Broad Plans Outlined For APA’s Fiscal Future
“Transparency,” the new watchword of organizations everywhere, was a theme of last month’s meeting of APA’s Board of Trustees as it focused its attention on the Association’s finances and long-term fiscal future.
Trustees agreed to place financial information about the Association—including 990 tax-form returns, audited year-end financial statements, and summaries of current year financial information—on the APA Web site in the form of downloadable copy.
Trustees also adopted policies to increase reserve funds over the next several years, including a policy restricting spending of funds derived from the sale of APA’s land at 1400 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., in the late 1990s.
Further, the Board will experiment in future meetings with a process by which all votes that are not unanimous will be recorded and published in the Board’s minutes.
District branch (DB) presidents and the chair of the Committee on International Medical Graduates (IMGs)—invited to speak at this month’s meeting—echoed the need for ongoing interaction between the central office and the DBs.
Dianna Dell, M.D., president of the North Carolina Psychiatric Association, addresses the Board at its June meeting. She is joined by Chowallur Chacko, M.D. (left), chair of the Committee on International Medical Graduates, and Roger Haskett, M.D., president of the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society.
Area 7 Trustee Al Vogel, M.D., reviews financial data with APA Treasurer Carol Bernstein, M.D.
Haskett told Board members that the Pennsylvania district branch had closed two offices in the state—in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia—to focus resources on the branch’s advocacy and lobbying efforts in the state capital in Harrisburg and on the legal action against Magellan.
Haskett joined Dell in saying that the district branch supports efforts at creating a centralized membership process.
Chacko said he believed discrimination against IMGs was subsiding. Further, he said that there are many more non-APA members among IMG psychiatrists practicing in the United States than there are members. He urged APA to form a body composed of members of the IMG and Membership committees to recruit IMGs into APA.
In other business, the Board approved the following:
• Adding Philadelphia to the rotation schedule as one of the future meeting locations of APA annual meetings. Previously approved cities are New Orleans, Atlanta, New York, Washington, D.C., Toronto, San Francisco, San Diego, and Honolulu.
• Restoration of a check-off box to the APA dues invoice and the addition of such a box to the membership application allowing members to exercise more readily their option to receive a free subscription to Psychiatric Services as a member benefit.
• Elimination of the requirement for a letter of reference from an APA member for members-in-training who are advancing to general membership and for new applicants applying for general membership.
• Dues waivers, upon request, for member reservists who are called to active military duty.
• A position in support of somatic cell nuclear transfer research and its federal funding, opposition to legislation banning such research, and support of a prohibition on human reproductive cloning.
• The Practice Guideline for the Assessment and Treatment of Patients With Suicidal Behaviors (see Original article: story below).
• Position statements on HIV infection; confidentiality, disclosure, and protection of others with regard to patients with HIV-AIDS; and on HIV and pregnant women.
In addition, APA Board members heard a presentation from pediatrician Fitzhugh Mullan, M.D., about the new National Health Museum to be located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The museum project, now seeking seed money, will be an interactive resource to inspire people of all ages to live healthier lives and consider careers in health and medicine. Mullan is vice chair of the project.
APA members can access the summary of Board actions at www.psych.org/members/bot/bot.cfm under “Members Corner.” ▪
