November 29, 2010

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Thanksgiving 2010 had to rank as one of the most thrilling experiences of my life: I was a Mickey Mouse balloon handler in the 84th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Sure, I’ve had experience running large-scale projects and they’ve been fun, but never before have I participated in a large-scale production as huge as this one. It was enormous! Literally, I was one of tens of thousands of participants, almost all of them volunteers, working together on a single day for an event that would be seen by 44 million people. And the teamwork I witnessed was nothing short of extraordinary. In fact, I’d call it spectacular!
I tell you this experience for one reason: to share with you the lessons I learned, so here they are:

1. It’s far more fun being a participant than a spectator.
2. Not only do many hands make relatively light work, but even hard work doesn’t even seem like hard work when you’re intent on having fun!
3. Smiles and laughter between people who share a common purpose really can create an almost instant sense of community.

I think you can figure out the metaphorical applications to HVPA all on your own. But let me at least elaborate on one application to my role as president. My goal for this year is to create an emotionally supportive “home” for Mid-Hudson Valley psychologists. In our professional home, we have ample opportunities to enrich one another with our talent and wisdom. Thanks to the hard work of this year’s and last year’s Board and the Website Committee, I’m thrilled that as of December, 2010 we will have launched our new website (www.hvpa.org) to complement our use of the ListServe. We also have five educational programs scheduled throughout the year that I hope you’ll take advantage of.

Yet, of equal importance, I believe, is the opportunity for members to have social engagement with one another. This emotionally nourishes us as a community. With that in mind, I hope you will become involved in our May Social. The theme this year is “Creating Psychologically Healthy Communities.” Can I count on you to help with the event’s design? Its implementation? To be a participant? And to have lots of fun doing it? Say “Yes!” and drop me a line. I’ll direct you to the right person.

HVPA – It’s a place that I hope you will consider your professional home for a long time to come.

Warmly,
Lenore Strocchia-Rivera, Ph.D.
HVPA President