November 8th, 2011

Dear Colleagues:

I hope all of you, your families, and your loved ones are by now experiencing warm and cozy homes, with restored electrical power, and that your tree blow down problems are solved.

Following are some marvelous ideas for expanding Membership in the Hudson Valley Psychological Association. Many came from our Brainstorming at the Annual Meeting. Some have already been implemented. Some are under consideration. Some may become part of the Strategic Plan for HVPA, to be accomplished over the next three years.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1. Send your own great ideas to Hilary Luttinger at hilaryluttinger@msn.com.

2. Help with or implement one or more ideas in your own brilliant way.

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

Form a Membership Committee with one representative for each county. Deborah Klinger Rosenfeld will represent Orange County. Cecelia Leonardo is representing Ulster County. Hilary Luttinger, the Committee Chair, can represent Dutchess, UNLESS ANOTHER OUTSTANDING HVPA MEMBER WOULD LIKE TO SERVE AS THE DUTCHESS REPRESENTATIVE.

MEMBERSHIP OUTREACH

Develop a brief, classy presentation to introduce HVPA and its membership benefits. A standard presentation could be easily adaptable for any audience, and could be used by any HVPA member for recruiting or other purposes.

Recruit Psychology Interns: Identify local internship sites; visit sites with presentations introducing HVPA to interns; organize a program that interns from all sites can attend together; establish a mentoring program to pair HVPA Psychologists with interns by areas of expertise and interest.

Recruit from Colleges and Universities: Include local college and university academics and students in programming; encourage students to become an integral part of the inner workings of HVPA; encourage Psychologists, undergraduate and graduate Psychology students to attend our meetings; offer presentations on areas of research to be included with, not in replacement for, our more clinically focused programming; invite student participation in presentations or panels where appropriate; sponsor programs with local colleges or universities.

Implement auxiliary memberships for Medical and other Mental Health professionals, which may be particularly advantageous in the coming era of Health Care Cooperative organizations.

Invite Psychologists to small, local breakfasts to informally introduce them to HVPA and pitch membership, using funds budgeted for Membership.

Join Local Chambers of Commerce to promote HVPA and encourage members to use the Chambers for networking, outreach, and fund raising.

MEMBERSHIP PROCESS

Revise and Refine the Membership Process to simplify the membership forms; separate renewal from voting for officers; and separate the membership and website registration processes.

Computerize the Membership and Renewal Process through online application and payment through PayPal or other means.

MEMBERSHIP INCENTIVES

Create an institutional rate program to draw Psychologists who are not in private practice, e.g., colleges, School Psychologists, State and County employees, and those in industry and business.

Create multi-year memberships at a reduced rate, which will decrease the renewal burden on members and HVPA.

Create buddy memberships by offering reduced rates for new members who join together.

Reduce annual dues for members who successfully recruit new members.

Sponsor raffles or other practical initiatives to encourage new memberships. For example, Pearson Clinical Assessments has graciously agreed to donate a WAIS-IV and the WISC-IV Integrated, valued at over $2000, to HVPA. These could be used in a raffle for new members.

AREN’T WE A CREATIVE, FORWARD THINKING ORGANIZATION??

STAY TUNED FOR THE NEW MEDIA, ADVOCACY AND FUN IDEAS.

Warmly (no pun intended),

Rebecca Rooney, PhD
President, HVPA