Iurge you one more time to please be sure to vote in this year’s APA election. I especially urge you to vote in favor of the Amended and Restated Bylaws, which will allow APA to proceed with our corporate restructuring. As I have discussed previously, this reorganization is essential to allow us to shift our spending priorities to support our Association’s advocacy and public education missions. This will complement our increased focus on science and education, which has been accomplished through the establishment of the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education.

You are aware that we need membership approval of the bylaws changes to support the reorganization. We need a two-thirds majority of voters to pass the proposal for reorganization, and for the vote to be valid, we need one-third of all eligible voters to vote. Please remember that every candidate in this year’s election supports the bylaws changes necessary to support the APA reorganization.

After careful consideration by senior staff, the Budget Committee, and the Board of Trustees, APA made a decision to transfer the activities of the Office of International Affairs to a number of other APA offices and components. I’d like to share with you the rationale for this step and the specific changes that are being made.

Over the last several years, we have made a significant effort to expand our international membership. Currently, there are over 1,500 international colleagues who are members of APA. To meet the special needs of international members and to integrate them fully into all activities of APA, the responsibility for serving international members will be housed primarily within the Department of Member and District Branch Relations. Along with the APA Answer Center, this office will continue to respond to inquiries and requests from APA members, including international members, and refer them to other APA offices and departments when appropriate. In addition, to ensure that international members receive the attention they deserve, we will be designating a special manager for international membership.

A central aspect of APA’s mission is the education of all our members. In this context, a growing number of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals from around the world attend our annual meeting each spring. As you know, this year our meeting is being held May 13 to 18 in Chicago with the theme "The Doctor-Patient Relationship." As always, it will be our pleasure to continue to host a hospitality suite where international psychiatrists can network and meet with APA leaders and staff.

We will also be expanding Internet access to APA’s library for international members and expanding the availability of APA publications to our international audience. For example, the American Journal of Psychiatry is now published in Spain, Italy, and Latin America, with a Japanese edition planned for this year. Ron McMillen, APA’s director of Publication Operations, will be working hard to expand our offerings abroad with ongoing input and collaboration from the international psychiatric community.

Our international presence is also expressed through our membership in the World Psychiatric Association and other organizations. There is no question that we will continue to work toward enhancing our relationship with the WPA and other international mental health groups on a broad range of significant issues including education, the global burden of mental illness, and the shaping of social policy as it affects our profession and the patients we serve. We will also continue to endorse and sponsor bilateral and multilateral international meetings and collaborations.

Yet another key aspect of our international effort is our interface with the World Health Organization. We will be working hard to develop a closer working relationship with the WHO and its related components. This will be particularly important as we anticipate future editions of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). To this end, the recent DSM-V planning meeting, jointly sponsored by APA and the National Institute of Mental Health, included scientists from the U.S., Canada, and abroad. This aspect of our international activity will be overseen by APA’s Office of Research and its new director, Darryl Regier, M.D., M.P.H.

Because of our intention to integrate international activities throughout the association, the Office of International Affairs as an isolated office has been closed. I believe, though, it is clear that we have expanded a portfolio of efforts in the international arena, and we will be devoting appropriate central-office support to carry out our members’ activities in these areas.

Everyone in the APA leadership remains committed to our continued, active involvement in international affairs. We look forward to working with our international colleagues to ensure that we are enhancing the level of service we provide to our international members and creating more opportunities for meaningful collaboration with individual psychiatrists and organizations in other parts of the world.