Southwestern Regional Fall 2011 Letter
Dear Fellow Psi Chi Members, Chapter Officers, and Faculty Advisors,
Seems like just a few short months ago I was sending out my first regional letter as Psi Chi Southwestern VP.
Now I am writing the last fall letter in the final year of my term as your regional VP. It has been a wonderful experience!
In my very first VP letter, I asked what I could do to bring the voice of smaller chapters to the decision-making process on both regional and national levels.
I have focused on this at regional and national conferences by meeting with Psi Chi officers and members from all chapter sizes.
I answered email questions about induction ceremonies, leadership issues, and fund-raising activities from chapters with 10 active members, all the way up to chapters with hundreds of active members.
What is remarkable is that different size chapters do not fundamentally have really different issues.
Sure, the size and scope of those issues differ, but across the region, our chapters and advisors are seeking input on how to promote research, train leaders,
prepare members for graduate school, and enhance graduate student involvement in Psi Chi. I have worked to address those issues primarily through regional programming at the Southwestern Psychological Association Convention (SWPA).
I will speak a little more about SWPA 2012 in just a bit.
AWARDS: In numerous letters to you, I mentioned my surprise by the small number of winners of the Model Chapter Award from our region.
I am pleased to report that this number is increasing and want to encourage all chapters to continue to strive for this status.
If you have questions about how to become a Model Chapter, check out the Psi Chi website (http://www.psichi.org/pdf/modchap.pdf). As a reminder:
“Model Chapter Awards of $100 each are presented annually to recognize and reward Psi Chi chapters that consistently maintain outstanding records of membership inductions,
chapter correspondence, service projects, and other criteria associated with being an outstanding chapter. All chapters submitting evidence of meeting these criteria are designated as winners.”
I issued a challenge for our region to increase the number of model chapter awards we receive by 10 this coming year.
Please help me accomplish my goal as VP by increasing the number of regional chapters awarded Model Chapter status!
In addition, check out http://www.psichi.org/awards/chptr_awards2.aspx for information on all chapter awards.
INTERNATIONAL: Psi Chi has made amazing strides in becoming an international honor society.
We have chapters now in several countries outside the U.S. (including New Zealand and Egypt) and more are currently under review.
I believe this is valuable for many reasons but, for me, the most important is the idea of preparing global citizens.
A learning objective I put in all of my syllabi reads (from Campus Learning Objectives of Indiana University East):
“Educated persons should develop the skills to understand, accept, and relate to people of different backgrounds and beliefs.
In a pluralistic world one should not be provincial or ignorant of other cultures; one's life is experienced within the context of other races, religions, languages, nationalities, and value systems.”
This, to me, is fundamental. As such, I have been proud to be involved in Psi Chi’s efforts to expand into the International Honor Society in Psychology.
As part of this effort, I have scheduled programming on multicultural education and/or diversity studies at each of the SWPA conventions.
The same will be true for SWPA 2012. We will continue to host joint sessions between Psi Beta and Psi Chi along with focusing on developing leadership skills in chapter members and officers and discovering the best fund-raising ideas.
SWPA 2012 PROGRAM: Our upcoming program promises to be just as full and exciting as the last one. On April 12-14,
we will convene in Oklahoma City at the Sheraton Hotel near the historic Bricktown Entertainment District and Riverwalk (1 North Broadway Avenue, Oklahoma City, OK 73102).
My steering committee, comprised once again of Dr. Evan Zucker (Loyola University), Dr. Shawn Charlton (University of Central Arkansas), and Mrs. Laura Horton (University of Central Arkansas University),
continue to assist me in putting together a top-notch program of sessions for SWPA and review submissions for research awards and travel grants.
I hope all of you have noticed that Psi Chi is putting more and more of its financial resources into research awards and travel grants and will pursue all award and grant opportunities through the Central Office at http://www.psichi.org/Awards/
Based on my conversations with officers and advisors at 2011 SWPA, I believe chapters want more information on fund-raising and increasing active member involvement in Psi Chi. As mentioned earlier, these will be topics for both formal and informal conversation at sessions during SWPA 2012, so please try to attend. I encourage all Psi Chi chapters and advisors to reach out to Psi Beta chapters in your region by going to the Psi Beta’s webpage at http://psibeta.org/site/chapter-resources/chapters-by-region
I think my most exciting news about SWPA 2012 is that I have scheduled Dr. Joseph Ferrari to be our Psi Chi Distinguished Speaker. Dr. Ferrari is a nationally known expert on the topic of procrastination. Any procrastinators out there?! He will discuss his views on procrastination and his 2010 book, Still Procrastinating? The No Regrets Guide to Getting It Done.
I want to thank each of you again for all that you have already given to Psi Chi! Thank you in advance for all that you will contribute to Psi Chi during the coming academic year. It continues to be my honor to serve as your regional vice-president!
Randall E. Osborne
Psi Chi Southwestern Regional Vice-President
Professor of Psychology
Texas State University-San Marcos
601 University Drive
San Marcos, TX 78666
(512) 245-8236
ro10@txstate.edu