MINUTES Section for Students in Psychology (SOSIP), OPA June 06, 1998 1:00 - 3:00 Chair: Sandra Jackson Secretary: Kim Gordon Present: Steve Biggs, Allan Eng, Karen Fergus, Teri Sota, Kim Watson Regrets: Jason Ramsay, Alberta Pos 1) Minutes from last meeting - approved 2) Mentor Program - Sandra reports that Jason has contacted the past president requesting the information about the program be forwarded to him, and it is expected within the next week. 3) Membership a) LIST SERVE - Steve reports that it is possible to establish a list serve through York University if we can find a staff or faculty sponsor. - Dr. Anne Marie Wall, will be approached as a potential sponsor. Dr. Shake Toukmanian is another possibility. b) SOSIP WEBPAGE - Steve reports that creating a webpage is a relatively simple process that we could do, as opposed to hiring someone else to design it at $30-40/hour. -Steve and Kim W. will work on this - Steve showed examples of CPA, OPA, and APA front pages and student pages, noting that relatively little has been done in terms of student pages to this point. (We could be cutting edge!) - Continuing to investigate the availability of server space for the page. Kim W. provided a report of various servers, their costs and the pros and cons of using their services. Steve suggested it may be possible to obtain free space through York. - Revisited the possibility of expanding OPAs site to include ours. OPA may have paid for design time that they did not use. Sandra will speak to Ruth Berman. However, there is the issue of autonomy if we are this closely linked to OPAs site. - What would we put on the Webpage? newsletter, bulletin board, list serve, chat room? Decided to first get more information about server space and then decide what to do with it. c) Campus Representatives: Jason has a list of the representatives. - Allan recommended that we create a pamphlet describing the advantages of belonging to the SOSIP executive and send this out to the universities. Given modern technology (e.g. list serve), we could have people communicating across Ontario so that the executive is truly representative instead of being bound to Toronto. As well, we should encourage students from areas beyond clinical psychology. - We need to develop an Ontario wide list serve of psychology graduate students and recent grads. We will ask the graduate secretaries to send us their list serves, and to establish a procedure for having this updated on a yearly basis (for example, e-mail graduate secretaries every year to have this information sent to us). Sandra, Kim W. and Kim G. to do this. 4) Newsletter - according to the OPA webpage the SOSIP newsletter is called "First Draft", however, Allan recalls that it is called "Horizons" instead. Steve will e-mail OPA the correction. - in terms of budget for the newsletter - in the past OPA photocopied it quite quickly for free, but did charge for postage. - it is published 2X yearly to coincide with the Spring Conference and OPA Convention. - the Newsletter will start out on paper and then eventually move to the web when the site is created. At that time we will have an overlap of a couple of issues to ensure people are informed of the new format. - there is no real push to have a newsletter out in the summer, instead we will aim for the end of August or early September. - we can have a strong presence in September for students by having the list serve, webpage, and newsletter. - Allan used to be editor of the newsletter and has agreed to reassume the role. He will bring copies of past issues to the next meeting so we all have an idea of what it looks like. - the September edition will introduce who we are, advertise the Fall Institute etc. and Sandra is working on an article regarding the Psych. Associate issue - Allan will need articles, pictures (he has scanning abilities), cartoons etc., as well, we will invite submissions from the membership. The newsletter provides an opportunity to publish a kind of peer review article. - Allan and Karen will head the committee and e-mail out to people when they need help. 5) Brochure - It was decided that we will hold off on the brochure as we have enough work at this point. 6) Workshops - Jason sent "thank you"s out to the "Unity through Diversity" speakers, and will write a report on the workshop for the Sept. newsletter. - Summer Workshop in Exner System for the Rorschach: - Sandra reported Pavla Resnicks findings after having approached a few potential speakers. a) George Taska - from Ottawa - offers a 1 day only workshop which involves a morning lecture and afternoon practice - he could do two workshops but not on the same weekend - no limit to the number of participants - charges $500 + travel + expenses which he approximates to be $2000 - we decided he is a wee bit out of our price range, but may consider the possibility of having him offer a workshop at the Fall Institute. b) Eva Stuckley - from OISE - offers a 1 day/week 8 week seminar (although this may be negotiable, will clarify with her) - $600 / day x 8 = $5000 (we could try to negotiate for less) - recommends 20 students, i.e. $250 each - Our question to her would be, do they have to be full days or can the early sessions be full day, followed by 3 hour (evening?) seminars to take up protocols. c) Allen Bartakoff - experience in training individuals, but not groups - dynamic speaker - recommends 10 students at $100 - $150 /student (he appears to be flexible though, so may be willing to do something bigger) - 4-5 evenings or Saturday afternoons - Allan spoke to two other people; Nancy Link is too busy and d) Elizabeth ? - charges $225 / student - 6 sessions at 1 hr each - she has extensive training and experience in Exner system and computerized scoring (Karen notes that most people actively using the system will have experience with computerized scoring) - general questions that were raised from this discussion: - do we need to split workshop into an introductory group and a more advanced session? Both Teri and Karen, who have experience with the Exner, reported that they would likely attend an intro session anyway, but that it may be of interest to some people to have a separate more advanced session(or a point at which introductory learners could quit and more advanced students join in) - however this may become too complicated, and the presenter may also have some issues with this if they want to have the same number of people or guaranteed fee. - Sandra will let Pavla know that we recommend that the first couple of sessions be 1 day lectures, and the remainder be evening or 3 hour workshop to discuss protocols, so she can see if this fits with the prospective presenters. - participants must be made aware that this will involve a lot of intensive homework - Sandra will send out a message on the list serve to identify how many people would be interested in such a workshop (also days which are most feasible, and willingness to pay), then we can let the instructors know the prospective participation. Allan will pass this message along to the OISE list serve. Workshop will likely be limited to Toronto students because of its extended nature. - we also need to think about where we can have the workshop. If it is a Saturday, it could likely be held in the OPA office, otherwise may need to consider other locations such as the universities, a community centre, or a church. 7. Thesis Contest/ President Elect - Sandra informed the Executive that this is usually the responsibility of the President Elect. - Steve agreed to take on the position of President Elect. 8. OPA 100th Anniversary Yearbook - Sandra will e-mail out another message to us regarding to advertisement. 9. Psychological Associates - Sandra brought the group up to date on the latest discussions regarding Psychological Associates at the OPA - the move toward granting Psych Associates the right to diagnosis was, at least in part, initiated by the Psych Associates and associations of psychotherapists lobbying the government. This led the government to recommend to the College that this request be granted. There is a sense that the College is not comfortable with this move but feel they have no choice, particularly if there is little response from psychologists and academics. - Karen requested we see a copy of the draft letter response from OPA regarding this matter. - There is a need to write letters to the College and the Ministry indicating that if this process does go through, it needs to be very rigorous. - Sandra will continue to lobby Clinical Directors, and will send a template letter to students that they can then send to the College and Ministry. 10. Problems in Training - Sandra informed the Executive that there will be a meeting of OPA, APA and university representatives regarding issues surrounding training (e.g. the difficulty in finding internship sites) - Sandra will inform us of the outcome of this meeting 11. Business information Packages - we will table this issue until September. - Karen suggested that in order to encourage psychologists in private practice to work with students it would be useful to cultivate a sense of "owing back to the profession". For example, in the OPA bulletin we could identify those psychologists who have gone out of their way to help students and have demonstrated their interest in the future of the profession. In this way we could acknowledge these people and encourage others to do the same. - it was recommended that we ask permission before we publish these individuals names so that they are not bombarded by students. Also, the Stein award is awarded to professionals who have contributed to students. - We will provide space for nominations in the next newsletter, and send out a call for nominations via the list serve. 12. Increase Student Involvement at OPA convention - currently the cost is approx. $90 per student which includes meals (meals are an excellent opportunity for networking). At this rate, OPA is just breaking even. - however, a group rate of $50 (with no meals included) could be offered to groups of 10 or more. This would need to be prepaid. - it is recommended that we offer both the regular student rate, and the group rate so that people can choose. - In an effort to increase the participation of students from outside the Toronto area, it is suggested that there be a billeting program so the cost of staying in Toronto is not a prohibitive factor (this would also provide another opportunity to network). SOSIP would need to organize this ahead of time to match students with psychologists. - Also, students should be informed that their internships may have Continuing Education funding which can be used to help defray the costs of attending conferences. - As well, because this conference is very practically oriented, students may feel that there is little opportunity for them to present. However, they should be encouraged to consider presenting case studies with their internship supervisors. The case studies could be purely practical, or could include a related academic component. Symposiums are 60-90 min in length. NEXT MEETING - Meet for a summer BBQ (and photo op for the newsletter) in July - just need to figure out where - also plan to meet in August regarding the newsletter.