The AK-PA Board of Directors met on August 28th for a 5 hour online retreat to welcome new board members and officers while giving an overview of finances, review the past 12 months’ accomplishments and plan the next 6 months. It was also Executive Director Marvo Reguindin’s one year anniversary with AK-PA.

12-Month Review

The accomplishments can be found at this link.

Finances

The financial review showed that compared to August 2020, the association is in decent shape despite membership numbers being low. The gross income had a 29% gain due to providing two successful CE workshops, however there was a 12% drop in membership fees and a 4% drop from APA’s Small State Grant.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no travel expenses to D.C. to attend the APA Practice Leadership Conference so expenses were 39% lower. The increased revenue and lower expenses resulted in a 893% increased net income compared to August 2020.

Board Actions

Three board actions were discussed and voted on:

  1. AK-PAGs Board Member’s Vote. The AK-PAGs board position was not a voting position but all agreed the importance of allowing students board members to vote. There was a discussion of Hawaii Psychological Association allowing a student from their two universities to share a seat and vote on the board. It was decided to adopt this policy and cap the student board number to two.
    • Motion: Allow AK-PAGs members to be voting board members and cap the number of students who serve on the board to one per university (two in total).
    • Motion approved: 6 in-favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstentions
  2. Faculty Membership Level. APA President, Arthur Evans, has a goal for state psychological associations to broaden their membership base of clinicians to include all psychologists. Board president Ruddy Taylor has begun reaching out to UAA and APU to begin collaboration and support of each other and ask for UAA representation on the AK-PA Board, which allows AK-PA to  gain Dr. Michelle Fellows who is now serving as board secretary. The board discussed a lower membership rate for faculty because they are not in need of CE credits. Other non-clinical psychologists could benefit from this membership so the name of the membership level was also discussed.
    • Motion: Add an Affiliate Membership level for non-clinical/research/academic members at the same rate as Full Member – 1st Year ($110)
      • Motion approved: 6 in-favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstentions
  3. Membership Anniversary Renewal. The current renewal is based on a calendar year with those joining mid-year receiving a prorated first year fee. This is an old model that requires members to pay in full and because it is a calendar year the payment is before, during, or right after the holidays. The Membership Anniversary Model bases membership on 12 months from the time of joining and in the case of a very late renewal. It will also allow members to make quarterly payments.
    • Motion: Change the membership renewal from calendar dates to anniversary dates.
      • Motion approved: 6 in-favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstentions

Planning

Board meetings will be moved to the first Wednesday of the month from 6 pm to 7 pm. All reports will be submitted in writing to allow the bulk of the meeting to topic discussions. The meetings will be via Zoom.

FASD Sponsorship/NW Psychological Convention

The Dept. of Health and Social Services awarded AK-PA a $10,000 sponsorship to promote FASD to increase the number of informed and engaged psychologists and mental health providers in Alaska, and if possible beyond. Washington State Psychological Assoc. has invited AK-PA to present an introduction to FASD and co-sponsor the event which has been rebranded Northwest Psychological Association on October 15th. All registrations to the convention from the AK-PA website will be retained by AK-PA.

Committee Updates/Highlights

  • Continuing Education
    • An external CE workshop was approved over the summer. We are now charging for this service as another small income stream. We have a psychologist board members (2) review the application and then the executive director communicates the decision to the applicant. We will reach out to members interested in reviewing CE applications.
  • Diversity
    • The committee will continue townhall meetings every 3-6 months.
  • Ethics
    • The committee will solidify policies and procedures to provide ethics consultations and then market it as a benefit of membership. A goal would be to offer consultations other mental health professionals
    • Also want to move towards delivering “fun” ethics trainings. Consider a CE training for the student group?
  • Legislative
    • UAA reached out to see if our efforts on the MLA legislation could be aligned with changes they are pushing for surrounding LPA regulations. APA is moving towards accrediting Master’s level programs so these efforts are aimed at strengthening AK’s licensing ahead of that. Marvo will connect our lobbyist with Dr. Eldridge and Dr. Sandberg. This is an opportunity to provide value for academic psychologists.