America’s Think Tank for Mental Health
PRE-MEE TING FALL
CIRCULAR LETTER #647
OC TOBER 2018
www.ourgap.org
Message From the President I am really looking forward to the next GAP meeting. One reason for my anticipation is we really had a good meeting last time. I will repeat the comment I made after the meeting, “sometimes we come back from a meeting with a good feeling. Many of us have expressed that sentiment after this last meeting of GAP. We accomplished a lot and most of our meetings were productive. We made some decisions using good cooperation and civility, even with complex or potentially contentious issues. We seem to enjoy being together.” Reflection: On reflection I think there is another reason I am looking forward to this meeting. Going to GAP gives me a sense of haven or retreat. In this time of horrible international and national political contentiousness, threats from one national leader to another, terrorist, and on and on, it is nice to be together in a pleasant place protected somewhat from these outside forces of fret. It is nice to be together with friends and to accomplish something with them. Transitions: At this point I have not heard anything about losing any of our members. Also I have not heard anything about anyone transitioning to a contributing status. We expect there will be 17 committee guests in attendance at this upcoming meeting. That number is a bit down from our average. I don’t know what that means, probably that our members are in the middle of some productive activities and are not inviting new members during that phase of their committee deliberations. Nevertheless I would ask committees to be on the lookout for friendly, cooperative, scholarly people, knowledgeable in the field of the committee’s study. Our Fellows are active in preparing the Plenary. They will teach us about the rewards and pitfalls of technology within our profession. Also, their session will generate 1.5 hours of Category 1 CME credit. The sponsorship for the CME credit is provided by Professional Risk Management Services and we appreciate the support. That benefit will continue to be a reward for our Plenary sessions. We will have several Presidential guests: Dave Cash, Virgil Stucker, Donna Vanderpool a new representative from Psychiatric Times and several committee guests: Meiram Bendat will again be at the Psychotherapy Committee and Pat Stern at the Research Committee. Productivity: We will have a report from David Adler about recent contributions into the public domain of our committee work. I am looking forward to hearing this report because I think we are being fairly productive. We continue to focus on tight financial management and fundraising. I hope many of you will consider being a GAP Guardian. I said so often that the Gap Guardian group is a very positive symbol to outside agencies who might fund Continued. on pg. 2 P.O. Box 570218 • Dallas, Texas 75357-0218 • 972-613-0985 • Fax: 972-613-5532