November 20, 1998

By Rodrigo Muņoz, M.D.
APA President

Two years ago, at the beginning of my campaign for APA president-elect, I promised to take every step to give APA back to its members-to make sure every member knows, understands, and can use the benefits offered by APA and feels an important and valued part of APA. Now, six months after beginning my term as president, I want to report on our progress.

First of all, credit should go to those who have helped make progress possible. President Harold Eist, M.D., did much to return confidence and pride to our clinicians in the midst of our struggles against abuses by managed care companies. President Herbert Sacks, M.D., my immediate predecessor, promoted the creation of APA components that have facilitated our work. President-elect Alan Tasman, M.D., and Assembly Speaker Donna Norris, M.D., have enhanced and enriched our early initiatives. Dale Walker, M.D., Richard Harding, M.D., and the Task Force on Strategic Planning have given us solid recommendations. APA Medical Director Steven Mirin, M.D., has implemented irrevocable change. Finally and most importantly, a vigorous, thoughtful, and creative Board of Trustees has advanced ideas and plans that only recently seemed impossible.

The Board of Trustees took action in San Diego last July that will create a strong, financially stable, and well-organized APA. The changes will require time, new organizational structures, and, at least for some initiatives, a vote by the members on modifications to our bylaws. More information on the bylaws changes will appear in the annual election section of Psychiatric News, which will be published in the next issue.

The fall component meetings in Washington, D.C., in September were an exceptional opportunity to initiate the implementation of the Board of Trustees' actions. A stronger Council on Internal Organization has taken over the awesome task of integrating and coordinating all the APA components, reviewing proposals for the APA Operations Manual, establishing clear mandates for the APA councils, and creating rules that should enhance communications and decrease duplication of efforts.

The Board of Trustees, at its October meeting in Los Angeles, voted to enhance its communications with psychiatric groups that can enrich the activities of APA components, profit from APA activities, and better serve many psychiatrists by working together with APA. Also in October we gave renewed attention to plans on career development and financial planning for psychiatrists.

At its meeting in December in Denver, the Board of Trustees will take a closer look at psychiatric education, our relationships with the different groups and organizations interested in the training and professional growth of psychiatrists, and our plans for the best continuing medical education in the country. We will also focus on advancing telemedicine and psychiatric practice in rural areas.

The 100 days between the fall component meetings and the December Board meeting will see the emergence of our new Institute on Research and Education (Psychiatric News, November 6), the consolidation of our fiscal structure and our publications policy, the integration of public affairs and government relations programs, and the beginning of a serious debate on the structure of the APA Assembly.

At the same time, we will be carefully examining ways to better coordinate APA and state associations. The common thread to all these actions is to better serve you, the APA membership, and ensure that APA is able to respond to your changing needs.

I invite you to contact me about any of the actions described above or other issues you would like to bring to my attention. I can be reached by e-mail at rmunozmd@aol.com or by fax at (619) 298-3601.