Vice President and Conference Co-Chair

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1 British Columbia Association of School Psychologists In-Psyghts Spring 2017 Volume 30, Number 1 In This Issue: President s Message: President s Message Vice President Ethics Membership Secretary Dear BCASP membership, The BCASP Executive would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank Lila Boulet for the dedication and hard work that she has done on the behalf of the BCASP membership. Lila joined the BCASP Executive as Secretary-Treasurer in 2012 and has worked to modernize our accounting system and maintain a smooth running operation. Secretary Treasurer Vacant Position Director of Communications As you know, following the November 2016 election for the position of Secretary- Treasurer, the successful candidate chose to step down. During this very busy couple of months, Lila graciously agreed to assist with the membership renewal, verification of employment and mail out process allowing us to move forward and to maintain an up-to-date membership directory. Now that the rush is over, Lila has chosen to step back from assisting in the duties of the Secretary-Treasurer to pursue personal interests we wish her well. The Executive will leave the vacated position of Secretary-Treasurer open until an election can held at the AGM in November We encourage all BCASP members to consider running for a position on the Executive and help shape the future of the Association and the profession. In the interim, the Secretary-Treasurer duties will be taken over by the members of the Executive. The BCASP Executive wants to acknowledge that Lila's hard work and dedication to the secretary-treasurer position has been sincerely appreciated and noticed. Dr. Douglas Agar Vice President and Conference Co-Chair Happy May, everyone! Today (April 22, 2017), the Conference Committee met to finalize the second annual Spring Workshop Dr. Steven Feifer s presentation on the Neuropsychology of Emotional Disorders. As of today, we have more registrations for this workshop than our inaugural Spring Workshop last year. We re looking forward to this event as another cost-effective and high-calibre professional development opportunity. A number of our members asked whether the webcast could be made into an accessible webinar for future viewing. While it is a goal of ours to build a resource

2 The BCASP Executive President: Douglas Agar Past President: Peter Molloy library for our members, that would include links to such webinars, we are at the preliminary stages of such an endeavour. At present, we do not have the technological or cost-covering abilities, but our intention is to build those capacities in future. Vice President & Conference Co- Chair: Barbara Nichols & Conference Co-Chair Secretary-Treasurer: Vacant A friendly reminder: for those of you who are attending Dr. Feifer s workshop and have diet restrictions, please contact Maureen Toth as soon as possible to ensure that those restrictions are accommodated: Maureen_Toth@sd34.bc.ca For our November 2017 the 30 th Anniversary Fall Conference, I can report that your committee has worked tirelessly to recruit excellent local and international presenters: Dr. Cecil Reynolds, Dr. Chuck Geddes, Dr. Georgina Robinson, Dr. Milton Dehn, Dr. Ted Wormelli, Dr. Randy Floyd, Dr. Laurie Ford and others, including Dr. George McCloskey and Dr. Peg Dawson. We advise that you plan ahead and reserve your hotel room. Rates and information will be on our website following the Spring Workshop. Registration information will be posted late summer. Membership Secretary: Stacey Kemp Chair, Ethics and Professional Conduct: Alyssa Bollans Director of Communications: Gregory Pearce As always, we are open to your feedback and interests for future professional development opportunities. We look forward to receiving and sharing with you the survey results from our second annual Spring Workshop, so please make sure you complete the survey. All the best in the coming weeks, Barbara Nichols BCASP Vice President and Conference Co-Chair Message from the Ethics and Professional Conduct Chair Dear Colleagues, So far in 2017 there has been an initiative to provide more clarity for members about when it is appropriate to report Title and BCASP number, as well as outline a process of the course of action that will be taken against member who uses BCASP affiliation for work conducted outside of the employment criterion. This was discussed at the most recent AGM and Doug has also reviewed this in the Fall newsletter. BCASP members are not eligible to work as a contractor and report title or BCASP number. In these situations, it is an inappropriate use of title and affiliation. When assessment services are contracted (by a parent, school district or other Ministry agency), the assessor should meet the requirements for registration by the College of Psychologists (CPBC) as established in bylaws under the Health Professions Act. If an assessment is completed by someone who does not meet these criteria, it cannot be accepted by other Ministries or agencies for the purposes of diagnosis or eligibility for services. The authority for school psychologists to diagnose is only 2

3 under the strict criteria for the use of title, which includes the employment criterion. Should it come to the attention of the BCASP Executive that a member is working outside of employment and reporting either title and/or a BCASP number on their reports, the following course of action will be taken: 1. The BCASP member will receive a letter of direction from the Ethics and Professional Practice chair about the employment criteria for BCASP members. This serves as a warning. 2. If this occurs a second time, the matter will be taken to the executive and the member will be sent a letter by the Membership Secretary under principle III.3.3 for conduct unbecoming of a member, and become a member not in good standing. A practice advisory will be posted to the website within the next 30 days. Please reference it for more information and follow up if you have any questions. Alyssa Bollans Membership Secretary/Privacy Officer Hello Colleagues: Well I have survived my first executive meeting as the new Membership Secretary! We met February 18 th and 19 th in Vancouver and had a very full agenda. The membership committee also met separately and I am happy to welcome two new BCASP members: Dale Pretty and Carli Madley. Congratulations and welcome to BCASP! There were also a couple of other applications who met all criteria except the employment piece so we look forward to welcoming those people in the near future. I have spent a lot of time in my new position fielding questions from potential members who are just completing their schooling or moving from out of the province or even out of the country. It has been busy with a steep learning curve so many thanks to other executive members and especially Barb Nichols for being kind and forgiving as I feel my way. Stacey Kemp Membership Secretary and Privacy Officer 3

4 Secretary Treasurer This role is currently being managed by the executive members until a new secretary-treasurer is elected at our next AGM. If you are interested, please do not hesitate to put your name forward and ask us for any information that may help you make that decision. Director of Communications Well spring is in the air and if we wait it may just arrive!! I am hoping everyone is looking forward to the wind down in the year as it has been a really busy one for me as I am sure it has been for all. I have received a number of s around the results of the most recent survey on our school psychology employment situations and how we are being compensated. The results are as follows: A great number of people responded to the survey showing that this is a topic interest to many in the province. For most questions the response included 200 of our active members showing an 82% response rate which is better than the reliability coefficients for many of our assessment tools! Here are the questions (shortened) with responses: 1. Are you a BCTF member? a. 83% members, b. 11% not members c. 6% other 2. Are you recognized and paid as a position of special responsibility? a. 32.5% yes, b. 67.5% no 3. Do you receive an additional stipend? a. 37.3% yes, b. 61.4% no c. 1.2% other 4. How much is the stipend? a. 67% said no compensation b ,5% c = 3.5% d = 4.5% e = 4.5% f = 8.55 g = 6.5% 4

5 5. Does your school district pay for BCASP membership fees? a. 11% yes, b. 86.5% no c. 2.5% other 6. Is your district willing to pay direct or through a compensation package your College of Psychologist fees? a. 26.5% yes. b. 77.1% no 7. This question asked people to comment on their work situation if they answered yes to question 6. The responses were wide and varied with a number of answers indicating that they are in negotiation with their locals to discuss how they may be compensated for having to pay the increased fees to be members of the College if and when this occurs. In a number of areas, the district is willing but the union is not willing for them to receive any additional compensation beyond that of a regular teacher. I want to take the opportunity to thank people for taking the time to answer these questions. The results show that there is not a consistent process throughout the Province that may be something to pursue in the future when looking at these positions. Personally, I find the comments related to the union not wanting to allow for additional compensation beyond what a teacher receives again shows their lack of understanding of our work and the time and effort required to become a school psychologist and to maintain our skills. These are all items for thought and consideration over the next year or so as we prepare for and move into the College once all the paperwork is signed. I want to wish you all a great Summer break and I hope to see you at the Fall conference in Vancouver. This will be the 30 th Anniversary so please try and come celebrate our organization and your career as a school psychologist. Greg Pearce Director of Communications 5