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On Staying Connected to the Psi Chi Network
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by Michael D. Hall, PhD - Psi Chi Society President
- James Madison University (VA)
Categories: President’s Message
This issue’s column comes at the height of Psi Chi’s travel season. For me as
President, this means scheduled travel to several regional conferences to
participate in Psi Chi programming as well as to our Central Office in
Chattanooga, Tennessee. This rapid succession of meetings, including many
opportunities to visit with individual members, combined with discussions with
office staff, has made me realize a few things that should be of general
interest to all members, which has prompted me to share them with you in this
forum.
First, it is clear to me that you are being extremely productive, both
collectively as chapters and individually as members. As tiring as frequent
travel can be, it has been a real pleasure for me to talk with members at
regional meetings about their various chapter activities as well as their
ongoing research projects. To my delight (as a psychoacoustician), I even found
some budding auditory perception researchers with interests in the processing of
music. These meetings have afforded me the chance to revel in tales of your
recent triumphs while also gaining a deeper appreciation for personal and
chapter-wide challenges that you are facing.
One traditionally challenging area for chapters that represented a common theme
across meetings is fundraising. Yet, some chapters are particularly successful
in their fund-raising efforts. Groups in attendance at any given regional
meeting were able to share successful fund-raising strategies with each other in
the context of a chapter exchange event as well as during specialized sessions
dedicated to Psi Chi activities. This represents yet another good reason for
chapters to send one or more representatives to such meetings. In fact, I left
with a host of ideas for possible future fund-raisers for my chapter. However,
it occurred to me that I was probably one of only two or three people who is
currently aware of activities of the most successful chapters across regions.
Eye on Psi Chi has traditionally tried to bridge this gap by publishing
in the back of the magazine a summary of chapter activities for all members to
review. Unfortunately, such summaries often (a) go unnoticed by the majority of
readers and (b) exist simply as a list of activity titles rather than as a
detailed description of either how they were implemented or an assessment of
their relative success. Such description is needed for struggling chapters to
rapidly identify optimal alternative strategies. I therefore am using this
month’s column to call on any chapter that has been particularly successful in
fund-raising activities to consider submission of a brief article in the Eye
that documents the development of those activities. If anecdotes from the
submitting chapter were combined with a bit of literature review (e.g., in the
Eye on Psi Chi archives), then a template would exist for how to
transfer one group’s fund-raising success to others. To those who would consider
submitting such an article, please know that this would represent a tremendous
service to your fellow Psi Chi members while also potentially providing the
authors with a published writing sample for their respective academic records.
Of course, the logic of this argument extends well beyond the issue of
fund-raising. However, this issue represents one of the most common points of
discussion amongst chapters. If this call for article submission proves
productive, then a similar approach could be extended to other areas of
chapter-wide concern.
Another important realization grew out of conversations I had about electronic
communication with individual members at regional meetings and with Psi Chi
staff. As you probably know, Psi Chi recently has moved to direct electronic
communication with individual members. This means that each member should be
receiving e-mailed news digests and links to the current digital issue of the
Eye. Messages are being sent to almost 300,000 e-mail addresses that we
have on file. However, when I asked members for feedback at regional conferences
about how this process has been going, it became clear that many of you are not
regularly receiving either variety of e-mail. While it is remotely possible that
some of the messages from the Central Office might simply not have been seen by
the receiving member(s), this is unlikely given the fact that the students and
faculty advisors I spoke with represent some of our most dedicated members. We
are sure that some members are not receiving these messages at all. (This also
means that we need to depend on dedicated chapter officers and members to share
this information with affected members at your next chapter meeting because
otherwise they will continue being unaware of this message as well).
Luckily, this issue should be easily resolved. If you are not receiving Psi Chi
e-mail messages, or are graduating/ moving and want to be sure to continue to
receive information from the organization, then you should be able to log on to
psichi.org directly and update your information in the member database. You will
need your member number to log on. If you do not remember your member number and
have misplaced your member card, then simply contact Jennifer Baldwin in the
Central Office to verify your information and obtain your number. She can be
reached online for this purpose at
www.psichi.
org/about/contact.aspx?id=10023. We also are interested in other forms of
electronic communication and will be soliciting opinions from you about various
forms of social networking that Psi Chi might be able to use to more quickly and
effectively inform its members about upcoming events and information.
So let us hear from you about these issues. Ultimately, these simple steps will
help us all to stay connected to the network of information and opportunity that
is Psi Chi, and we should all reap the benefits. And to all those I spoke with
at regional meetings, thanks for making me leave better informed. Your helpful
suggestions should prove to be of great benefit to my local chapter in the
coming year.
Summer 2011 issue of Eye on Psi Chi (Vol. 15, No. 4, p. 4), published
by Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology (Chattanooga, TN). Copyright,
2011, Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology. All rights reserved.