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The Oregon School Psychologists Association |
PMB 419 |
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Phone the OSPA President at: 503/246-8715 |
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Mission: |
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| The Oregon School Psychologists' Association provides leadership in creating a brighter future for all Oregon children through professional affiliation, collaborative problem-solving, and the promotion of innotative and best practices. |
After more than six years of residing in a member's personal storage space on America OnLine, the OSPA web site will soon get a domain name of its own! At the last Executive Board meeting, OSPA decided to host the web site through Project A, in Ashland. This will provide members with faster, more reliable access. Services people have come to expect at a web site, such as the ability to register and pay for events online, will soon be available.
Long-term Web Editor, Philip Bowser, will assist with the transition and then retire from the position. The new OSPA Web Editor will be Sirenna Brown. The transition should take place over the summer months - watch for an announcement of the new web site address! (It will be MUCH easier to type in than the old one!)
Jerome M. Sattler, Professor Emeritus at San Diego State University, is the featured speaker at the OSPA 2001 Fall Conference. His workshop will provide an overview of the two volumes of his Fourth Edition of Assessment of Children. It is intended for school psychologists, clinical psychologists, and counseling psychologists, special education professionals, and graduate students who want to update their assessment skills. His program will deal with topics such as the following:
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Mark your calendars NOW for the second Friday in October! Watch this web site and your newsletter for registration details!
At the April OSPA Board meeting it was announced that Public Information Chair, Karen O'Brien, was elected by Oregon's members of the National Association of School Psychologists to be their representative. O'Brien will serve a three-year term of office that begins July first. She will attend at least two business meetings per year and coordinate NASP activities in Oregon.
Karen is currently a school psychologist for Roseburg Public Schools, providing a broad range of services for teachers, parents, and students in the primary and intermediate levels. She also serves on the district's Crisis Response Team. She replaces Fred Grossman, who was Oregon's longest-serving NASP Delegate.
OSPA member, Philip Bowser, was recently elected as Secretary of the National Association of School Psychologists "Children's Fund." He will serve a one-year term of office, attending two Board of Trustees meetings. The Trustees raise money for the Fund, and disperse the money through grants and direct awards. The Fund is a 501(c)3 charity, affiliated with but separate from NASP.
Current OSPA newsletter editor, David Streight, recently announced that he no longer wishes to write, print, and mail the newsletter. This creates the need to find both a replacement newsletter editor. This position, appointed by the OSPA President, works under the supervision of the Public Relations/Public Information chair, and can have as many subcommittee as needed to produce the newsletter. David is willing to provide training for the new editor and continue with the printing tasks, if necessary. Interested OSPA members should contact President, Mike Safko.
A committee has working on an update of the OSPA By-Laws. The committee held several meetings throughout the year to correct typographical errors in the old version, to bring various sections up to date, and to reduce the size of the Executive Board so that it would be easier to fill all of the committee positions and obtain a quorum at business meetings. Advice was sought from the members via the newsletter, this website, and by e-mail. The Oregon By-Laws were compared to those of other states and to NASP's Constitution. All OSPA members currently subscribed to the ListServer received a copy of the rough draft By-Laws and invited to comment. At the April OSPA Board meeting, the committee asked the Board for permission to present their work to the general membership for approval. The Board gave the committee the "green light" to proceed.
You can view the proposed By-Laws on this web site. The By-Laws will also be distributed to members via the newsletter. Please study the By-Laws so that you will be ready to vote on their adoption later in the year. You can expect to see a ballot on By-Laws approval as part of your ballot for new elected officers.
Several Oregon members of the National Association of School Psychologists attended the annual convention in Washington, D.C. April 17-21. OSPA Presidents, Steve Haskell, and President-Elect, Mike Safko attended meetings designed for state leadership. Incoming Oregon Delegate, Karen O'Brien, observed the Delegate Assembly meeting to prepare her for her new assignment. Philip Bowser and Fred Grossman attended meetings of the Children's Fund Board of Trustees and helped to run the annual auction.
It was a nice surprise that more people than expected were at the OSPA conference in Eugene on March 9 and 10. About 75 people registered for Friday, attending workshops on early literacy and language development; reading interventions; the latest developments in early intervention/ECSE evaluation; coping with crisis; and alternative dispute resolution.
The lunch time keynote address by Scott Poland continued with causes of, and suggestions for, coping with crises; many people mentioned on their conference evaluations that they especially enjoyed Dr. Poland's presentations. Another popular happening on Friday was the afternoon panel organized by Vinny Martin; at least 25 people participated in the "Reconciling Expectations with Reality" discussion.
Saturday had about 45 people at Jeff Sprague's workshop on "Early Identification and Treatment of Antisocial and Violent Youth." What timely topics on both days, in light of recent events in our world!
Thank you to all of you who attended and to all of you who helped put together the conference. Stay tuned for announcements about the Fall conference. (Report by Dawna Warren, conference chair.)
Izzy Kalman, a school psychologist in New York has created, www.TeasingVictims.com, dedicated to helping the millions of children who are victims of teasing and bullying. In light of the increasingly undeniable observation that school shootings are virtually all committed by kids who suffer from ridicule by peers, you may find it particularly timely. Please note that the materials speak directly to youth, so the tone is informal.
Public Relations committee chair, Karen O'Brien, reminds us that most people have never heard of school psychology. It is up to us to "toot our own horns" in a variety of ways. Here are some time-tested ideas for reaching out to parents:
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Brian Craig, our membership chair, reports that OSPA currently has 185 members. Last year we peaked at 154 members. Brian wants people to know that OSPA members receive a number of benefits for their dues, which are low in comparison to many other states. OSPA members receive discount admissions to conferences, a newsletter, this website, a ListServ discussion group, and representation and advocacy at the state level. There are at least 100 NASP members in Oregon who are not OSPA members, so our potential for growth is tremendous. Most people will join if they receive a personal contact, so download a membership application from this web site or contact Brian for one. Then talk to your colleagues at work and impress upon them the critical importance of actively supporting one's professional association. What OSPA can accomplish is directly related to the size of our membership.