Letter from the President – Facing Organization Changes in the New Year

by Denise Parent, LMFT, President of CTAMFT (president@ctamft.org)

You may have seen, or will begin to see, a number of communications from AAMFT regarding its potential restructuring process, which will be raised for a membership vote in summer 2015. As the Board President, I am committed to sharing what we in Connecticut know, how we understand it, as well as share our opinions.

First, I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to respond to our Connecticut Division Survey this fall regarding your thoughts about a potential restructure. Your input was helpful and has been shared not only with our Board of Directors, but also with the national organization. I am pleased to confirm that the majority of our Connecticut members truly value this division and what we offer our members.

This October, our President-Elect, Heather Ehinger, as well as our Student Directors, Jessica Floyd and Michelle Triompo, attended AAMFT’s Annual Conference and Division Leaders meeting in Wisconsin, where a potential reorganization of AAMFT was discussed.

In short, AAMFT’s Board of Directors voted on the task force recommendation to eliminate the mandatory two-tier dues structure that requires members to pay state division dues in addition to AAMFT national dues. In the proposed restructure, members will pay national dues and then have the option to pay to join an array of special interest groups, which may include regional areas or states, a la carte. It is not clear how many geographic regions will (or won’t) be defined, but AAMFT has said that joining legislative special interest group(s) will be free.

As a Board, we continue to be concerned about what seems to be a lack of an operational plan. We have not received information about how transitions are envisioned, what a new national organization would look like, what special interest groups would be offered, and where and what criteria would be used to define special interest groups or geographic regions.

Most importantly, we don’t know what the strategies are for strong local and national advocacy for the MFT profession throughout the US and Canada – even as AAMFT adds goals for transnational and global outreach. There doesn’t appear to be any collection of data on the professional assets of each unique local division, or consideration of how those assets will be rolled into the larger picture.

One major gap I’d like to share is that a vote to change bylaws under the current regulations excludes student members who represent the millennial demographic (birth year from early 1980s to early 2000s) that AAMFT hopes to engage.

Because of these concerns, we have concluded as a Board that if a bylaw change vote is raised, we will all vote “no.”  This is not because we are against a progressive change that is essential for our professional organization to be innovative, competitive and relevant to the future of mental health services.   Rather, we cannot support change that lacks a plan that is able to provide explicit strategies as to how AAMFT will resource and sustain local attention to the inevitable opportunities and threats that arise and impact Connecticut MFTs.

We believe that all division leaders should be meaningfully utilized in building the future vision. We also believe that the whole membership, including students, should have the opportunity to dialogue and vote on the shape of an organization that has the power to impact their professional lives. As members and funders of the association, we have yet to see information concerning the actual budgeted cost of the proposed transition and how funds in the new organizational structure will be distributed. As such, we feel a lack of essential information in order to exercise our ability to vote on the new bylaws as informed members of our professional organization.

The CTAMFT Board believes strongly that our main focus must still remain on our profession, and we have continued to operate CTAMFT in its full capacity. We will continue to do so, while committing to helping AAMFT to fulfill their responsibilities to our profession, as our national organization.

We hope that the discussion thread taking place in the AAMFT Community will soon be available for all members, so that you may read a variety of Division Leaders perspectives about the restructure in addition to AAMFT’s communications. In the meantime, we will continue to keep our Connecticut members updated. And as always, please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions/comments.

Enjoy the holiday season and I appreciate your time and attention always.

Elections Committee Update: New Executive Team and Directors Announced

Early this spring, we ran our annual elections.  We had a great deal of members running for open positions.  And while everyone was highly qualified, our membership has voted and made their selections.  Please join us in welcoming your newest Executive Team Members and Directors.  Their term begins in July.  If you would like to learn more about the new additions to our leadership team please link here.

Heather Ehinger

Maryann LaBella

Nicole O’Brien

Wendy Haggerty

Eve Hornstein

 

 

 

 

Michelle Triompo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Heather Ehinger was elected to serve as our incoming President-Elect. Heather will serve one year as President-Elect and move into the President position in July 2015.
• Maryann LaBella has been elected to serve as our new Legislative Liaison.  In addition, Roxanne Pomeroy has graciously agreed to Chair the Legislative Committee for Maryann.
• Nicole O’Brien has been elected to serve as a Director.
• Wendy Haggerty has been elected to serve as a Director.
• Eve Hornstein has been elected to serve as our Pre-Clinical Representative.
• Michelle Triompo has been elected to serve as CTAMFT’s Student Representative.

For more information, please contact Paula Levy at elections@ctamft.org.

 

Letter from the President: Thank You To Outgoing Executive Team Members and Directors!

by Denise Parent, LMFT, President of CTAMFT (president@ctamft.org)

Denise Parent, LMFT, President of CTAMFT

I would like to recognize that this month, we are bidding a fond farewell to the Executive Team and Directors who have completed their terms.  On behalf of CTAMFT, I would like to thank the following for their dedication and service to our organization.

• Susan Boritz – Director and Legislative Liaison, gave much time and energy to professional advocacy, coordinating the committee, traveling to Hartford when needed, working toward obtaining the LMFTA and implementing MFT in the schools, writing emails to legislators and mentoring people with insurance questions.
• Katherine Allen – Director and Marketing Committee Chair, who has been our own personal go-to IT and marketing specialist.  She has helped us greatly with our electronic newsletter and social media efforts, creating cohesive outreach strategies and supporting our Association Manager with electronic communication.  We are pleased to share that Katherine has agreed to continue to Chair the Marketing Committee!
• Mika Vinci – Our Student Consultant, who is a ball of energy and enthusiasm!  Mika has developed the student networking meeting with Student Rep Jessica Floyd, and added the idea of coordinating with mentoring professionals and supervisors. Mika and Jessica have designated and met with representatives from each of the five MFT programs and have represented student interests and concerns actively on the Board.
• Jessica Floyd – Our Student Representative will complete her term this year, but we hope will carry on the tradition of moving into the role of Student Consultant.

Thank you!

2013 Call for Election Nominations

elections

The Election Committee is seeking Nominees for the following Board of Director positions and Nominating Election Committee Chair position opening in 2013:

• Director (3-years)
• Treasurer-Elect (1-year) followed by Treasurer (2-years)
• Student Representative (1-year) followed by Student Consultant (1-year)
• Nominating Elections Committee Chair (2-years)

A detailed description of the responsibilities of each position is available on our website. If you are interested in serving or know someone who would be a great candidate, please notify the Elections Committee by Friday, February 15, 2013.

Candidates will also need to complete the 2013 Nominating Elections Form by February 22, 2013. Please contact us at elections@ctamft.org for additional information.

Thank you, Elections Committee

Open Comment: Code of Ethics

The AAMFT Board of Directors has approved a draft of the revised Code of Ethics and is making available this version for open comment. CTAMFT has posted the draft under the Members-Only section – “AAMFT Code of Ethics” – on ctamft.org. 

Background
In 2009 the AAMFT Board of Directors appointed the Ethics Code Revision Task Force that was to provide recommendations regarding the scope of revisions. The Task Force recommended that incremental changes were necessary but not a complete reorganization or restructuring of the Code.

In 2010, members were surveyed about potential changes needed to the Code. Information was forwarded to the Task Force.

In 2011, the Ethics Code Task Force was appointed and began implementing changes that incorporated member feedback while being mindful of the Revision Task Force recommendations. The Task Force concluded their work and forwarded a draft the AAMFT Board.

The AAMFT Board directed staff to compile a final draft based on the Ethics Code Task Force draft, members input, known changes resulting from bylaws and membership category changes, tempering aspirational with enforceable principles and sub principles, ethics case history and known state and federal regulations.

Next Steps
The AAMFT Board believes this draft encompasses and fulfills the Ethics Revision Task Force recommendation that incremental changes were necessary without a complete rewrite of the Code. Until January 31, 2012, the AAMFT Board would like to collect member feedback recognizing that all feedback is invaluable in contributing either to the Code or the forthcoming Guidebook that will be created following a final approval of the Code. All feedback will be forwarded to the AAMFT Board of Directors.

During the March Board meeting the AAMFT Board of Directors will either accept this draft or direct a Task Force to make additional changes based on member feedback that may identify substantial gaps in the current draft. We sincerely appreciate any and all feedback you can provide to coderevisions@aamft.org.

Letter from the President

Building Community
Dorothy Timmermann, LMFT, CTAMFT Board President

Last month, the Board of Directors was welcomed at Central Connecticut State University for a Networking Breakfast followed by our November Meeting. We were so pleased at the warm hospitality and the nice turnout from CCSU students and faculty, as well as others in our community that found the location convenient and were motivated to join the conversation and make connections. This has been the essential goal of “The Board on the Road” and we plan to continue this next spring, hoping to reach many of you from all areas of our state. In the meantime, we hope that members will reach out to us with ideas, needs, hopes and wishes. We have a number of committees that would benefit tremendously from your involvement as well.

So how do we stay in touch?

connect

We are continuously exploring ways to refine our communications platform and the latest exploration prompted us to revitalize our CTAMFT Blog which you will easily see by clicking here and reading more!

This space will complement our other communication vehicles by providing more space for dialogue and a nice format for our E-News; along with offering opportunities for members to share articles, book reviews, and other interesting information. We welcome submissions to the Blog at ctamft@snet.net and you can follow the Blog by email or RSS feed for your convenience.

In addition to our Blog, CTAMFT has several other communication platforms and each has an intended purpose in serving our membership.

Our website, ctamft.org, has many resources and functions including linking all of our communication vehicles together in one place. It is also the place to see a complete list of CEU Opportunities (under Professional Development) and register for our own events including the Annual Conference which is scheduled for April 20, 2012 (registration will open shortly for that).

The Connecticut Connections Newsletter, published twice annually, is our organization’s way of communicating in a more formal fashion what we hope is most relevant and useful to our membership.

Our Facebook page provides a quick and timely way of communicating to and among each other especially with content regarding events and happenings.

Our Listserv continues to be a fantastic avenue for sharing career opportunities, referrals, available office space, new groups forming, and so forth.

We also have the Connecticut Forum on the AAMFT Community which is a place for discussion to and from your Board of Directors in a members-only space.

social network

Finally, our Marketing and Communications Committee tell me something about the future developments with the use of LinkedIn specifically for networking purposes and even the possibility of Twitter on the horizon. Oh my!

So thank you all for taking the time to connect in one way or another with CTAMFT. The season is getting busy but I hope you join my sentiments in feeling great about being part of our community that shares the common ground of enhancing our lives as MFTs, both personally and professionally.

All my best,
Dorothy