Convention Committee / Comité Congrès

2023 – 2024 Committee / Comité

Goals

The Convention Committee aims to make each convention a vital event in the life of Canadian psychology, where friends and colleagues meet for the dissemination of scientific knowledge, for the acquisition of skills, for formal and informal networking and to meet old friends.

1. To ensure the Convention is a milieu for all Canadian psychologists, psychology students and interested others to be well informed of recent findings in the field of psychology.
2. To ensure the CPA sections, relevant psychology organizations and all Canadian psychologists and students feel they are an integral part of the Convention.
3. To contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge, education and training and public and private practice in psychology and related fields.
4. To develop an operational framework to realize the short- and long-term goals and strategies of the Convention.
5. To promote psychology to the public and to support relevant public policy issues through Convention activities.

Terms of Reference

1. To advise and guide Convention planning.
2. To review as required proposals, nominations, and venue-specific plans for the current and future years’ conventions.
3. To provide representative input into convention planning from CPA’s constituencies and related organizations and parties.
4. To promote a spirit of inclusiveness regarding the Convention within the CPA membership, with sections, with other relevant associations and organizations, with the media and with the political infrastructure.
5. To engage in a process of continuous quality improvement through a cycle of evaluation, planning and action.

Accountability

The Convention Committee is a management committee of the Board of Directors and reports to the Board through the Board of Director designates as the Board Liaison (generally the CPA’s President), who serves as a member of the Convention Committee.

Membership

The Convention Committee is composed of the CPA’s Events Staff, Board Liaison to the Convention Committee, Board of Director representing the Council of Sections, at least four representatives from CPA sections (representing clusters of related areas), two to four student representatives, and other representatives as identified for a given convention year (e.g., co-conference partner representative).  The CPA’s Events Director serves as Chair of the Convention Committee.

Committee Size and Activity

The Committee needs to be active, with communications occurring at a frequency of once a month at a minimum. Committee membership is a good training and recruitment tool for senior positions within the Association and Committee members are excellent informed ambassadors for the CPA and about the CPA’s activities.

Responsibilities of Committee Members

The Convention Committee members are responsible for pursuing the vision and terms of reference of the Committee. To this effect, members participate in all discussions pertaining to the Convention, work on projects or issues brought forward by the Committee, the Board of Directors, the Sections, and the membership as appropriate.

Membership Term

Committee members are invited by the Convention Committee Chair for one year with the intention that members will serve for a three (3) year term. Membership recruitment and retirement is staggered to ensure continuity and Committee institutional memory.

Meetings and Reporting

Throughout the year, the convention committee will meet virtually on a monthly basis. Communication will be supplemented through e-mail.  Meetings are minuted. Regular communication of the plans and activities of the Committee will be provided to the membership through the Sections and monthly convention newsletters, as well as information on the web site, and to the Board of Directors through reports to each Board meeting by the Board Liaison. The Committee holds a debrief meeting at the conclusion of each Convention.