Newsletter
Volume 31| 2008| Number 2
Manitoba ABA
By Kirsten Wirth
The Manitoba Association for Behaviour Analysis (MABA) is in its third official year of affiliate status with ABAI. Over the past year we have met several goals: we provided an outstanding newsletter to our membership, presented a poster at the ABAI conference in San Diego, held a conference with Dick Malott as our guest speaker, held booths at several conferences in Manitoba, and increased our membership by 29%. For 2008 we have set similar goals and have established several committees within our organization to reach and surpass those goals. Our committee areas are composed of public relations, conference, newsletter, and membership. Each committee has set specific targets for the year. Specifically, we would like to actively work towards achieving our mission of promoting behaviour analysis in our province through each committee. We plan to increase our newsletter output to two newsletters per calendar year and provide information that will target expert and novice behaviour analysts. The newsletter will have several segments: research reports; professional development; reviews on books, Webcasts, articles, Web sites, application of behaviour analysis to areas people often do not know about, and information on behavioural services in Manitoba. We have a very strong behaviour analytic membership base and would like to increase our membership to include additional members outside of our area. We will target media releases both written and auditory and try to reach a wide audience by discussing issues that are pertinent to the general public. Topics we are pursuing include providing the do’s and don’ts of using time-outs with children, effective study tips for university students, and how to determine if a treatment option is worth considering. Planning is underway for our 3rd annual conference, October 18, 2008, and we look forward to this year’s guest speakers, Maurice Feldman and Linda J. Parrott Hayes. Finally, we wish to support the growth of behaviour analysis in Manitoba by providing advocacy support to the University of Manitoba’s ABA faculty for increasing academic positions in the area. As we all know, behaviour analysis as a field has demonstrated solid procedures for changing countless behaviours over numerous years of research. Unfortunately, those who appreciate that the most are behaviour analysts. All too often other approaches claim effectiveness with little to no empirical support. The unfortunate outcome is that the general public tends to accept these dramatic claims that have no evidence, while rejecting ours, often the only approach that is based on science. The success of system-wide application of behaviour analysis is going to rest largely on translational research, good education, and effective marketing, which is currently lacking. Local affiliate ABAI Chapters have an obligation to reach their public and teach society. The Manitoba Association for Behaviour Analysis is still very new, but we are committed to working towards dissemination to society in our province. This is a hefty long-term goal, but we can help pave the way for others who are interested in making social change and introduce behaviour analysis to the general public.