Executive Officer’s Report: The Inside Scoop
Lynne Cooper
Below is a short update on some of the exciting developments and opportunities on the horizon for ARP and its members in the coming months.
Setting Up an Infrastructure
ARP has a long history of doing good work in support of personality science. However, these efforts have sometimes been more haphazard than we would like, partly due to the lack of organizational infrastructure to define and support these activities.
In recognition of this problem, the Board voted at our meeting last summer to establish a series of committees that would reflect and support our efforts in four key areas: (1) education and training, (2) publication and communication of our science, (3) awards and recognition of important contributions to the field; and (4) building and managing our web presence.
The Board agreed that each committee should include at least one member of the Executive Board in order to facilitate communication between the committees and the Board. In addition, to facilitate coordination among the committees, we agreed that I would serve in an ex officio capacity on each of the committees. Â Committee members will serve one-year terms, with the possibility of re-appointment.
The composition of the four committees has been finalized as follows:
Education & Training Committee
Dan Ozer, chair (daniel.ozer@ucr.edu)
Marc Fournier
Jennifer Lodi- Smith
Grant Edmonds
Publication & Communication Committee
Simine Vazire, chair (simine@gmail.com)
Jon Adler
Erik Noftle
Web Committee
Chris Soto, chair (christopher.soto@colby.edu)
Len Simms
Jennifer Tackett
Awards Committee
Brent Donnellan, chair (donnel59@msu.edu)
Will Fleeson
Tera Letzring
We are working on developing a formal charge for each committee, and outlining one or more tasks that each committee will undertake in the coming year. If you have thoughts or suggestions for any of the committees or would be interested in serving on one of these committees in future years, please contact me (cooperm@missouri.edu) or the respective chair.
Bylaws and Tax Exempt Status
As you may recall, in my last report, I described our efforts to update ARP’s bylaws and gain formal non-profit, tax exempt status. I am happy to report that our bylaws were re-written and adopted by a unanimous vote (Yes, you read that correctly— unanimous!) of the voting membership on March 25, 2012. Many thanks to Dan Ozer for his brilliant work in re-writing our bylaws.
The application for tax exempt status was also completed and submitted to the IRS, back on June 6, 2012. The IRS has formally acknowledged receipt of our application. However, as of this date, we are still waiting for a final ruling. Fingers crossed!