for systems that work for everybody

Aziza suggests a “how I work best” form and may have a template for us to look at tomorrow

Desire for chance to process the experience of these meetings

Day 2

In person:

Noelle

Francis

Nathaniel

Eric

Aziza

Shala

Katie

Amy Black

Zoom:

Debra O’Connell

Michele

Rita

Schedule next meeting: April? With a check in before convention?

ECP-Katie

• What do we want to do with community conversation hours
  • Shala: facilitation of conversation helpful. Typically have done 3-4 per year in the past
• Noelle: Would be helpful to bring back training director hour (DCTs who do a lot of group training at their sites would do it to inform folks applying for internship). Debra indicated it used to be in person at APA. Eric suggests if we do one in person we should also do a virtual one so that more can attend. Student rep and ECP will collaborate.
• Institute folks would be a good population to target for recruiting more ecp committee members
• Div 49 website is outdated—board members should look at the website yearly to see what updates need to be made and send the requested changes to Katie? Nathaniel suggests we just take out the changeable info and just have committee descriptions. That’s what we decided to do.
• Noelle: our bylaws and P&P should be linked
• President and BoD should be updated every year

• Noelle: there’s really no orientation to the board, what if we paired all the incoming folks to an existing board member, have a packet of information? Michele indicated she has done this as secretary in another division. Eric suggests outgoing members orient their successors

Zoom: joined David Chirko (member)

Paused to do introductions

Checking in with each other and how we work

Aziza brought the template and read it

Sharing reflections of the meeting

Michele shared council SoA response

Reviewed and made minor edits

Michele motioned, Amy Black seconded. Passed unanimously:

Michele will submit on behalf of div 49 at 5pm EST

Nonsubstantive wordsmithing edits ok after vote

Budget-2023-debra

Debra raised suggestion of division credit card. Equity in leadership issue.

-Tom’s request for website funds ($1400 initial and $100/hr maintenance): perhaps plan for $500/yr maintenance after first year (2000 total)

-George requests increase of editor and associate editor stipends (doubling) as we are one of the lowest paying journal. We are also smaller/fewer submissions. We just tell the journal to pay the editor more.

Search committee can decide what editor pay rate is if it’s for future editor

Eric suggests instead of raising George’s stipend, find a way to honor him later. We could decide separately to give him a bonus honorarium. Appreciating/recognizing George’s contribution to the division.

We don’t know how much the editor honorarium is—we can ask George

Right now associate editor is 500 per associate editor

Eric proposes 50% increase (250) for 2023 and another 250 to 2024

Concern about remembering that

Double the associate editors from 500 to 1000

George bonus 2000 + plaque (50) (bonus honorarium)

APF payments

Add some money to special projects (reconsideration of awards)

Budget 7500 for social and raise suite to 4k

Give ECP and student committees 500 each

12,000 for institute

CE presenters—budget 3000 for 5ish CEs this year, needs to make money to pay out money so this is where to start

Debra suggested email poster first authors asking if people were students in order to compete for student poster award

Eric motions to approve budget, katie seconds. Passes unanimously.

Noelle–Should the division have any salaried positions

Can’t pay voting members

Paid staff can help with stability/continuity, administrative operations

Either hiring an ED or a management company

Could help with recruiting presidential candidates

Eric suggests hiring a grad student for 5-10 hrs a week?

Michele suggests we list out the duties

Need to figure out if it’s in the budget first?

Discussion about grad student/multi mission vs stability of professional

Do we bring back a research domain rep, is that the person who would keep the ebgt project website maintained—next meeting?

Review of action items

Check outs

Future:

• Standing agenda item for all future meetings for this year to hear progress update from ad hoc publication committee
• Standing agenda item for future meetings to hear progress updates from publication committee editor search
• Aug meeting need to revisit APF
• August—make CE committee a standing committee instead of ad hoc, 2024 membership can approve
• For April meeting establish a process for student posters and reconsideration of award amounts
• Paid staff? On April meeting agenda
• April agenda formal orientation process for incoming board members
• Research domain rep April agenda
• Division relations April agenda

2022 Division 49 November Minutes

Friday, November 11 3:00-5:00PM EST

     Amy Black PhD CGP

Member	Position	Term
Joshua Gross*	Past President	January 2022 – December 2022
Amy Nitza**	President	January 2022 – December 2022
Noelle Lefforge*	President-Elect	January 2022 – December 2022
Debra O’Connell*	Treasurer	January 2021 – December 2023
Martin Kivlighan*	Secretary	January 2020 – December 2022
Aziza Belcher Platt*	Domain Representative for Education & Training	January 2022 – December 2024??
Misha Bogomaz*	Domain Representative for ECP	January 2020 – December 2022
David Marcus*	Domain Representative for Group Psychology	January 2021 – December 2023
Eric Chen*	Domain Representative for Diversity	January 2021 – December 2023
Nathaniel Wade*	Domain Representative for Group Practice	January 2021 – December 2023
Mary Baggio*	Student Representative	January 2021 – December 2022
Michele Ribeiro*	Council Representative	January 2020 – December 2022
Giorgio Tasca	Editor, Group Dynamics	January 2019 – December 2024
Thomas Treadwell	Editor, The Group Psychologist	January 2018 – December 2020??
Shala Cole	Chair, Membership Committee	January 2020, Open, serves at their pleasure
Vinny Dehili	Program Chair	August 2021 – August 2023
Leann Diederich	Chair, Foundation Committee	January 2022 – ???
Sean Woodland	APA Services, Inc. Liaison	Open, serves at their pleasure

*Voting member per division bylaws

**Voting member only in the case of a tie per division bylaws

Notes. Quorum >50% of voting members, Passing > 50% of votes.

Members Present:

Dr. Nitza welcomed everyone to the meeting and members introduced themselves.

President (Dr. Nitza)      

• Follow up on Initiatives
  • Dr. Nitza followed up on the EBGT project and the recent board approval to allocate $3600 to a webmaster to develop and establish the EBGT webpage on the Division 49 website. Dr. Bogomaz clarified the role and tasks of the webmaster and what they will accomplish with these funds. Dr. Bogomaz noted that he felt the ECP representative would be able to handle the EBGT website updates moving forward. Dr. Nitza noted that the board will need to decide who and how EBGT research will be identified and updated on the website moving forward. Dr. Lefforge noted that the division historically had a research domain representative, and the board may want to consider the possibility of reestablishing this position on the board. Dr. O’Connell suggested that the board discuss the possibility to hire someone to run the website and other initiatives that need to be done on a regular basis. Dr. Lefforge noted that this should be an agenda item for the MWM.
  • The board discussed recent publicity of board members and group work throughout APA and upcoming publicity opportunities. Dr. Nitza revisited the conversation from the convention board meeting about increasing the visibility of the division throughout APA and noted the need to continue this initiative moving forward.

President Elect (Dr. Lefforge)

• MWM Planning/Logistics
  • Dr. Lefforge noted that she contacted all current and incoming board members about the MWM. Dr. Lefforge noted that 14 individuals have RSVP and will be in attendance of the MWM with 12 individuals attending in-person. Dr. Lefforge detailed meeting agenda and activities for the board and invited conversation.
  • ACTION ITEM: Dr. Lefforge will continue to communicate with the board to plan for the upcoming WMW.
• Newsletter Issues at APA
  • Dr. Lefforge noted recent issues with the newsletter related to APA changes to publishing format. Dr. Treadwell reviewed some of these issues for the board and recommended that we make a change to the newsletter and use a webmaster to host our newsletter on our website as opposed to going through APA. Dr. Treadwell suggested that we retain the HTML newsletter and include a link to the newsletter on the division website. The board discussed various ways to fund this work, such as hiring a GA for the current president or paying the EBGT webmaster to create the newsletter template for the division website.
  • ACTION ITEM: Dr. Treadwell agreed to discuss these possibilities with the EBGT webmaster and to follow up with the board at MWM.
• CE credits for existing DIV49 YouTube presentations
  • Dr. Lefforge discussed the possibility of issuing CE certificates for existing content on the division YouTube channel and walked through the process of executing this project. Dr. Lefforge noted that we would need to get presenter’s permission to use their presentation for issuing CE credits. Dr. Kivlighan and Bogomaz offered support for this idea.
• DSJ sponsored collaborative symposium
  • Dr. Lefforge brought the DSJ collaborative symposium proposal to the board and opened this proposal to the board. Drs. Dehili and O’Connell noted that this would take away an hour from our division for programming, but it might not impact programming to much. Dr. Chen expressed interest in this opportunity to increase Division 49 visibility and initiatives around DEIB. Dr. Nitza and Dr. Bogomaz also supported this possibility. Dr. Lefforge motioned to contribute a program hour to support DSJ sponsored collaborative symposium, Dr. Bogomaz seconded the motion, and the motion passed unanimously with 6 yes votes.
  • ACTION ITEM: Dr. Lefforge will reply to the request and indicate our interest as well as work with Dr. Chen to identify a division representative to work on this collaborative program.

Membership (Dr. Cole)

• Update on The Institute
  • Dr. Cole updated the board about The Institute and noted that some additional members have joined. She also plans to further advertise the program in other APA publications.
• List serv reminders
  • Dr. Cole reminded the board that the list serve can only be used to promote and announce APA related events and news. She also encouraged board members to use the list serv to announce their group related work and accomplishments.

Additional time for continued discussion of items (Dr. Nitza)

DEIB Committee Updates (Dr. Chen)

• Dr. Chen reported that the new Group Dynamics Editorial Fellow is interested in joining the DEIB committee and he is currently working to get her connected with the committee.

Treasurer Update (Dr. O’Connell)

• Dr. O’Connell updated the board about the division investment account and indicated that she has been meeting regularly with the account manager. She also reminded the board that we may want to consider moving the APF funds to this investment vendor as well.

Fellows Committee Chair (Dr. Nitza)

• Dr. Nitza noted that Craig Parks is needing to step down as the Fellows Committee Chair and the board will need to identify a new chair and quickly in order to get the fellowship call out this year. Dr. Marcus agreed to serve as the chair for the Fellows Committee and will connect with Dr. Parks to learn about this role and the responsibilities.