Newsletter
Volume 29 | 2006 | Number 3
ABA Now and in Days to Come: News from the ABA Executive Council
By Dr. Thomas Critchfield, ABA President
ABA’s Future
ABA ’s current good fortune is comforting but does not assure that we are addressing the issues that dictate future success. Elsewhere in this issue, I describe what I believe to be ABA’s overarching long-term hurdle, integrating an increasingly diverse membership. In keeping with that theme of integration, here I will describe three general areas of challenge and opportunity that were addressed in some detail by the Council and that cut across the traditional missions of the field: research, education, and practice.
The Annual Convention
To the typical ABA member, the annual convention is a five-day event in May, but those five days are the culmination of a year-round effort by many people. For example, one overwhelming task each year is processing around 1,500 volunteer submissions. Not long ago, the average time to process and acknowledge a submission was about one month. Currently, due to process improvements in the ABA office, including implementation of a Web-based submission system, that delay is down to one day. Screening, organizing, and scheduling of submissions has been managed by Program Co-Coordinators (currently Bill Palya and Ramona Houmanfar) and an Area Coordinator in each of the program’s topical divisions. To lighten this load and to provide for continuity when terms end, each program area will now be overseen by Co-Coordinators who serve staggered terms. This change should also allow Area Coordinators to give additional attention to the quality of volunteer submissions.
Among the most popular convention events in recent years have been invited addresses and tutorials. The Program Board will continue to recruit informative invited speakers and to showcase them, when possible, in larger meeting rooms. In the future, watch for the debut of the B.F. Skinner Lecturer series. Area Coordinators will be given new resources to use in recruiting invited speakers who are not ABA members and might not otherwise attend our convention. This series is intended to broaden the range of topics and perspectives addressed in the convention program and to bolster ABA’s relationships with other disciplines.
To the typical ABA member, the annual convention is a forum for exchange of the latest ideas, but the convention also generates most of the income that allows ABA to serve the field during the rest of the year. In this sense, convention growth has helped ABA on many levels, but a major challenge looms, as ABA is fast outgrowing even the largest convention hotels. One solution is to move the meeting to a convention center, but the practical and financial ramifications of this are still under study. Another solution is to cap the size of the annual meeting. This, however, would place limits on opportunities to present, something to which members have voiced loud objections in the past. Consequently, the Council is wrestling with how to keep the annual convention both inclusive and affordable. This is a conversation in progress, but one that will need to yield concrete action by the 2009 convention (2010 at the latest).
Growth in Organized Behavior Analysis
Behavior analysis continues to proliferate, not only within ABA, but also within more than 60 affiliated chapters across the world. One telling measure is that ABA’s international membership has grown faster than membership in the United States. Moreover, membership in affiliated chapters outside of the United States now exceeds that of domestic chapters. It seems obvious that ABA should continue its popular and successful international development efforts.
Outreach
Many ABA members have expressed frustration that policy makers and members of the general public know too little about, or do not sufficiently value, the successes of behavioral science and practice. During the coming few years, a variety of ABA projects will address this concern.
Research advocacy. With regard to research and public policy, ABA will sustain two ongoing efforts that allow ABA to maximize its influence by working collaboratively with other groups that share its interests. ABA will continue membership in the Federation of Behavioral, Cognitive, and Psychological Sciences, a coalition of scientific societies devoted to legislative advocacy on behalf of science policy and research funding. ABA’s voice in these matters is important to the more than 300 ABA members who collectively report receiving over $30 million in extramural research funding per year, and to the many other members whose research is potentially fundable.
Because much basic behavior analysis research is conducted with nonhuman subjects, ABA also will continue its affiliation with the Association for Advancement and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC), which supports animal research by promoting humane laboratory practices. Being a member organization earns ABA a representative on AAALAC’s board of directors and thereby guarantees ABA will have input as animal care and use policies evolve.
Dissemination to the public. During 2007, ABA will undertake a pilot project to increase awareness of the benefits of behavior analysis to both science and practice. A task force is being assembled to oversee this project and to evaluate its effectiveness. With the help of a public relations firm, ABA will increase positive coverage of behavior analysis in the popular media. Among the preliminary goals of this project are to generate media attention to the 2007 convention in San Diego, and to enhance the utility of ABA’s Web page to the press and members of the public who seek information about the field. Another interest is in providing a mechanism through which affiliate groups who mount their own public relations efforts may share information about techniques and successes.
Second, in 2008 ABA will launch Applying Behavior Analysis, a peer-reviewed journal for practitioners and the people who train and supervise them. The periodical’s mission is to promote empirically validated best practices in an accessible format that describes not only what works, but also the challenges of implementation in practical settings. The Executive Council is thrilled to announce that Dorothea Lerman of the University of Houston-Clear Lake will serve as the Founding Editor of Applying Behavior Analysis, and will work in concert with Associate Editors Greg Hanley of the University of Kansas and Stephanie Peterson of Idaho Sate University. Watch for calls for papers and other information about this new publication during 2007.
Third, as part of a relatively new series of specialty meetings, ABA will host a 2008 conference on evidence-based education that will bring together behavior analysts, policy makers, and representatives of other fields and organizations that are grappling with the challenges of evidence-based practice. Education is an area of vast opportunity for our field, and recent years have seen increasing public demand for accountable, effective practices, a cultural shift that should favor behavior analytic approaches. Consequently, the conference has two goals: to highlight the current and potential contributions of behavior analysis to evidence-based education, and to inform interested behavior analysts about current developments in the pursuit of evidence-based practice generally.
Speaking of specialty conferences, time still remains to register for ABA’s conference on Progress and Challenges in the Behavioral Treatment of Autism, which will be held February 2-4, 2007 in Boston. For more information, go HERE.