From the President
Dear Society Members,
The executive committee and governing board of ASAP recently held its annual business meeting in Dallas and I want to share with you several of its important outcomes. First, after years of struggling to clarify some complicated financial issues that linked ASAP and its Board (ABAP, American Board of Adolescent Psychiatry), a merger has been successfully negotiated. The details include ABAP merging into ASAP as a semi-autonomous component of the latter, which will continue to carry out the duties and responsibilities and goals of ABAP. Since it will no longer exist as an independent organization, ABAP will be known as ASAP’s Council on Certification in Adolescent Psychiatry and will continue its primary function of promoting and maintaining ASAP board certification. ASAP’s obligation to this council will continue until the fiscal 2013 or the last re-certification of an ABAP diplomate, whichever occurs first. All ABAP funds will be set aside exclusively for expenses incurred by the Council on Certification in Adolescent Psychiatry to be expended upon the approval of the ASAP President and The Council on Certification in Adolescent Psychiatry. In addition to reconciling important outstanding debts to ASAP, we hope that this merger, long in the making, will also serve to create a more integrated administration and maintenance of certification as well as act as a spring board for coordinating new examinations for future certification. Also, in the best spirit of this merger, we hope to encourage those ABAP diplomates, who have let their ASAP membership lapse, to rejoin the society at a reduced rate of $195.00.
Second, our society’s finances, while not robust by any measure, appear to have withstood significant debts, helping us to maintain some modest profits made at our last meeting. In fact, despite our perennial struggle with increasing new membership, our standing membership has stabilized. I believe this was due, in part, to our group’s decision to coordinate a more affordable annual conference while still providing high quality presentations. The fact that we can no longer enjoy the benefits of holding longer meetings in more luxurious venues has not escaped me and some of you who attended in New York City. I can only attempt to reassure those who expressed their disappointment that such program decisions, based on our finances, were not easily made but have been essential for us to survive to see better days.
Third, ASAP has a proud history of participating in and taking positions on a range of major legal issues and health care policies that have impacted our adolescent population. Our group has been notably present in national issues such as the death penalty for adolescents. To that end, we are hoping to stimulate society members to participate in submitting ideas and that our community can promote in the form of ASAP position papers or briefs.
Finally, please reserve the dates, March 6-7, 2010 for the ASAP annual conference at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, West Hollywood/Beverly Hills, CA. The two-day program, to be coordinated by our own Dr. Joseph Kenan, will focus on themes of trauma in the practice of adolescent psychiatry. It should be a wonderful meeting and I look forward to seeing you all there.
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