Secretary-Treasurer's Report
Jennifer Pals Lilgendahl
Haverford College
I hope that the 2014-2015 school year is going well for everyone! There is much to share since my report in the last issue of P. The year began with a productive ARP Board meeting in Åustin at SPSP at which we discussed several important matters, including the upcoming 2015 Meeting, the transition to new leadership in the Executive Officer and Secretary-Treasurer roles as of 2015, and the new partnership between ARP And the Personological Society to sponsor the Murray Award. Regarding the latter, I was very pleased to be able to help negotiate a partnership plan between the two associations to co-sponsor the award. Going forward, the Murray Award will be given out every other year to coincide with our conference schedule, and a committee comprised of members selected by both ARP and the Personological Society will solicit nominations and select the winners. I am especially excited that the Murray Award Address will become a regular event in our conference program. Dean Keith Simonton, the Murray Award winner for 2015, will be the first recipient to give the Murray Award address at the ARP conference, which will take place in St. Louis in June. The call for submissions is now officially open and will be until January 15th, 2015. Please consider submitting to present on your work in St. Louis!
Our current membership total is 252, which includes 67 graduate students and post-docs and 185 regular members. While there was an expected drop from last year because this is a non-conference year, we are larger than we were at the end of the previous non-conference year, 2012, which we ended with a total of 227 members. We hope we can reach a point where more people will opt for multi-year memberships so that our numbers do not fluctuate quite so much between conference and non-conference years. At your next membership renewal, please consider a multi-year membership! It is less hassle for you and it helps to secure the long-term financial stability of ARP.
In closing, I would like to acknowledge that this will be my final report as secretary-treasurer of ARP, as my four-year term concludes at the end of this year. It is been a great pleasure and an honor to serve ARP and our field in this capacity. As someone who works at a small liberal arts college where I am the only personality psychologist, being able to work with so many fellow personality psychologists from institutions around the country has been truly rewarding for me. I want to especially thank our Executive Officer extraordinaire Lynne Cooper, without whom I could not have done this job! Indeed, Lynne’s leadership and tireless efforts over these past four years have made a lasting difference to the health and vitality of ARP. Finally, I am thrilled to be passing the secretary-treasurer baton into the very capable hands of Jennifer Tackett. Thanks, Jennifer! Your willingness to serve is much appreciated. I look forward to seeing everyone in St. Louis next June!