We’re Up, Up and Away!

I’m happy to report that our third annual convention held in Washington, DC, was a resounding success. A record number of over two thousand members registered and attended the sessions of the three-day convention. And what a marvelous intellectual feast it was — with a multitude of symposia reporting cutting-edge developments in psychological science and its applications, a barrage of poster presentations of research projects, a well-attended open house/poster session featuring representatives from major governmental agencies that fund behavioral research, all topped off by major addresses by some of the noteworthy members of our Society. Attendees were rewarded by experiencing high-quality presentations regarding both academic and applied aspects of our science.

The Society owes special thanks to the APS Central Office staff, especially Convention Manager Bev Hitchins, and the Convention Program Committee who arranged this outstanding program — Jim Kalat and members Tom Nelson, James Jackson, and Dorothy Eichorn. Andy Baum and his subcommittee arranged the mammoth poster sessions. True to the APS “lean” image, they carried it off on a shoestring budget that provided no funds for them nor for the speakers. So, congratulations and thanks to that worthy crew of organizers and generous speakers! Watch for another successful convention, to be held June 20-23, 1992, in San Diego, CA. The Program Committee for that convention will consist of Thomas O. Nelson (Chair), Andy Baum, Dorothy Eichorn, and Paul Gold. Eugene Stone will chair the Posters Committee. Plan to attend and present your research to the rest of the Society by marking your calendars now.

For those of you who haven’t heard, I have the distinct honor of having been elected President of our Society as of June 1991. I follow a line of very forceful and successful presidents — Charles Kiesler, Janet Spence, and James McGaugh — closely allied with the formation of APS from the embryonic Assembly for Scientific and Applied Psychology (ASAP). They were among the pioneers and founders who had a dedicated vision on how to shape the APS organization, and they had the zeal and sustaining motivation to implement that vision. As an APS Board Member at Large for the past several years, I can attest to Jim McGaugh’s administrative skills in conducting Board meetings — negotiating, and fashioning consensus out of, six independently minded Board members. I also admired Jim’s leadership in guiding the Society and its Board, holding us steadily on course with our original goal, namely, the promotion of psychological science. The Society owes him a debt of gratitude for his dedicated work on our behalf, and we so honored him with a special certificate of recognition at the June APS Convention.

While my apprehension in taking on the presidency of APS rises when I consider the high standards of leadership set by my predecessors, it abates as I consider how far they’ve succeeded in navigating our Society through the early treacherous waters of forming a Society to the comparative calm of our present political and financial health.

Our founders have firmly set APS’s future course in terms of our goals and orienting attitudes. In that sense, many of the “big decisions” have already been made. But one small decision I am making now is to change the practice of restricting this presidential newsletter column to the views of the one in this post. I intend to solicit a series of invited “Opinion Pieces” from members of the Society judged to have an interesting “opinion” for Observer readers. I’ll be inviting op-ed pieces from current and past members of the APS Board, our officers, and other APS members who have interesting things to say about the scientific psychology enterprise. So, while I am not promising to bow out completely from editorializing, watch this space for Op-Ed coming attractions.