APS in Transition: The Cost of Success

APS activities continue to proceed at a routine speed — fast forward! The Washington office is now open for business (and is busy indeed!). The newly-elected Board of Directors had its first meeting in mid-Summer. The 1990 APS Convention arrangements and program committees have been appointed. Planning for the January APS Summit meeting is underway. Other newly-appointed committees are busy working on a variety of issues, including publications, graduate education, insurance, and membership.

Quite clearly, APS has entered an essential transition stage in its development. In only one year APS membership has grown to a size that assures viability. But, along with the increase in membership has come an even greater increase in what is expected of APS. Members expect that APS will now provide broad national leadership in promoting the best of psychological science. Organizations and institutions have now begun to tum to APS for advice and assistance in scientific matters.

Thus, our successes have, as we expected they would, rapidly generated new responsibilities. But, the fulfillment of even a modest set of responsibilities requires resources. Simply put, it costs money to operate a successful national scientific organization. As we enter this transitional stage it seems prudent to admit at the outset that our responsibilities are in many ways already comparable to those of much larger national scientific organizations. If we are to make progress toward achieving our goals while assuming our new responsibilities and responding to opportunities, it is now clear that we will need to increase our resources significantly.

There is a simple solution to our transitional problem. We need to double the size of the membership. Our recruiting efforts to date indicate that the goals and programs of APS are highly attractive to psychologists in all areas of scientific inquiry and application. When you and I were first asked to join APS we did so only on the basis of the stated goals (combined with a lot of hope). We can now add the achievements of the past year to the list of reasons for joining. You may recall my request that each of us take the “McGaugh Pledge” to recruit at least one new member. Now that Summer is past it is time to renew the pledge and take action. A membership target of 15,000 seems reasonable — let’s work together to achieve it. And, let’s do it quickly so that we do not lose momentum during this exciting transition period.