CPA Section on Clinical Psychology
Minutes of the Executive Committee

Minutes for Winter Meeting, January 25, 2003

Present:		Kerry Mothersill, Chair	David Dozois, Secretary-Treasurer		

		David Hodgins, Chair-Elect		Michel Dugas, Past-Chair			
	Susan Graham, Member at Large

Winter Meeting – CPA Clinical Section
Saturday January 25, 2003, 9:00AM
Boardroom, Colonel Belcher Hospital - Calgary Health Region

1.0 	Approval of Agenda
 	The meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m. and the agenda was approved (moved by Susan, seconded by Michel; carried)
				
2.0	Approval of Minutes – September 13, 2002 Teleconference
 	The minutes from the September 13, 2002 teleconference were approved as written (moved by David H., seconded by Kerry; carried).

3.0 	Report from the Chair
 	Rather than providing a report per se, Kerry addressed a number of issues and highlighted new initiatives throughout the meeting.

4.0	Treasurer’s Report
 	David D. presented the treasurer’s report.  The current assets of the Clinical Section total $6,778.05.  There is presently $2,929.97 in chequing, and a sum of $3,848.08 in G.I.C.’s. An amount of $1,646.86 has a maturity date of February 6, 2003, and a G.I.C. for $2,201.22 reaches its maturity date on March 4, 2003.  There are no debts outstanding, although $2,000 was budgeted for the winter meeting in Calgary.  There was some discussion as to whether to reinvest the G.I.C.’s or use them for a particular project. David will renew the Feb 6th and March 4rd G.I.C.’s.  

5.0	CPA 2004 Conference

	5.1  Submissions and Review Process
 	David H. presented the data for the upcoming conference.  There were 70 poster submissions, 5 symposia, 2 conversation sessions, 6 theory reviews, and 4 workshops.  Ten posters were redirected to symposia and 2 symposia were created (i.e., Aspects of eating disorders, and Treatment interventions with children and adolescents).  

 	The reviewers were Drs. Shawn Currie, Michel Dugas, Deborah Dobson, Keith Dobson, Susan Graham, Roslyn Mendelson, and Kristen Von Ranson.  David H. submitted these names to Deborah Dobson to recognize them in the newsletter.  Michel suggested that we attempt to have a senior graduate student serve as a reviewer in the future.  This would help the review process but also be beneficial for the student’s CV.

 	There was discussion regarding the need to ensure that there are some presentations that are standard from year to year (e.g., the conversation session on internship).

	5.2  Ken Bowers Award Submissions, Letters of Invitation
 	David H. would like to check the number of students on his list of award submissions who are actually members of the Section.  David D. will fax the list of student members to David H.    The deadline for student submissions is March 28, 2003.  David H. will send a message to the listserve reminding students that they may submit their papers for an award.  David H. will also contact Michael Coons to spread the word about the awards.

 	There was some discussion regarding the length of the submission requirements and whether this might be prohibitive.  It was mentioned that there is some flexibility in this (i.e., up to 10 pages).  David D. mentioned that it is possible to award some mediocre papers simply because the number of submissions is low.  Michel noted, however, that it might devalue the meaning of the award if we lose the requirement of the additional submission.  The requirements will remain the same.

	5.3  Clinical Section Sponsored Presentations
 	Kerry presented the Clinical Section sponsored presentations.  He will send this information to the membership via the listserve.  Registration will be paid for the keynote speaker and the individuals doing the mini-workshops.

	5.4  Section Program Introduction of Speakers
 	
Presentation Format	Speaker	Introductions	
Section/CPA Invited Speaker	Martin Antony	David	
Keynote Speaker	David Wolfe	Kerry	
Preconvention Workshop	Laurie Gillies	David H. 	
Mini-workshop	Terry Pezzot-Pearce	Susan	
Mini-workshop	Randi McCabe	Michael Coons	

Michel will contact Michael re: the introduction.    Susan will look into getting CPA mugs for some of the presenters.  

	5.5  Advertising for Pre-convention Workshop
 	The committee discussed strategies to sell and promote the preconvention workshops because we tend to lose money each year.  Michel mentioned that it would be helpful to have a preconvention workshop that is appealing to the hospitals in the cities where the conferences are.  Kerry will contact some individuals in the local hospitals about this information.  He will also contact the Ontario Psychological Association. Susan suggested that we contact other professional groups through listserves.  Michel will find out about the Canadian Psychiatric Association listserve and Susan will contact other groups. David H. mentioned that it might be helpful if it was advertised to these groups as a workshop rather than as a preconvention workshop.

	5.6  Coverage of Conference Fees and Honorarium
 	We will cover conference fees for mini-workshops and keynote speaker. 

	5.7  Photographer for Presentations
 	Kerry will try to obtain a digital camera for the presentations.   The photographer will be determined at the April teleconference. 

			
6.0 	Section Action Activities

	6.1  Section Elections – Possible Nominations
 	Michel presented the names of possible nominees for the Section executive positions.  David D. has agreed to serve as Chair-Elect.  

	6.2  Call for Fellows
 	David H. mentioned that the call for fellows was advertised in the newsletter and there has so far been no response.  

 	The committee has decided to make it policy that we contact all nominees for the status of fellow to determine their availability to attend the conference. 

7.0 	Section Projects

 	7.1  List Serve update
 	David D. reported on the status of the listserve.  The current membership of the Clinical Section is 553 (379 full members; 174 student members).  There are presently 327 individuals who have subscribed to the listserve. 

 	There was some discussion about the pros and cons of using the listserve to advertise clinical or academic job postings.  David D. will solicit feedback from the membership and will make it clear that all messages will be approved (and possibly amalgamated) by the listserve administrator.

	7.2  Printing and Distribution of Clinical Section Brochure
 	The committee decided not to print the clinical section brochure again.  There was, however, interest in producing this brochure as a pdf file so that members could print it off for their clinics.  Susan will take care of having this information formatted in pdf and will pass this on to David Hart to place on the web site.

	7.3  Updating of  Definition of Clinical Psychology
 	Most members felt that the definition of clinical psychology should remain the same.  One question is whether we should update it and, if so, what we should use it for.  There was uncertainty regarding the contribution of the definition statement on the web site.  Revisions to this document seem like a tremendous amount of work; however, we could keep it for when it might be useful (historically it was used as a lobbying tool).  David       Hart will be contacted to have this removed from the web page.

	7.4  Fact Sheet Update
 	Susan provided the information about the fact sheets.  A number of fact sheets have already been completed.  Susan will continue to contact people to write some of the fact sheets for topics that have been approved.  

 	Michel wondered if there might be a way to ensure that the fact sheets are updated (e.g., every 5 years).  Placing a date in the posting list might be one strategy to ensure that this is done. Susan will contact John Service and check to see if there is already a system in place with head office.

	7.5  New Member Recruitment
 	The committee discussed the new member recruitment ad and made some revisions.  David D. will complete the revisions and submit the ad to Ivan at CPA. for Psynopsis and to Michael Coons to distribute to the Student section.  

	7.6  Letters to Members who have not renewed for 2003
 	David D. mentioned that there were only 3 individuals who did not renew their membership for 2003.  The names and addresses were given to Michel who will send out a letter.

	7.7  Web Site Liaison with David Hart
 	Susan will liaise with David Hart re: many of the web items discussed.
												
 	7.8 Student Representative 
 	Michael Coons presented the executive with the proposal that there be a student representative on the committee.  The committee agreed in principle but discussed the need to bring this to the membership because of budgetary concerns, voting privileges and the Clinical section bylaws.  Kerry will mention to Michael that we will recommend this at the next business meeting.  

8.0 	Spring Newsletter

	8.1  Summary of Executive Meetings (Sept 02 and Jan 03)
 	Michel will write the summary of the executive meetings for the newsletter.  

	8.2  Summary of Clinical Section Sponsored Presentations at Convention 2003
 	Kerry mentioned that we had previously included a summary of clinical section sponsored events in the newsletter; this was also distributed on the listserve.  Kerry will ensure that this takes place again.

	8.3  Cost of Newsletter – Use of List Serve?
 	Deb Dobson joined the committee to discuss issues related to the newsletter.  The fall newsletter was drastically overbudget.  Deb has looked into finding companies that are interested in advertising in the newsletter.  She asked that we send her an email if we can think of any ideas.  The cost overrun was partly due to page length and mainly due to an increase in membership.  The committee generally felt that an electronic version of the newsletter is optimal.  Going with an electronic version of the newsletter would save the Section approximately $3000 per year, a fact that could be mentioned to the membership.

 	The committee will have the newsletter editors purchase Adobe Writer.

 	Electronic distribution will be conducted through the listserve.  A paper copy will be made for those members who are not presently on the listserve.

 	Deb also spoke about the content of the newsletter and mentioned that it would be helpful to ensure that members submit their presentations and papers to the newsletter.  A message will be sent to the listserve re: a call for papers.  Other ideas that were mentioned entail having regular columnists, practice summaries, descriptions of services, pictures of authors, student columns, using the fact sheets in the newsletter, etc.  Susan will ask the membership via the listserve for ideas re: what people are interested in seeing in the newsletter.  
	
 	Michel suggested that we pay someone to translate the message from the Chair and other aspects of the newsletter into French to increase the appeal to the Francophone membership. Kerry will mention this to Deb. 

9.0 	Strategic Planning
 	Last year we had discussed the idea of becoming more active in lobbying.  We were also interested in possibly pursuing a public lecture in conjunction with the conference as well as putting on master clinician series.  

 	Another idea discussed was to contact John Service and see what we can do to help with CPA’s initiatives and concerns (e.g., the issue of whether academic and internship settings should continue to seek both APA and CPA approval). It might also be possible to have John Service join us at a winter meeting or the annual meeting to discuss lobbying issues.  Kerry will contact John to invite him to the June executive meeting.  

 	Michel mentioned that we have been reticent to spend money on the conference because of concern re: members who do not come to the annual meeting.  There may be more that we could do at the conference (e.g., master clinician series) that would make it more appealing for members to attend.  

 	David H. mentioned that we should try to obtain a local person to help set things up for the annual meetings.  This person could be arranged at the fall teleconference and could participate via teleconferencing at the winter meeting.  

10.0 	Spring Teleconference Date
 	The Spring teleconference will take place on April 11th at 3:00 p.m. (EST); 1:00 p.m. (MST)

The meeting adjourned at 5:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,                           

David J. A. Dozois, Ph.D., C.Psych.