This information is available on this site to allow you the opportunity of making your views known to the Board through e-mail.

INTRODUCTION

The CPA Board of Directors is proposing to expand the membership of the CPA Board through the adoption of an amendment to the CPA By-laws. The By-law change proposes to invite the chairs or designated officers of three national organisations to join the Board. The three organisations are the Council of Canadian Departments of Psychology (CCDP), the Council of Provincial Associations of Psychologists (CPAP) and the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science (CSBBCS). The organization and unification of psychology in Canada is a concern of many CPA members and the issues have been discussed in articles that have appeared in Psynopsis over the past two years.

CONSULTATION AND VOTING PROCESS

A change to the Board of Directors is an important issue for the CPA membership. Therefore, the Board has decided to ensure that all members have an opportunity to vote on it through a mail ballot. All ballots must be post marked no later than JULY 15, 2000.

To ensure ample dialogue, you will find enclosed a short summary of the arguments in favour and against the proposal. A discussion will be held during the Annual General Meeting scheduled for the Westin Hotel, Ottawa, Ontario, on June 30, 2000 at 4:00 p.m.

THE CASE IN SUPPORT OF THE AMENDMENT

Canadian psychologists share many concerns and interests while having varied expertise, employment and affiliations. It is essential for psychology to speak with a united voice to all levels of government, other organisations, the media and the public Many other disciplines and professions are competing for scarce resources. Together we are much more powerful and efficient.

The discipline has three facets: science; education and training; and, practice. Adding representatives from groups specifically dedicated to these domains to the CPA Board will add to the representativeness and diversity of the Board. This added diversity can only strengthen the Board and the discipline.

Currently the elected Chairs of the Council of Canadian Departments of Psychology, the Council of Provincial Associations of Psychologists and the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science have Observer status at CPA Board meetings. The new Board structure will improve this arrangement. It has provided the Board and the three organisations with valuable input while being limited in effectiveness due to several factors. The limiting factors include irregular attendance, regular changes in representatives and the lack of integration of the observers into the CPA organisational and decisional structures.

The current Board composition is outlined in the proposed By-law amendment which appears below. The amendment is intended to strengthen the Board by ensuring representation from experimental psychology, psychology departments, and provincial associations and regulatory bodies. These psychology groups are not well represented on the Board at present, but are extremely important to the psychology community.

The new members are not intended to represent their organisations in a partisan fashion during CPA Board meetings and related work. Rather, they are expected to accept their fiduciary responsibilities as Directors of CPA and to bring the issues and concerns of their constituent groups to the deliberative process. For example, regulatory issues are increasingly important to education and training and the profession. Having the regulatory perspective represented will be both prudent and valuable.

CPA intends to convene a conference in 2001 to examine how psychology is organised in Canada. This will be a broad examination of the issues. CPA wants to act now on the amendment as the results of the conference and the subsequent deliberations could take years to unfold.

THE CASE AGAINST THE AMENDMENT

The discipline of psychology is broad and diverse. It gains strength from its diversity and the subsequent cross-fertilisation within psychology and with other disciplines. Differentiation is a natural process that will continue and accelerate within psychology for years to come. It is one of the strengths of the discipline.

This diversity is evident in the number of organisations that psychologists join. The discipline's messages are strengthened by having more than one organisation supporting the same position.

Some organisations such as CPAP are organisations of organisations. As such, it is deemed by some to be problematic for the CPAP Chair to adequately or effectively represent all of the provinces or any one province in particular. Some have gone so far as to say that no organisation other than the provincial association can represent the interests of the practitioner-psychologists in that province at the national level. Rather than a board seat they prefer the status quo which is bilateral relations with CPA and collective collaboration through CPAP.

Others are concerned that regulatory bodies, whose mandate it is to protect the public, will be seen in an advocacy or lobbying role. Although regulatory bodies are already members of national organisations that have advocacy as part of their mandate, it is argued that accepting the CPA board seat will bring this potential conflict of interest between advocacy and protection of the public into sharper focus.

The CPA board seats are being offered to three organisations. Currently the CPA Board is comprised of CPA members. Some worry that the Chairs of the three organisations will not have CPA's best interests at heart but rather the interests of their original organisations. Others are concerned about taking some of the direction of the organisation out of the hands of CPA members by designating CPA Board seats that are elected by members of other organisations.

There are many more practitioners than academics or scientists in Canada. Some feel strongly that any reorganization of CPA should only involve proportional representation, thereby significantly increasing the ratio of practitioners to academics or scientists in order to better reflect this reality.

CPA is planning a conference in 2001 to examine how psychology is organised in Canada. The conference follows the two recent conferences on science and practice. The intention is to explore alternatives to see if there are more effective ways to organise the discipline. It has been suggested that any reorganisation of the CPA Board await the results of both the conference and any negotiations emanating from it.

IN CONCLUSION

The Board has given the contrary arguments serious consideration. The diversity of the discipline is indeed a strength. This proposed change will increase co-operation and efficiency and it will help CPA do an even better job of representing all of the discipline of psychology. The conference to be held in 2001 will be an important step as well. However, the results will take several years to implement.

It is expected that all Board members, when acting as such, will do so in the best interests of CPA and the discipline. In addition, there is no threat to the autonomy of the three organizations (CCDP, CSBBCS and CPAP), provincial associations or regulatory bodies. Regulatory bodies are members of organizations that lobby on behalf of the discipline. This would be no different under the proposed amendment.

CPA keeps a balance between science, education and training, and practice. The Board thinks that this is an important balance to maintain.

1. Board of Directors
The affairs of the Association shall be managed by a Board of Directors. The Board of Directors shall consist of

a. The immediate Past-President
b. The President
c. The President-Elect
d. Three Directors, one of which is to represent each of Scientists, Scientist-Practitioners, Practitioners, one being elected each year for a term of three years by the Fellows and Members of the Association as hereafter provided.
e. Three Directors-at-large, one being elected each year for a term of three years by the Fellows and Members of the Association as hereafter provided.
f. A presidential officer or other designated elected officer of the Council of Provincial Associations of Psychologists (CPAP).
g. A presidential officer or other designated elected officer of the Council of Canadian Departments of Psychology (CCDP).
h. A presidential officer or other designated elected officer of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science (CSBBCS).

Please, send your comments at jservice@cpa.ca.

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