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APA needs a long-range strategic plan--a map for navigating the turbulent waters ahead--and until that map is charted, there is no point in tinkering with the ship's engine.
That's what APA leaders agreed at last month's meeting of the APA Joint Reference Committee in Washington, D.C. The JRC added its voice to those from the Assembly and elsewhere in the Association calling for an overall strategic plan to guide the organization in setting priorities for the future, streamlining its governance structure, and making more efficient use of its resources (see end of story).
Ironically, the recommendation was formulated in the context of debate on an initiative that would have eliminated the JRC itself--an initiative whose goal was to save money and streamline the governance structure.
(The 23-member Joint Reference Committee has seven voting members: the president-elect, the speaker-elect, two members of the Assembly, two of the Board of Trustees, and the medical director. The JRC is the only APA component in which the medical director has a vote. The remainder of the JRC are chairs of APA councils and commissions.)
The initiative to eliminate the JCR, approved by the Assembly in November, was proposed by past Assembly speaker Roger Peele, M.D., of the Washington Psychiatric Society. Peele has maintained that elimination of the JRC would save members $80,000 to $100,000.
The JRC acts as a "clearinghouse" between the Assembly, the Board of Trustees, and councils, reviewing actions from the Assembly and referring them to appropriate APA councils or components--sometimes with specific recommendations for changes or improvements.
In this way, the JRC is intended to add another deliberative element to the process by which APA formulates its policies, ensuring broad-based participation and expert evaluation of proposals.
But to Peele, the JRC is a dinosaur, a fossil of an earlier era in the Association's evolution.
He has argued that removing the JRC would make it easier for members to bring issues and action papers directly from the Assembly to the Board of Trustees. Moreover, Peele has said that the JRC is sometimes used as a burial ground for ideas and proposals that are threatening or controversial.
For this reason, Peele's initiative has attracted the attention of Assembly members who are inpatient with an Association goverance structure that they believe is cumbersome and unresponsive, and who are frustrated with APA's efforts to move toward a long-range strategic plan.
In December the Board referred the motion to the JRC itself, effectively allowing the committee to review and comment on its own "death warrant" (Psychiatric News, January 3).
Last month the committee looked at the death warrant and chose to go on breathing.
A number of JRC members expressed sympathy with the intention behind Peele's initiative, but stressed that reorganization of the Association governance structure--and elimination of the JRC--should be part of a broader, overarching strategic plan.
The view was stated succinctly by past Assembly speaker Richard Harding, M.D.
"The Joint Reference Committee should go," Harding said at the meeting, "but in the context of a planned overall streamlining, and not to just get the ball rolling."
In place of Peele's initiative, the committee approved a "substitute" amendment put forward by APA Vice President Rodrigo Munoz, M.D., to rejuvenate the Association's strategic planning effort.
Munoz told Psychiatric News that he believes the motion will help move the organization toward development of a long-range strategic plan.
"I believe the JRC is saying that we are serious about streamlining the governance structure, but not in a piecemeal fashion," he said.
Munoz said the search for the right kind of governance structure that will be responsive to members and cost-efficient need not be divisive or antagonistic, pitting interest groups against one another. It will require, he pointed out, broad-based input and the involvement and oversight of Steven Mirin, M.D., APA's next medical director, who will assume his new position later this year.
That restructuring the Association governance will require the input of the incoming medical director was echoed unanimously by JRC members, and especially by current Medical Director Melvin Sabshin, M.D.
Munoz added that he believes Mirin will be "in the right place" to move on restructuring the Association governance.
"He is far from new to the process [of APA's governance]," Munoz said, "and he realizes the solutions will require everyone's involvement. I strongly believe that he will bring to the table everyone who has ideas."
In fact, the Association already has a Joint Board/Assembly Task Force on Strategic Planning, chaired by past APA President Joseph English, M.D.
English told Psychiatric News that with the Association in a period of transition--because of the change in medical directors--the task force's strategic planning effort has been on hold.
English said he welcomes the JRC initiative and reiterated the importance of having the involvement and support of the medical director.
Peele, whose initiative was rejected by the JRC, said he believes the committee's action will help move the organization toward coming up with a long-range strategic plan.
"I like the Munoz amendment," Peele said. "I'm not surprised that they didn't vote for their own demise," he said. "I think their effort [to rejuvenate the strategic planning process] is sincere, but I think it is unfortunate that they didn't even vote on the Assembly's action paper."
The action taken by the Joint Reference Committee last month is as follows:
"The Joint Reference Committee voted to recommend to the Board of Trustees that it set aside time at its March meeting to discuss the next phase of APA's strategic planning effort and the advisability of constituting a broad-based group, appointed by the president and speaker of the Assembly, in consultation with the chair of the joint Board/Assembly Task Force on Strategic Planning, to carry this process forward. The JRC further recommends that the group be charged with drafting a proposal for the organization and implementation of the planning process and the time frames for presentation of a draft plan to the Assembly and Board. Also, this group should be representative of the membership and should obtain outside expert consultation."
(Psychiatric News, March 7, 1997)