MINUTES Section for Students in Psychology (SOSIP), OPA Tuesday, May 18, 1999 6:30-8:30 pm Chair: Steve Biggs Secretary: Kim Watson Present: Allan Eng, Karen Fergus, Sandra Jackson, and Alberta Pos Regrets: Kim Gordon, Pavla Reznicek, and Teri Sota 1) OPA STRATEGIC PLANNING OPA underwent some structural changes, as a result of their recent strategic planning meeting. Kim Gordon attended in Steve's place, as he had a prior commitment. Steve briefly summarized the changes; if anyone would like more detail, check with Kim G. The new governance structure makes the Executive and the Committees more functional and autonomous. There are now 5 main committees that are part of the structure: Financial Planning and Auditing; External Affairs; Fund Development; Governance; and Professional Affairs. There are two additional committees that currently are not part of the organizational chart: Scientific Advisory Council and the Council of Section Presidents. Steve reported that it is not clear currently where student representation fits into the new governance plan, but he was confident that there would be a place for us. Certainly there is a lot of opportunity for involvement with Committees, and we may have a seat on the Board. 2) FINANCIAL STATUS OF OPA Steve reported that OPA has a $90,000 deficit. They are currently making cuts to address the debt. The Fund Committee will consult with the American Psychological Association for suggestions, as the APA recovered from a heavy debt a few years ago. 3) RORCHACH WORKSHOP (Exner System) Steve reported that SOSIP now owns 1/2 an overhead projector, as a result of the Rorschach workshop (we requested an overhead, and OPA purchased one and then billed us for 1/2 the cost). Despite this extra expense, we earned a profit of $213. Kim W and Alberta were participants of the workshop and reported that it was a success, and the Dr. Bardikoff was impressive. The workshop was focused primarily upon how to score the Rorschach. Allan pointed out that it probably would be viable to offer more workshops, such as one focused on interpreting the Rorschach. Other suggestions included the WAIS-III or the MMPI. There seems to be a lot of interest, the workshops are easy enough to organize, and they turn a profit. 4) SOSIP ACTIVITIES: Item 3 led to a more general discussion regarding SOSIP activities. Steve reported that there are several upcoming opportunities for anyone interested, but given our limited resources; we need to make some decisions about what our priorities are over the next year. a) The OPA convention is to take place in early spring, but there is no convention committee at the moment. Joel Goldberg has chaired the committee for years, but he resigned this year. OPA is in the midst of forming a new committee and they do need members. This would be a good opportunity for students to meet others and to gain experience in organizing large events. b) The Section on Independent Practice will be supporting a Mental Health Fair for the general public in the fall, and they are interested in student involvement. c) The president of the Section on Independent Practice, Barb Bresver, has expressed interest in making our Mentorship Program a focus of their section. This led to a discussion about the Mentorship Program - it is essentially non-existent right now. We decided to gather any historical data on the program to ascertain what has been done to date, and to decide on a future direction. Alan will contact Maria to see what information she has, and to invite her to our next meeting to apprise us regarding how the program was started, what mentorship involves, etc. Sandra will contact Carla to see if she has any pertinent information. The next meeting, on July 1st (see item # 7) will be devoted to discussion of the Mentorship Program. d) We need to establish a President-Elect, and it will be that person's responsibility to oversee the thesis contest. Allan indicated that he might be interested if he could be a co-president with someone else. Steve encouraged us to give this issue some thought, as we'll want to name someone soon. Steve reported that organizing the thesis contest is not very time-consuming, and that he has a database of everyone he contacted last year. e) Karen pointed out that we should give some thought to recruiting more people to SOSIP. At York, Kim W, Kim G, and Alberta should perhaps spread the word to students. Allan will send out a general call for membership at OISE, both for general SOSIP and for executive memberships. Allan reported that in the past, teams of SOSIP executives and OPA members visited psychology departments in the fall to recruit new members, and that this was rather successful. We discussed the possibility of doing this again. Sandra suggested that this would be most useful if we have something more to offer new members, such as a Mentorship Program. Another suggestion was that we add job postings and student-for-hire profiles to the web page, as another service to members. We decided that our three most immediate priorities are: to name a president-elect; to begin working on the thesis contest; and to re-establish the Mentorship Program. 5) NEWSLETTER We still need profiles from SOSIP executive members for the newsletter - please submit your profile to Allan (email: allaneng@oise.utoronto.ca) by June 1st. The newsletter will be posted on the web page instead of being sent out via mail. 6) SOSIP FINANCIAL STATUS Allan reported that SOSIP currently has just over $5,000 in the budget, and Steve added that there is approximately another $800 in membership dues that have not yet been transferred from OPA. 7) NEXT MEETING The next meeting will be held Tuesday, June 1st at 1:30 pm, at OISE in room 9-297. The focus of this meeting will be the Mentorship Program (see item #4-C).