Inside Behavior Analysis
Volume 1 | 2009 | Number 1
Tennessee ABA
By Jason Otto
The Tennessee Association for Behavior Analysis (TABA) is an affiliate chapter of the Association for Behavior Analysis International officially formed in 1997. TABA's mission is to advance awareness, development, and access to the practice of behavior analysis in the State of Tennessee. Our membership currently consists primarily of clinicians in the area of Applied Behavior Analysis. However, we have a growing contingent of researchers, students, consumers, and other professionals. TABA offers several events during the year for ongoing education and CEUs for Behavior Analysts. The Annual TABA Conference provides an opportunity for state and regional Behavior Analysts to come together to learn about new research and practices, as well as providing a venue for local Behavior Analysts to present their own work. TABA provides opportunities for its members to network and communicate regarding issues that directly pertain to their practice in Behavior Analysis within the state and nationally. TABA has three different membership categories: Full Membership, Affiliate Membership, and Student Membership. More information regarding membership can be found at: www.taba.org.
TABA had its 11th annual conference November 7-9, 2008, at the Opryland Hotel; Nashville, TN. TABA was able to provide attendees the opportunity to receive 18 CEU's. We had great invited presenters, as well as many great local presenters. The conference was a great success with attendees ranging from Applied Behavior Analysts, to students and parents.
Our Continuing Education Committee is hard at work planning our 12th annual conference! The 2009 conference will be October 23-24, 2009, at the Scarritt-Bennett Center, Nashville, TN. We will have great invited presenters, including: Jerry Shook, Linda Hayes, Sigrid Glenn, Joey Reyes, and Jim Carr. The early registration deadline is September 15, 2009. You can register on-site after September 15, 2009. To find out more information regarding membership, registration, and presentation submissions please check out our website at: www.taba.org.
TABA has several goals for the 2009-2010 year. One will be to continue to offer members opportunities for education and CEU's through the planning of our annual conference. Our second major goal is to obtain non-profit status to secure TABA's financial stability in the future. Progress has been made on this goal through the efforts of our Director of Operations and a nonprofit consulting group hired to assist in the non-profit application process. A third goal is to educate our membership on current legislative issues, such as licensure. This is a concern both statewide and nationally for our members. Our Professional Standards Committee has gathered information from The Association for Professional Behavior Analysts (APBA), as well as The Association for Behavior Analysis (ABAI) Practice Board regarding legislation and licensure. There has been no determination as to what Tennessee Behavior Analysts feel is the appropriate actions regarding legislation in our state at this time. However, from the discussions with these two national organizations, it is clear that one thing TABA needs to do immediately is form closer relationships with other groups affiliated with or that use Behavior Analysis. In Tennessee, as with most states, there is not a large number of Behavior Analysts; therefore we must foster relationships with those groups who will be able to support behavior analysis legislation should there be a need.