On Thu, 08 Feb 2018 21:12:06 -0800, Christopher Green wrote: >Back in the 1990s, the APA wanted to start engaging directly in >political lobbying, but such activities would not be legal under the >APA's nonprofit charter, so it spun off a new organization with a >different legal to do political lobbying on its behalf, the APAPO.
Interesting. I was vaguely aware of something like this but given that the Ivy League schools, many other schools at high and lower levels of prestige (certain college/universities have powerful political connections in certain states and areas, e.g., Utah) have lobbying firms in D.C. working the "powers that be" to be supportive of specific institutions, I guess I'm surprised that APA and APAPO had to be created for lobbying purposes (is APAPO only a lobby firm or does it have more general functions; I thought that the actual lobbying was left to law firms, specialized politicos (e.g., like what Manafort did for Russia and Turkey), and other specialists -- the administrations of at least the colleges/universities could claim that they did not lobby themselves though they might engage in fund raising (which would pay for the lobbying). >Clinicians, for whom most of the lobbying was done, had to pay a >hefty extra fee, in addition to their APA membership fee, to support >the APAPO. For a large number of years (I've been a member of APA since the early 1970, though going through on-off periods like when the APS was formed (I'm supposed to be a charter member but I don't know If I actually have any documentation on this point) I had something I think was called a "practice surcharge" on my renewal form. I'm not sure when it exactly started but the first time I saw it I wondered whether I had been charged in the past -- I omit paying for this charge. I could not understand why APA thought I was a practioner or some sort since my Ph.D. was in experimental/cognitive psychology and though I have been involved in psychiatric and clinical psychological research, it was always as a data analyst and methodologist. Moreover, I have been long term members of Division 1 (General), 2 (Teaching), 3 (Experimental), 5 (Statistics and Evaluation), and occasionally another division (e.g., Div 52, International Psych) but never a clinical division. I still get email news about the practice directorate thought I don\t know why. >This caused a ruckus in the early 2000s which led to a lawsuit, which >APA settled out of court by paying millions of dollars back to the members >who had paid the fees, without admitting any wrongdoing. Wait,you mean APA was settling at the same time it was getting involved in torture with the U.S. military and Marty Seligman? It seems to me that the torture stuff would have taken up a lot of legal resources. >If you're interested in more detail, it is covered in my and Robin >Cautin's December 2017 American Psychologist article about >the history of the APA. I think I may have seen this but in an email ToC from the APA. I thought "Oh, so that's why Chris has been MIA on Tips." I should have a paper copy of AmPsych somewhere under my papers and will try to find it (otherwise, I'll go through NYU library). I haven't paid my APA dues for 2018 yet for a variety of reasons and this development makes me wonder whether these new actions would make membership more attractive or not. Unfortunately, even when dues have not been paid for a relative long time (but less than a year) I still get a lot crap from the APA in email and snail mail. Anyway, thank you Chris for providing the info and I will locate the article. -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@mail-archive.com. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=52091 or send a blank email to leave-52091-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
