Newsletter
Volume 29 | 2006 | Number 2
California ABA
By Dr. H. Keith Massel, BCBA
The California Association for Behavior Analysis (CalABA) continues to be a growing Affiliated Chapter with 710 current members. This is an increase of 126 members since 2004 and 68 members since 2005. Two hundred and four of our members are currently students.
Our most recent conference was held in February of this year in Burlingame, near the San Francisco airport. The conference was attended by 781 people. Ted Ayllon was the recipient of the Outstanding Contributor to Behavior Analysis Award. Featured presenters included Wayne Fisher, Timothy Vollmer, Patrick Friman, and Mark Sundberg.
Three items of B.F. Skinner’s memorabilia were auctioned at the lunch and awards ceremony at the conference. The items were a signed color photo of Skinner, a mock-up of the “Schedules of Reinforcement†book, and a Harvard address stamp. The address stamp was only open to bidding by students. There was spirited bidding for all items, to the benefit of the B.F. Skinner Foundation and CalABA.
Many workshops and other presentations at our conference were available for continuing education credits for psychologists and Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs). Speech therapists, audiologists, marriage and family therapists, and social workers were also able to receive continuing education credits.
The 2007 conference will again be held in Burlingame from February 8-10 at the San Francisco Airport Hyatt, just a hop, skip and a jump from downtown San Francisco. We warmly welcome attendees from other states. Please visit http://calaba.org for more details.
CalABA continues to strive to create an environment in California that is supportive of behavior analysis. CalABA members helped to persuade the California legislature to pass a bill in July 2004 that allows BCBAs to provide behavioral services for individuals with exceptional needs. Currently, CalABA is monitoring the Autistic Spectrum Disorders: Guidelines for Effective Interventions project, which is being conducted by the California Department of Developmental Services. CalABA is trying to assure that the project’s recommendations focus on the current state of empirically-validated treatment outcome research for individuals with autism.
CalABA’s Web site has information on employment opportunities in California, graduate training programs, continuing education providers, behavior analysis events, policies that affect behavior analysts, and CalABA membership.