Newsletter
Volume 29 | 2006 | Number 2
News from and to the Affiliated Chapters
Dr. R. Douglas Greer
Affiliated Chapters Board Coordinator
The numbers of affiliated chapters has grown significantly since the early days of ABA. However, the whole is different than the sum of the parts! There are a number of members of affiliated chapter who are not members of ABA International. One of our goals should be to encourage members of the affiliated chapters to join us at the ABA International table. The affiliate chapters can also assist ABA International in another regard – the continuation of post-student membership in ABA.
Our fastest-growing segment is our international chapters, whose membership numbers now slightly exceeds the membership numbers of national chapters (there are 29 international chapters and 31 US chapters, but slightly more members in the international chapters). For me, the growth in international membership is gratifying. It is clear that the international affiliates represent a critical and growing component of our field, not only in terms of their membership, but also in what I believe are significant new contributions to our science. I remember that Fred Keller was taken aback the year that ABA first declared itself an international association. I don’t think he believed that we were international in scope at that time. Sid Bijou played a critical part in helping ABA to become international in scope, especially in the early days. I think both he and Fred Keller would be pleased, as we all should be, that ABA is, in fact, becoming a truly international organization. Of course, the translation of Skinner’s work in over thirty different languages was the seminal influence. It is my hope to assist the international community in still greater growth and influence. Simon Dymond is the new International Representative to the ABA Council and he is an important scientific contributor as well as organizational contributor.
The affiliated chapters assist members at the local level in several ways, one of the most important of which is to provide conferences. These annual conferences increasingly appear to be major means for the dissemination and translation of better practice. More than twenty affiliated chapters provide annual conferences. Eleven of the US chapters hold annual conferences, and some of those chapters have been doing so for a number of years. In addition, ten of the international chapters reported that they maintain annual conferences. I have had the pleasure of attending conferences in Ireland, England (EABG), Poland, Italy, Korea, Norway, Israel, Spain, and Brazil and can attest to the enthusiasm and growth of those organizations. I do think the greatest needs in many of the international chapters are the growth of applied expertise for working with children with disabilities, therapy, teaching as applied behavior analysis in general education (to bridge the international educational gap), and organizational behavior analysis. The development of applied expertise in international university programs will, and already has, served to strengthen the status of behavior analysis in institutions of higher education. This has, and will, protect and strengthen the well-established basic science programs already found in many international university programs.
The 45 chapters that provided recent reports indicated the need for assistance and support for the following issues:
- promotion/dissemination/publication (22 chapters)
- support for and the strengthening of practice and practitioners (17 chapters),
- running annual conferences (15 chapters),
- membership growth,
- legislations/advocacy/insurance (8 chapters),
- research/science/technology support (7 chapters),
- support of educational opportunities/higher education/student support (6 chapters),
- financial solvency and growth (5 chapters),
- scientific integrity of the field (1 chapter),
- the need to promote ethical issues (1 chapter), and
- becoming a non-profit organization (1 chapter).
The availability of the traditional journals on line and the growth of new on-line journals are one way that we can deal with the top concern listed by the chapters. These concerns were communicated to the Council, whose members will, I am sure, be mindful of these issues.
Our International track in the annual convention continued for the third year and the members of the Spanish-speaking community gave a presentation entirely in Spanish for and by Spanish-speaking scientists. There is still a critical need to provide accurate and up-to-date treatments of our science in textbooks in other languages. These presentations provide the way for more publications in other languages.
Over the course of the year, I will be consulting with our chapters on tactics and strategies that we can use to:
- involve more members of affiliated chapters to join ABA International,
- encourage post-student membership in affiliated chapters and in ABA International,
- provide greater publication sources in English and other languages,
- allow ABA to assist affiliate chapters in dealing with support of professional practice.
Strengthening effective and data-based practice at the level of the affiliated chapters will, in the long run, serve to deliver the best practice methods to the international community.