Setting the tone for its first meeting of the new century, APA’s Board of Trustees devoted a significant part of the agenda for its March meeting to improving its relationships with the district branches. These steps toward closer collaboration and more substantial assistance from the national organization will be considerably enhanced now that APA members have approved a new organizational status.

A key component of this stepped-up effort is a task force created earlier this year composed of members of APA components and of district branch presidents and executive directors. Its charge is to develop procedures to guide APA on how best to share nondues revenue with the district branches and state associations. APA Vice President Paul Appelbaum, M.D., who along with Vice President Richard Harding, M.D., is cochair of the task force, described four critical issues it will evaluate as the revenue-sharing effort moves forward:

• How should the revenue be allocated among the district branches and state associations? Is the best formula one based on the number of members, for example, or is a better method to distribute it evenly per district branch or to set a base amount for all district branches and supplement that with a per-member payment?

• Should APA place restrictions on how the district branches spend the money they receive from the Association?

• What monitoring and accountability mechanism should APA and district branches employ for activities using the revenue-sharing grants?

• What obligations will district branches have as conditions of participating in the new partnership regarding, for example, not starting programs that compete with APA revenue-producing programs or sharing membership information online.

Appelbaum pointed out that the task force is concerned with policy development; determining the amount of the revenue to be shared is the purview of the Finance and Budget Committee.

As another element in its commitment to strengthening the relationship between APA and its district branches, the Board voted to approve, in principle, "the concept of developing leadership training programs at the district-branch and state-society levels." The Committee on District Branch/State Society Relations will present recommendations for a pilot leadership training program to the Trustees at their July meeting, noted Harding, who chairs that committee.

The Board also endorsed a revision of the APA Operations Manual that would grant a larger role to district branches in the component appointment process.

Lawrence Kraus, with whom APA recently contracted to direct the APA/Business Partnership Initiative, updated the Board on the goals and philosophy guiding this effort to convince business executives to improve the mental health insurance benefits they offer their employees.

Kraus, who for 28 years worked for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, most recently as senior vice president, said the primary tenet guiding the partnership is that "a well-designed mental health plan will produce measurable benefits for corporations, which will offset the cost" of offering these benefits. He pointed out that since 90 percent of companies offer some form of mental health care coverage, APA’s task is to "enlighten business leaders about the importance of well-designed and well-delivered" mental health plans.

He described three parallel tracks the project will follow. It will collect and develop data to prove to corporations the value that comes from offering parity for mental health care. "This will be critical to the success of the effort," he said, because businesses will not respond unless they can see good data. Second, he plans to undertake an outreach effort to other groups that represent the junction of business and health interests. Third, the project will present its message to human resource and benefits personnel within corporations, since these people make most of the insurance-related decisions for their company.

In yet another initiative designed to strengthen the relationship between APA and district branches, the Board voted to establish the Commission on Public Policy, Litigation, and Advocacy. This will encompass the mission of the current Litigation Fund and add the ability to respond to legislative, regulatory, and public education advocacy needs at the state or local level.

The Board also took these actions at its March meeting:

• Heard an update from Medical Director Steven Mirin, M.D., on the status of Medem.com, the new online project in which APA is a major investor and one of seven founding-member medical societies. Mirin said that the program is already signing up psychiatrists and other physicians for personalized Web pages through the Medem.com Web site and hopes by summer to be able to launch the consumer-oriented part of the site. He explained that content will be offered at several levels of sophistication, beginning with consumer-oriented health information and then allowing people to "drill down" to levels containing more specific and technical medical information.

• Approved combining APA’s two committees representing early career psychiatrists (ECPs). Currently, there is an Assembly Committee of Area Early Career Psychiatrist Representatives and a separate Committee of Early Career Psychiatrists under APA’s Council on Medical Education and Career Development. The new committee will have 14 members, seven elected and seven appointed by the APA president-elect.

• Approved a position statement on therapies focused on memories of childhood physical and sexual abuse that replaces a 1993 statement. It also agreed to amend the 1998 position statement on therapies intended to change a person’s sexual orientation, so-called "reparative" therapies. (Descriptions of the statements will appear in the next issue of Psychiatric News.)

• Endorsed a set of general principles to guide candidates as they campaign for APA office. They focus on ensuring equity of access to the electorate and each other; that all qualified members, whether incumbents or challengers, have "equal opportunity to run for office"; that "an atmosphere of collegiality" must be maintained; that candidates should have a say in "interpreting the rules that affect their campaign"; that the election process "should arouse members’ interest in and knowledge of APA affairs"; and that "candidates and APA should collaborate to find and utilize the most economical means of conducting the election campaign."

The Board put off until its July meeting controversial issues of whether to impose new campaign spending limits and whether to limit or expand the amount of campaigning in which candidates can engage. Some members have complained that the current method of campaigning is too intrusive, while others believe that APA should not impose any limits on candidates’ campaign activities.

Letters from the presidents of the Michigan, Vermont, Northern California, Washington, D.C., and North Dakota district branches were circulated at the meeting, all indicating that their members were opposed to attempts to set limits on candidates’ campaigning. One from the president of the Texas district branch noted that members were polled and were extremely divided on proposals to reform APA’s election procedures.

• Approved in principle "the enhancement" of the APA Office of Minority/National Affairs and the naming of a psychiatrist to direct its functions. The Board recognized this as a "memorial" to the late Jeanne Spurlock, M.D., who headed that office as a deputy medical director for many years.

• Voted to establish a framework for recognizing new "special caucuses." Among the requirements are that to form a caucus, at least 10 members must indicate their interest in writing, and by the end of its first two years, a caucus must have 25 registered members. APA will reevaluate interest in the caucus after five years. Once the 25-member threshold is reached, APA will pay the cost of establishing a list serve for caucus members. Caucuses may not speak on behalf of APA and are expected to operate under the oversight of an APA council or Assembly committee.