MINUTES
OPA - Section of Students in Psychology
October 8, 1998

Chair:          Sandra Jackson
Secretary:      Karen Fergus
Present:        Pavla Reznicek, Kim Watson, Alberta Pos, Jason Ramsay,
                Allan Eng, Kim Gordon, Steve Biggs,

OPA Governance Review - Update:
-Review of OPA has taken place and recommendations included:
-There will no longer be a SOSIP member on the Executive but there will still be one on the Board.
-A lot of work will now be done on a committee level (e.g., Nominations Committee, Professional Development Committee, Public Education Committee) and students are welcome to sit on these committees.
-The Board Development Committee (organized to act on recommendations) requires a student representative - Sandra volunteered

Primary Care Reform:
-Government has announced sites for Primary Care Units - now important to submit proposals to the various sites lobbying for the inclusion of psychological services.
-There is currently a task force in place comprised of Ruth Berman and John Van Deursen
-Alberta expressed an interest in participating

OPA Response to College Re: Psychological Associate Delegation:
-College has approved M.A. practitioner's appeal for the right to diagnose
-Main concern is that this is the first step towards the establishment of
M.A. level psychologists in Ontario
-The Agreement on Internal Trade which seeks to increase mobility of professionals between provinces also factors in because new legislation makes it easier to establish a federal standard 
-At this point, almost all provinces are in agreement to support Ph.D. being the minimal level for psychologists.  In order the make this happen, current M.A. level practitioners will be grandfathered for licensing for registered psychologist designation.
-Sandra urging everyone to participate in the letter writing campaign - the more M.A. level people in favour of Ph.D. being the minimal level of training for psychologists, the better.
-Steve expressed concern about alienating the M.A. practitioners and the detrimental effect this will have on the cohesiveness of the organization.

Financial Status:
-As of yet, we do not know what SOSIP's financial status is.
-We need to recuperate losses from last year's SOSIP workshop - $1000 (due to misquote regarding printing costs).  OPA is covering half, so we owe $500.

-OPA encouraging all sections to make a donation toward the organization's deficit
-OPA has had to cut their financial support to all sections, however SOSIP was the section least affected by this.
-Many sections are compensating by increasing member dues.
-The exact contribution SOSIP can make depends on where we stand financially, so this decision is pending our financial report 
- Allan and Jason will provide financial report for next meeting.

Update on Mentor Program:
-Originally established to develop collegiality and a more formal structure for raising psychologists
-Jason would like to continue maintaining the program
-Previous problems the result of difficulty matching students and mentors geographically.  This difficulty can be addressed by (1) making the matching procedure more general, and (2) coming up with different modes of communication, e.g., possibility of mentorship through the Internet
-Jason would like to set up a small sub-committee to sort through student applications.  He also expressed an interest in gathering data with the intention of improving the mentorship program.
-Jason will be speaking with ex-SOSIP members involved in the program, Maria Medved and Carla Mardonet.

Student Web Page:
-Steve has the SOSIP web page up and just about running
-It is a link-based web page providing access to OPA site, graduate programs across Ontario and other relevant associations
-It describes who we are and will be a place to post an electronic version of the newsletter.
-The web page should be ready in a month or two.
-Steve is also working on getting a list-serve operating as another means of communicating with one another.

Update on Contacting Universities:
-Kim G. and Kim W. are in the process of calling around to graduate programs for their list-serve addresses and have heard back from approximately half of the departments
-Hoping to find out if we need to get home addresses or if we can mail to students through the university - also wanting to learn about the student government structure in the various graduate programs
-Goal: to get thesis submissions by the end of the year for Thesis Contest

Newsletter:
-Allan and Karen in the process of collecting articles and submissions
-requested each member of the SOSIP executive to provide a short (2-3 lines) biographical sketch (preferably informal) and a photograph.  Leave photos in Karen's (York) or Allan's (OISE) mail box 
-e-mail submissions to Allan by Saturday, October 17th

Rorschach Workshop:
- Pavla been in contact with Dr. Allan Bardikoff who has proposed 4 workshops: 1 evening per week for a month, 2 hours per session.  The workshops would involve administration, scoring and interpretation using the Exner system.
- Fee: $125.00 per evening (excluding purchase of Exner Workbook)
- we found this to be very generous but agreed to proposed fee for the initial workshop (as this will be the first Exner workshop which Dr. Bardikoff has conducted), with re-negotiation of fee for subsequent workshops.
- Agreed 15 people maximum, and that participants would sign up for block of all 4 workshops rather than one at a time.
-discussed possibilities for location: OPA or OISE - Allan will investigate availability at OISE
-Pavla to discuss with Dr. Bardikoff issues pertaining to: (1) range of experience of participants, (2) suggested readings prior to commencement of workshop, (3) suitable dates
-Workshop dates: - Some time in January?
-SOSIP will order workbooks once dates are fixed.

Conference Billeting Project:
-Intended for students from outside Toronto who wish to attend OPA Conference (Feb. 24-27, 1999) but can't afford hotel costs.
-Agreed to informally collect names of people willing to billet someone and information regarding: Smoking, Pets, Gender, Access to TTC, Availability of Parking - send information to Sandra
-Will also include announcement in Newsletter regarding potential billeters and demand for accommodations - limited space available.


NEXT MEETING:   Thursday, November 5 - 6:30 pm