Newsletter
Volume 31| 2008 | Number 2
ABAI Membership Board
By Dr. Rachel S. F. Tarbox
The Membership Board is comprised of the Student Committee, Fellows Selection Committee, Recruitment and Retention Committee, Application Review Committee, and the Organizational Review Committee. We have had yet another successful year, marked by both an increase in membership and attendance at our 34th annual convention.
The Student Committee has been very active this year, and we on the Membership Board would like to formally welcome Erick Dubuque as the new Student Committee Chair. We would also like to thank Corina Jimenez-Gomez and Marianne Jackson for all of their hard work toward continuing to make the Student Committee active and effective. Please see the Student Committee report in this newsletter for a complete summary of their activities.
The Fellows Committee has several new announcements. The current Fellows selection committee members are: Judith Favell, Brian Iwata, Jerry Shook, Kennon A. (Andy) Lattal and Michael Davison, Chair. Sadly, it is time for Jack Marr to end his term and we sincerely thank him for his contributions toward the establishment and success of the Fellows Committee. We are pleased to welcome Michael Davison as the new Chair of the Fellows Committee, and Andy Lattal as the new Experimental representative on the committee.
Amanda Adams has been selected as the new Chair of the Recruitment and Retention Committee. We look forward to the energy that she will bring to this important position and thank her for agreeing to serve in this role.
We would like thank Jack Michael for serving as the chair of the Application Review Committee (ARC) since 1989. Without Dr. Michael’s outstanding contributions, ABAI would not have become the vital organization it is today. Edward K. Morris has graciously agreed to step into this position. Since taking over, Dr. Morris has formed a three-person review committee to review the ABAI bylaws concerning full membershipThe committee now includes himself, Adam Derenne and Ruth Anne Rehfeldt. The committee has developed a “Requirements and Documentation” manual. The manual does not alter ABAI’s bylaws for full membership, but it does request more documentation to meet the requirements specified in them. At the point which this newsletter article is being submitted, the ARC is reviewing the full membership applications using the original documentation requirements. Once these are complete, the new documentation standards will be published and become the standards for reviewing the applications. We would like to formally thank the new ARC for all of their time and commitment during this process.
The Organizational Review Committee (ORC) has had yet another successful year. The mission of this committee is “to assess the quality of applicants for organizational membership and their appropriateness for acceptance, as well as the adequacy of materials they submit to ABAI for printed or electronic publication.” We would like to thank Jay Moore for his continued efforts as the Chair of this committee, and David Wilder and Jennifer Austin for their work as committee members. The ORC continues to review applications and advertising materials for ABAI and ABAI-sponsored events; a list of approved organizations can be found on the ABAI Web site.
Finally, my term as the Membership Board Coordinator has come to a close. It has been an honor to hold this position during such an exciting time in the growth and development of our field and our organization. I would like to thank ABAIfor this opportunity and all of the ABAI members for your support and we anticipate yet another productive year.