COMMITTEE REPORTS Continued.

PLANNING, MARKETING... Continued.

First, we met for an hour with the GAP PR consultant, Amy Franklin, and reviewed her work to date and plans for the coming year. Amy has been instrumental in the design and implementation of the new GAP web site, the initiation of the Psychology Today GAP blog and in a number of media placements and events. Her work primarily with the Media Committee is much appreciated and is considered by that Committee to be a long-range investment in enhancing the impact and visibility of GAP products and members for psychiatry, mental health more broadly and for society at large. She will continue her work next year which will also include media training for GAP members. Later in the day we met with Jack Drescher and Carol Bernstein, co-chairs of the Media Committee, who expressed their strong support for Amy and an active PR effort. Concerns were raised about cost and how to measure outcomes. These are ongoing concerns and every year we will revisit. We discussed a possible outside source of funding for PR which would then be less of a burden on operations.

Related to GAP’s visibility we looked at the new web site which is a major upgrade from the old site. Seth Powsner walked us through its various elements, noting a need for a protected Membership list page. Keeping it current and relevant to the outside world is a challenge as well.

The Dear Abby award will be given in the Spring at our meeting April 20-22. 2023. There were 4 nominations from GAP members and we selected Representative Jamie Raskin from Maryland for the award. His memoir, Unthinkable, about his son lost to suicide has made him one of the nation’s leading advocate for mental health care. Harsh Trivedi will reach out to him. We would buy books and make a donation for whatever charity he might designate. The date for his talk is Friday April 21 from 5 to 6:30. We will also reach out to Jeanne Phillips (Dear Abby) to attend. The Dear Abby award is presented now every 2 years.

We reviewed the agenda for the Strategic Retreat, “Reimagining GAP”, for Saturday with Mary Barber who will facilitate. The report on the Retreat will be in a separate communication but as these notes are written after the event, I just note that it was extraordinary that there were well over a hundred attendees (we expected far fewer) in person and virtually. Mary did a superb job. Our committee will be involved in a number of follow up actions.

Fund raising has been an essential task for our committee with John Looney taking the lead and being a rainmaker for GAP. Three phases for fund raising were discussed. The first, which is mostly complete, raised nearly a million dollars for the GAP Fellowship which is now endowed through restricted gifts in perpetuity. The second, is raising funds for Early Career Psychiatrists (ECP’s) to subsidize their dues and bring in a younger cohort to GAP. The third, which was discussed at some length, was the possible linking/branding of committees themselves or their products to donors. For example, a new committee on Telepsychiatry is being formed and several prospects for branding were raised. The need for GAP to raise funds other than through member dues and donations is an ongoing challenge.

We discussed the much revised proposal for an outside GAP Advisory Board initiated by Lois Flaherty which did not receive support from the GAP Finance Committee and Board at this meeting. We still feel the idea has merit and will keep it on the agenda for future meetings when the timing may improve.

Lastly, we discussed the composition of the committee itself and the need for younger members, perhaps a fellow or 2, more diversity. The Chair indicated his desire that April will be his last meeting as Chair. We need more youth and fresh ideas. This committee is the only GAP committee that looks to the health of GAP as a whole.

PSYCHIATRY & COMMUNITY

Members attending: Minkoff, Adams, Dragatsi

Virtual: Balfour, Flaum, Hackman, Myrick, Feldman, Goldman, Le Melle

Fellow: Sam Jackson

The Committee voted to invite Sam Jackson to become a member. He accepted the invitation.

FAST TRACK PROJECTS:

OpEd on Roadmap submitted to Amy Franklin and she is reviewing.