SRP 1998: Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Board

Present: Mike Raulin, Mike O'Hara, Greg Miller, Barbara Cornblatt, Deborah Levy, Phil Holzman, Keith Nuechterlein, Ray Knight, Jill Hooley, Suzanne King, Scott Monroe, Lee Anna Clark, Mike Young

Unable to attend: Mike Dawson, Elaine Walker, Howard Berenbaum

Called to order at 8:00 AM by Mike O'Hara

Phil Holzman commented on how successful the meeting was, with a record attendance and a fine program. He felt that the program was a bit too crowded however, a sentiment shared by many board members. It was agreed that the program chair for next year should emphasize invited speakers, shorter paper sessions (up to 3 papers) with time for discussion, and rely more heavily on posters. Phil also reported that it proved to be very difficult to get publishers to sponsor an add in the program, but that such sponsorships could help to make the conference better by providing funds for the program and local arrangements people to hire necessary services. We discussed possible approaching drug companies to explore additional sources of sponsorship money.

Motion: A subcommittee should be appointed to consider the implications of soliciting support from drug companies and possibly investigate the availability of such funds. Motion passed unanimously. The committee appointed included King, Schooler, O'Hara, and Monroe.

Mike O'Hara noted that he wanted to have informal contact with the board via e-mail in March and July of next year, rather than wait until next November to conduct all board business. Mike Raulin will look into setting up a listserv discussion network for the Board to facilitate this kind of interaction.

Mike O'Hara thanked Phil Holzman for his fine work as president, Jill Hooley for her fine efforts in organizing the hotel and meeting, Deborah Levy and the rest of the members of the program committee for their excellent work on the program, and the two departing board members (Monroe and Green) for their service to the organization.

Jill Hooley noted that there should be a better way to announce the meetings. Mike Raulin reported that he has been working on a plan for a web site that will include a link to a site detailing local arrangements. Mike will look into getting a suitable domain name for the site.

Ray Knight reported that we are clearly going to be able to cover all conference expenses with registration fees from the conference. Mike O'Hara asked Ray to prepare a breakdown of expenses to help guide decisions on future conferences.

Ray Knight reported that he did file all necessary tax documents earlier this year.

For the record, Mike O'Hara noted that all incorporation documents for SRP are in his possession. SRP was incorporated in Iowa.

Barbara Cornblatt asked if there was interest in trying to make psychopathology research more visible among psychology groups such as APS. She and Mike Green recently attended an APS conference. Although both she and Mike felt that the conference was not well organized, she was struck about how little people seemed to know about psychopathology research. We tabled this discussion for now, but Barbara will talk to key people about this issue in preparation for a more extended discussion in March. Phil Holzman suggested having announcements of our meeting and program appear in APA and APS publications.

Next Year's Meeting: Suzanne King
Suzanne reported that she has been negotiating with one hotel, but has run into some snags. She may have to go with another hotel. Every effort will be made to have the banquet on Saturday because it creates fewer conflicts, especially for members who are Orthodox Jews. Everyone agreed that conference tables in the main meeting hall is important. Suzanne is planning an early first mailing and will be reminding everyone that passports will be needed.

Next Year's Program: Mike Young
Mike noted that he wants to encourage more discussion at both paper and symposium sessions. This year the tight schedule often made that impossible. The board reaffirmed the authority of the program chair to exercise strong guidance on content and presentational details in papers and symposia in order to create the best possible program. With symposia in particular, the board wanted to be sure that the symposia are not simply individual papers with no attempt at conceptual integration or discussion. After considerable discussion, it was decided that we would again have two poster sessions (Thursday evening and Sunday morning) and no parallel sessions.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:30AM

Respectfully submitted,
Michael Raulin
Secretary