The modified Wildcard Plan was recently approved by the membership. This extraordinary measure will result, for the first time in APA history, in the seating of all affiliated state, provincial and territorial psychological associations (SPPA’s) and APA divisions.

     The bylaws amendment ballots were mailed to all eligible voters on November 1, 2001. The election closed Monday, December 17, 2001. The bylaws amendment ballots have been counted and the Election Committee has reviewed and certified the results. Bylaws amendments must be approved by 2/3rds of those voting to pass. The results are as follows: Proposed amendment on Council representation: Approve 8209 votes (83.1%); Disapprove 1669 votes (16.9%). Thus, the amendment passed and will take effect with the 2002 elections for legislative year 2003.

     For over 50 years (Since APA was re-organized in the late 1940’s), SPPA’s have been poorly represented on Council. This is unfortunate because even the smallest jurisdiction can take actions which can have a major precedent-setting impact on professional psychology (witness Guam’s passage of prescriptive authority legislation). In fact, actions taken in any jurisdiction could affect the entire discipline of psychology, e.g., accreditation decisions incorporated into state law could affect education, science and the public interest as well as practice. That is why this is such an important victory for all of psychology, and why many leaders in the practitioner community have been working for over a decade to find a way to seat all SPPA’s.

     Several years ago the Task Force on Council Representation (chaired by Ron Levant) developed the Wildcard Plan. Using a process of interest-based bargaining with all major APA constituencies (aided by the expertise of APA Past President Ron Fox and CEO Ray Fowler), the Wildcard Plan resulted in the seating of all divisions and most SPPA’s (Peterson & Levant, 2000). Interest-based bargaining is a means of resolving conflicts in which the interests of each group present are represented and taken into account.

     During his presidency, spurred on by such advocates as Ruth Paige, Pat DeLeon started an initiative to seat all remaining SPPA’s. This resulted in the establishment of the Task Force on Council Representation 2 (TFCR2), Co-Chaired by Ron Levant and Ruth Paige, with representatives from all of the major constituencies in APA. Ron Fox reprised his role as the interest-based bargaining consultant and APA CEO Ray Fowler acted again as a resource to develop the mechanics of the plan. Attempts were made to include as many members of the original Task Force as possible. Other members of the TFCR2 and the major constituencies within APA they represent are: Lynn Pantano and Mark Peterson represented state associations; Bruce Overmier and Neal Johnson represented the science community; Sharon Brehm and Jalie Tucker represented the scientist- practitioner community; Terry Gock represented the public interest community; Sandra Tars represented the interests of large states; David Pilon represented the Canadian provinces, and Nathan Perry represented the Board of Directors.

     The TFCR2 met and concluded its work in Washington, DC, on October 26, 2000. TFCR2 developed and unanimously supported the modified Wildcard plan, which will cap Council at 162 seats plus the Board of Directors and preserve the one-person one vote principle of the apportionment ballot (developed by the Albee Commission in the 1960‘s). The new plan assumes that all units of APA that are recognized by the bylaws as eligible for representation will have at least one seat on the Council of Representatives. Additional seats will be awarded according to the number of votes each unit gets on the apportionment ballot. The Modified Wildcard Plan slightly increases the size of Council but makes little change in the number of seats to be held by divisions and SPPA’s, except to convert current non-voting liaison/observer seats from small states, provinces and territories to voting seats. The plan will also be revenue neutral for APA since some compensation had already been provided for liaison/observers.

     The mechanics of the plan are as follows: It will create two pools of seats, one for divisions, and one for states, based on the proportion of the total apportionment vote that each group gets. Then, each unit will get one seat from either the division or the state pool. Remaining seats in each pool will be distributed in two steps. First, units that qualify for a second, third, etc. seat based on the percent of the apportionment vote that they got will get those seats. Second, any remaining seats will be assigned to those units which came closest to getting a next seat, based on the percent of the apportionment vote that they received. This is admittedly a process which sounds complicated, and which resulted in quite a bit of discussion on Council last August. Fortunately, Dr. Leona Aiken, representing the Division of Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics, came to the aid of the modified Wildcard plan, and developed an understandable step-by-step algorithm for explaining how seats are allocated.

     As always, we welcome your thoughts on this column. You can most easily contact us via email: (new address): levant@uakron.edu and RuthUPaige@aol.com.

Reference

Peterson, M. & Levant, R (2000). Resolving conflict in the American Psychological Association: A historical note on the use of mediation methods. American Psychologist, 55, 957-959.

Biographical Sketches

Ronald F. Levant, Ed.D., A.B.P.P., is in his second term as Recording Secretary of the American Psychological Association. He was the Chair of the APA Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice (CAPP) from 1993-95, a member at large of the APA Board of Directors (1995-97), and APA Recording Secretary (1998-2000). He is Dean, Center for Psychological Studies, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Ruth Ullmann Paige, Ph.D, is completing a term as member of the APA Board of Directors. She has served on several APA Boards and Committees, including the Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice (two terms), the Board of Professional Affairs, and the Committee on Professional Practice and Standards. She was also President of Washington State Psychological Association and its representative to APA Council. She is a private practitioner in Seattle, Washington.

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