Newsletter
Volume 28 | 2005 | Number 3
A Message from the ABA President
By Frances K. McSweeney, Ph.D.
Dr. Frances McSweeney
ABA is a highly efficient, effective, and growing organization. In 2001, we had approximately 2,500 members. Today, we have close to 4,700. Our convention is also strong and growing. For example, the number of submissions in the Experimental Analysis of Behavior program area increased from approximately 159 in 2000 to more approximately 217 for 2005. In spite of our success, however, ABA cannot afford to rest on its laurels. Instead, the Executive Council has been working to strengthen all aspects of our organization including our experimental base, our support for applied work, our international connections, our services to students, and our convention.
Several current initiatives are aimed at strengthening our scientific base. We conducted a workshop on grantsmanship from February 22 to 24, 2005. Eight prominent behaviorists provided insights about how to obtain grants. We’re also trying to place our two journals (The Behavior Analyst and The Analysis of Verbal Behavior) in electronic format. Our choice for this effort is PubMed Central, maintained by the National Institutes of Health. The application process for posting on PubMed Central is competitive so we cannot be certain that our journals will be accepted, but the journals will be in good company if we succeed. PubMed Central will also provide electronic services for the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis.
We have several initiatives underway to improve our support for applied work. We hope to offer a workshop on autism in the Northeast in 2007. The workshop will be aimed at parents and practitioners. If successful, it will be offered again in other locations and workshops will be developed on other topics. ABA’s continuing education program has been developed to meet the needs of practitioners. For instance, at the annual convention in Atlanta, ABA provided over 6,300 credits to BACB certified behavior analysts. The Executive Council may also start a translational journal to be used by practitioners. We will survey our members about their interest in such a journal soon
Since 2002, our international membership has doubled, and ABA international chapters increased from 17 to 27 (and now include over 6,300 members) suggesting that our outreach efforts have been successful. To give some examples of these efforts, the Associação Brasileira de Psicoterapia e Medicina Comportamental, the Instituto Brasilense de Análise do Comportamentos and the Universidade Católica de Goiás funded a think tank on Metacontingencies and Cultural Analysis in Campinas, Brazil, in August, 2005. ABA assisted with organization and networking. Our third international conference was held in Beijing from November 25 to 27, 2005. ABA also occasionally sends a delegation of representatives to another country. Our last delegation to Jordan, in October, 2005, resulted in an audience with Princess Muna Al Hussein, the mother of the King of Jordan. Steering and Executive Committees were set up to examine how best to extend the scope of behavior analysis in her country. These international delegations have been sent at minimal cost to ABA. The delegates have paid their own transportation, room, and board, and in recent efforts local sponsors have subsidized delegates’ expenses on location. Even Maria Malott, our Executive Director, has paid her own way. ABA has always been a student-friendly organization. For example, student registration fees for the convention are subsidized to maximize participation. However, our student representatives to the Executive Council usually come from a restricted number of large programs in behavior analysis. To encourage participation by students from smaller programs, an advisory board was formed this year. The advisory board is made up of representatives from any graduate program in behavior analysis that wishes to be represented. We hope that this board will allow students from smaller programs to meet other students and to become more involved in, and committed to, ABA activities.
Our annual convention remains the centerpiece of our activities. Many people work tirelessly to improve what we offer. For example, the ABA office staff is currently developing software that will allow members to sort the program by category on the Web. In the future, you may be able to print your own schedule that includes only papers on, say, Developmental Disabilities and Organizational Behavior Management. Our plans for future conventions take us to Atlanta in 2006, to San Diego in 2007, and to Chicago in 2008. You may wonder why our choice of cities is so restricted. The problem is that we have grown so large that very few hotels can accommodate us. If we continue to grow, we will need to rent a convention center. This will make the conference less personal and more costly. Although this may not be apparent when the bills for ABA begin to roll in, Maria Malott, our Executive Director, works hard to keep your costs down.
In closing, let me mention that ABA is a membership organization. The Executive Council tries to advance the field and to deliver services to the members. We welcome any suggestions or comments that you might have on any of these and other initiatives. The ABA Executive Council is a creative and energetic group, but our efforts on your behalf will be most successful if you contribute too.