[Commpsych] APS members - less than 1 hour to lodge your proxy if you cant attend Tuesday's EGM in person

Sun Jun 4 21:59:19 WST 2017

Thanks very much for engaging in this discussion Trudy - we don't have enough conversations on this list 😊

I completely sympathise (and mostly agree) with your argument about the inequity within the profession and especially in the Medicare rebate set-up.

But the governance review has nothing to do with that debate, and the proposed changes will mean the Clinical College is guaranteed just one place on the Board (because it has four times as many members as any other college, and more than all others combined), while non-clinical psychologists are quaranteed three places (one from the other colleges, and two generalists).  Then there is one academic position and one for an early career psychologist. Even if both of those positions are taken up by clinical psychologists (which is by no means necessarily the case), it will still just be 3 each. And I see no reason why a non-clinical president could not be elected if that 'faction' represents the vast majority of members, as is being claimed. So I genuinely don't understand why there is such strident opposition to the proposed changes, beyond a general (and largely understandable) mistrust of 'the establishment'.  And we know too well where the raw urge to 'drain the swamp' has taken the USA 😞

Now that the proxies have closed, I hope people who haven't lodged one can get along to one of the 10 meetings around the country and make up their own minds.

Best regards

Heather

Heather Gridley

Honorary Fellow

College of Arts

Victoria University

Melbourne, Australia

E: heather.gridley at vu.edu.au<mailto:heather.gridley at vu.edu.au>

Ph: +61 419113731

________________________________
From: Trudy Rosenwald <trosenwald at iinet.net.au>
Sent: Sunday, 4 June 2017 6:44 PM
To: Heather Gridley; Cohb.psychology at groups.vu.edu.au; Commpsych List
Subject: Re: [Commpsych] APS members - less than 1 hour to lodge your proxy if you cant attend Tuesday's EGM in person

Dear Heather,

Thank you for all the hard work you do in Community Psychology in Australia and the region. I have much appreciated your ongoing dissemination about issues, events and debates and generally have agreed and supported you on these.
However, on the current issue of the APS proposed changes to the rules/constitution I have to disagree with you. In my view it is NOT about clinical versus non-clinical psychologists but about the unequality in the remuneration to clinical versus non-clinical and the notion in Australia that somehow clinical psychologists are the real psychologists and the non-clinicals are not good enough, not educated highly enough , not highly enough trained. As a highly educated, trained and experienced generalist psychologist in a wide range of areas who purposefully selected community and cross-cultural psychology over clinical I have felt shocked, offended and disadvantaged ever since I became aware of and experienced the exclusive nature of the medicare rebate system.  How did this unequality come about?? I have been an APS  member since my student days in the late 80s and have faithfully paid the membership fee each year but I have come to the conclusion that the APS does not really represent me. This conclusion was confirmed by a very recent comment by a clinical psychologist at a meeting that the clinical psychologist is more educated, trained and qualified than any other psychologist. Really!!!!

Yours sincerely,

Trudy

Trudy Rosenwald (BAHon, PhD)
Registered Generalist Psychologist
+61 419941670
trosenwald at iinet.net.au

Sent from my Samsung device

-------- Original message --------
From: Heather Gridley <Heather.Gridley at vu.edu.au>
Date: 2017/06/04 15:39 (GMT+08:00)
To: Cohb.psychology at groups.vu.edu.au, Commpsych List <commpsych at lists.curtin.edu.au>
Subject: [Commpsych] APS members - less than 1 hour to lodge your proxy if you cant attend Tuesday's EGM in person

Dear colleagues - I promise this is the last time I'll harrass you about this, but I'd hate to think you wanted to have a say in the APS Governance proposals but had missed the chance to do so. The way I see it, we currently have the equivalent of 'Sydney' (clinical psychologists) and 'Melbourne' (anti-clinical psychologists) dominating recent elections to the APS Board since the abolition of Director portfolios about 10 years ago. So no-one from 'Perth' (e.g. academics) or 'Tasmania' (e.g. community psychologists) has much chance of being elected if they don't fall on one or other side or the other of the divisive Medicare rebates debates. The proposed changes will establish some 'electorates' - academics, college members, generalists, early career psychologists - and the proposed Advisory Council is even more representative, with provision for Indigenous psychologists , rural members etc.

The proposed changes to the Society's constitution require the approval of at least 75% of members present or voting by proxy.

So what to do: VOTE in the EGM on 6 June 2017 at 6:15pm

You have to be onsite at one of 10 voting sites around Australia or else you need to appoint a proxy who will be onsite to vote on your behalf. If you can't get to these venues, please take the time to send a proxy vote by 6.15pm AEST Sunday 4 June to the APS. The link to the form is here:  http://admin.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/6June2017DigitalProxyForm.pdf<http://email.psychology.org.au/wf/click?upn=lFhx4IRroPs-2Fa7iqvgPiPcFYr5N8dvoYvcVxH3aEZ3RZzFZug8dwzfLHOSc6yBlwXbd4o-2FOk-2BPveigr9k1w-2FH5ojGHSEzXYZ5yBGnJLmeQU-3D_-2BSdvd-2BPi3I1yZt2xzj7uzYUYJgc-2Fl6FoDLRehuca8c145QoRJKcwe9AgutM0xpabObvp8x3ppcpTh6GxoptIJeP0OoVkJOmWG9kK-2B9kfGBjSrOSw3W-2Bx9bvLdiv49lUlgBiBoJrVd8ajTc-2BqubJQudNFJmy9cSc1DjlMpyOK4KnLTKHDB9abQ3n0KzL3-2FbVtkav-2FHLk7UIB4KnkY-2FXouv6e0fKUZj4-2FtoOoKkf2t0xQ-3D>

I am happy to be a proxy for anyone who needs one and I will be attending the Melbourne meeting. Note that you don't return the form to me, or need my permission to list me as your proxy. But you do need to know that I live in West Brunswick

Heather Gridley

Honorary Fellow

College of Arts

Victoria University

Melbourne, Australia

E: heather.gridley at vu.edu.au<mailto:heather.gridley at vu.edu.au>

Ph: +61 419113731

________________________________
From: Jenny Sharples
Sent: Friday, 19 May 2017 1:46 PM
To: Cohb.psychology at groups.vu.edu.au
Subject: [cohb.psychology] APS members please vote - important

Dear colleagues who are APS members,

 Last week the APS sent an email advising all members that the Extraordinary General Meeting about Governance of the APS has been postponed until Tuesday 6 June.

 This EGM is crucial in setting up the APS going forward and I would encourage all APS members to vote. The story so far:

  *   The APS has conducted an extensive governance review over the last 18 months, with lots of opportunities for member input, and based on this feedback has decided on a new structure to take the society forward. You can read details on the email/website.
  *   When the APS first moved from a large Council to a Board of Directors in the mid-1990s, candidates stood for election to particular portfolio positions, such as Director of Membership, Science or Social Issues. There were problems with this model, which didn't reflect accepted business practice where all directors accept responsibility for all areas governed by the Board, but are less 'hands-on' in a management sense. But the move away from portfolios to generic directors about 10 years ago meant a loss of diversity and skill spread within the Board - for example, it has become very difficult for an academic to be elected, because academics represent a relatively fixed (but now shrinking) proportion of APS members.
  *   The new structure is designed to ensure that Board membership is more equitable across the society - a 'best of both worlds' model that retains the generic nature of the director role itself but enables the different sectors that make up the discipline and profession to have input at Board level. Thus, there will be one Director elected by academics (via the Division of Psychological Research, Education and Training - DPRET) and up to 5 practitioners (2 from Colleges, 2 general practitioners and 1 early career member).
  *   There will also be a larger Advisory Council to the Board, which might look more like the old Council, with membership reflective of key stakeholder groups of the Society, such as state branches, interest groups etc. At present these groups have no direct input to the Board. The Council will meet twice yearly.

The proposed changes to the Society's constitution require the approval of at least 75% of members present or voting by proxy.

So what to do: VOTE in the EGM on 6 June 2017 at 6:15pm

You have to be onsite at one of 10 voting sites around Australia or else you need to appoint a proxy who will be onsite to vote on your behalf. If you can't get to these venues, please take the time to send a proxy vote by 6.15pm AEST Sunday 4 June to the APS. The link to the form is here:  http://admin.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/6June2017DigitalProxyForm.pdf<http://email.psychology.org.au/wf/click?upn=lFhx4IRroPs-2Fa7iqvgPiPcFYr5N8dvoYvcVxH3aEZ3RZzFZug8dwzfLHOSc6yBlwXbd4o-2FOk-2BPveigr9k1w-2FH5ojGHSEzXYZ5yBGnJLmeQU-3D_-2BSdvd-2BPi3I1yZt2xzj7uzYUYJgc-2Fl6FoDLRehuca8c145QoRJKcwe9AgutM0xpabObvp8x3ppcpTh6GxoptIJeP0OoVkJOmWG9kK-2B9kfGBjSrOSw3W-2Bx9bvLdiv49lUlgBiBoJrVd8ajTc-2BqubJQudNFJmy9cSc1DjlMpyOK4KnLTKHDB9abQ3n0KzL3-2FbVtkav-2FHLk7UIB4KnkY-2FXouv6e0fKUZj4-2FtoOoKkf2t0xQ-3D>

I am happy to be a proxy for anyone who needs one and I will be attending the Melbourne meeting. Note that you don't return the form to me, or need my permission to list me as your proxy. But you do need to know that I live in East Brunswick  (I guess that's just in case there's more than one Jenny Sharples, and easier than needing to know my membership number!)

 I am happy to answer any queries that members may have (including about how I plan to vote).

 regards

Jenny

Professor Jenny Sharples

Head of Clinical Services

Head of Psychology

College of Health and Biomedicine

Victoria University

Footscray Park Campus,

Room G461

Ph: +61 3 99194448

MAPS:

College of Clinical Psychologists

College of Community psychologists (National Committee chair)

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