Back to Basics...While Moving Forward
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As I see it, our ultimate goal is to be the Premier Sport & Exercise Association in the “ world. To get us there, we need to put our Volume 21 Issue 3 Fall/Winter 2006 Members First and let our Members Lead. Back to Basics...While Moving Forward As I step into the exercise scientists who focus on social psychology, health and exercise psychology, and performance enhancement issues. We presidency of AASP, need to embrace our interdisciplinarity, as this is our greatest strength. Although such diversity has the potential to fractionate the association, instead we come together as AASP working to enhance the field and drawing upon our extensive network” of I am awed by our member expertise. dynamic and vibrant Members First organization! I am To achieve our goals, it is essential to keep members involved and committed to AASP. The primary way to do this is to President's Column also humbled by the position the members as our main focus, place the membership above all else. That is why AASP exists, to meet the needs of Vikki Krane accomplishments the members. As Past President Dan Gould (1989) stated, “we must listen to our members.” The members are our strongest AAASP President of all the past- resource and we need to nurture greater grassroots involvement and leadership. This is a two way street, members have to be empowered to take initiative and get involved. Mechanisms are needed to ensure that the members’ voices are heard. Everyone presidents who have has the opportunity to nominate and vote for people to run for office (and more people need to take advantage of this). Yet, gotten us here. Marty Ewing specifically used the phrase additional avenues for member involvement are needed. This year, we included a member interest form in the conference that AASP should be the “go to” organization for anyone registration packet. Here individuals can express an interest in becoming a member of a specific committee or being considered for a future executive board position. This will allow executive board members to reach out to people we may not have known who is seeking information related to sport and exercise are interested in getting more involved. Additionally, the AASP website soon will be completely redesigned. The new site will psychology. I hope to carry on this quest and continue have the ability for members to provide feedback to the Executive Board as well as communicate with each other. The Executive our progress in this direction by focusing on 4 priorities: Board also is considering strategies to improve our communications with the committees and SIGS. The SIGS, in particular, truly create a path for grassroots leadership. SIGS evolve from member interest, they develop their own itinerary, and they (a) a return to our roots, (b) putting members first, (c) should guide the AASP leadership. Concomitantly, AASP needs to provide opportunities for mentoring less experienced members organizational transparency, and (4) moving forward. as well as create and support additional paths to leadership positions. Return to Our Roots Organizational Transparency We have an incredible history to build upon. Yet, at times, we need to AASP has grown considerable in the past 21 years. Several major changes have taken place in the past few years that have take pause and remind ourselves of our initial goals and reevaluate changed how we do the business of AASP. them. As stated in the AASP Constitution, our purpose is to “provide This had led to a situation where members may not realize all that is occurring within AASP. To minimize this, we are working leadership for the development of theory, research, and intervention to increase transparency (i.e., ensuring that members know what is happening in AASP). Specifically, members need to be strategies in sport and exercise psychology.” This still is the major apprised of our financial position and the initiatives and outreach activities that are taking place. Concerning our finances, impetus of this organization. John Silva (2005), in his historical several major changes have taken place whereby our major sources of income and expenses have changed over time. For overview at the 20th AAASP conference, described the founding example, in 1995, our conference was our major source of income (yielding about $39,000) while JASP cost the Association goals of AAASP: (a) embrace interdisciplinary nature of sport and about $7000. Today this has reversed and the conference costs us about $7000 whereas the journal is earning about $30,000. exercise psychology, (b) be member driven, (c) enhance professional It is important that members know this so that when they hear, for example, that the conference has lost money, they are standards, and (d) prioritize the needs and advancement of the field. able to put it in the larger context. Additionally, AASP now pays a conference management firm (Centennial Conference) and At this time in our history, I believe we need to revisit these worthy an association management firm (The Rees Group) to oversee the business of AASP. While it may appear that these firms cost goals and reconsider how we may better attain them. First, it is an excessive amount, AASP spends about 25% of our income on administration. (Groups that evaluate charities for potential important to consider what we describe as an “AASP identity.” Likely, donors suggest that no more than 30% of their income be spent on administration). when asking members to describe this identity, we will get widely differing responses. This is not necessarily problematic; we can’t In terms of our initiatives and outreach activities, AASP has taken a leadership role in the Action on Obesity (AOO), an expect everyone to get, or even want, the same things from AASP. interdisciplinary and multi-organizational effort to prevent and combat obesity (see www.actiononobesity.org). AASP supports However, as a whole it is important to consider who we are and what this effort by sending 3 representatives, including a major speaker, to the AOO meeting each year. Currently we are planning we do. We are researchers and practitioners, and psychologists and an Anti-Doping Congress, modeled after the AOO, to be held prior to our 2007 conference. A primary goal of this Congress to AASP ....continued from page 1 develop strategies to reduce doping in all sport and exercise settings. Executive Board, committees, and SIGS is essential. This may involve of sport and exercise psychology, and the general public seeking These initiatives place AASP in a prominent leadership position to rearranging our current committee structure, which is something the practical information. The new site will be much easier to modify tackle serious social problems that relate to exercise, health, and Executive Board already is discussing. Further, I want to cultivate our and update, to ensure the most current information is posted. We sport. Additional recent initiates have included the press releases grass roots leadership; members of SIGS need to be empowered to also plan to include a variety of additional innovations on the site to during the 2006 Winter Olympics providing suggestions for parent- provide ideas and feedback to the Executive Committee. Continuing to make it interesting, functional, and effective for members. Our goal child discussions about the sport events and sending AASP magnets develop additional avenues for member input also will remain at the is to have the new site up and running within 4-5 months. I with “Guidelines to Consider when Hiring a Sport Psychologist” to forefront of the Executive Board’s agenda. In the course of the upcoming year, AASP will continue to solidify all NCAA Division I athletic directors. AASP also sponsors community We also need to continue to emphasize the broad interests of our our position as the “go to” organization for sport and exercise workshops for local coaches and athletes prior to every conference, membership and the public. When it comes to exercise and sport, we psychology. As I see it, our ultimate goal is to be the Premier Sport and we are developing a speaker’s bureau to quickly accommodate must recognize and reach out to the wide range of diverse individuals & Exercise Psychology Association in the world. To get us there, we media requests. These are just some examples of our efforts to and groups based on, for example, skill level, activity, race and need to put our Members First and let our Members Lead. better promote AASP. ethnicity, age, and physical ability. It is important to remind both Moving Forward the public and AASP members of the diversity of our expertise and interests. Finally, we are embarking on a complete redesign of the Editor’s Note: This article is a summary of the What’s next for AASP? First, we need to continue working toward AASP website. As this is the public face of AASP, it is essential that the Presidential Address given at the 21st annual AASP Conference, our initial goals and making progress on the ongoing initiatives. site be inviting, educational, and informative. It will include sections September 29, 2006. In addition, my main priority is to ensure that members’ voices for the members, individuals seeking to learn more about the field are heard. Reinforcing effective lines of communication among the Congratulations to AASP’s Newest Certified Consultants! David Fletcher Rob Bell Kevin Stefanek Bernie Holliday Craig Rodgers Robert Neff Marc Strickland Taryn Morgan Larry Lauer Margaret Ottley Emma Grindley Adam Naylor Lori Gano-Overway Jamie Robbins Jacqueline Clayton-Van Patten Paula Parker Annie Franzia Sheldon Hanton 2 Editor’s Note I don’t know about you, but 6-mile runs on recently do I take a chance on healed legs during cool Fall days get me thinking...a someone I don’t know 5-6 lot.