As we quickly approach the IPA renewal date, the Membership Committee would like to highlight a few of the many benefits of membership in this outstanding association.
Our association celebrated another strong year in 2023 and our membership numbers have remained robust. As of January 28, we have 304 members, 52 of whom are student members (quite an accomplishment – IPA has typically maintained a total 30-40 student members in recent history). In fact, IPA was recognized by APA for being one of the states with the highest proportion of licensed psychologists choosing to join their state psychological association - this is a testament to the wonderful community you all provide to psychologists across the state! Student membership has flourished since implementation of our Student Mentorship and Sponsored Student programs; thank you to those who responded to our recent call for sponsored student donations! IPA has continued to offer excellent professional development opportunities to members, including a fabulous spring wellness retreat called “Taking Care of Us,” our fall conference on Therapeutic Assessment, and additional trainings on Providing Affirming Care for Gender Diverse Youth, Ethics and Risk Management, and Clinical Psychopharmacology, among others. Members can access a wide variety of recorded trainings from this past year through our website. After the renewal process has ended, all renewed members will receive their annual code for four free online CEs to use in 2024!
Our Executive Council, committees, and other leadership have been hard at work implementing IPA’s Strategic Plan. The Diversity and Social Justice Committee has been increasing awareness and understanding of diverse populations and culturally responsive practices. The Finance Committee has been an excellent steward of IPA’s financial wellbeing. Our Advocacy Team continues advocate on behalf of all psychologists in the state by being a voice on legislative issues at the state and federal level, informing membership of action alerts on timely topics, and representing us during public meetings of the Iowa Board of Psychology. Recent Advocacy Team successes include a $10 million increase in Medicaid mental health rates and ensuring inclusion of testing codes, a $35 million increase in substance abuse treatment funding, and continued funding for Iowa internship and post-doctoral training sites. We are excited to announce the recent appointment of a new State Advocacy Coordinator. A big thank you to Dr. Melinda Green for your willingness to serve in this role! Internship and Postdoctoral training opportunities in Iowa are growing with support from our Training Director following the expansion of insurance reimbursement to psychology interns. After several years of dedication, the Policy and Procedures Manual workgroup is putting the final touches on our fully updated P&P Manual, which has been modernized to better reflect IPA’s current priorities, practices, and needs. These accomplishments are just the tip of the iceberg! If you are interested in learning more, this spring the Strategic Plan Committee will post our Year-End Strategic Plan report summarizing the goals and accomplishments of each IPA committee; this comprehensive report will be available on the IPA website under Member Resources.
We eagerly anticipate the opportunities 2024 will bring! Registration is already open for upcoming trainings on Cultural Humility, Ketamine: Trends, Myths, Research, and Clinical Care, and Treating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Our Advocacy Team has set their priorities for the next year, and our P&P Workgroup is eager to turn their attention to updating IPA’s By-Laws (hooray!). In the next year, you will see some changes to the appearance of IPA as we embark on an exciting rebranding campaign, which will culminate in a website update and redesign. Under leadership of Dr. Jenna Paternostro, the Marketing Consultant Workgroup is now actively working with a consulting group regarding the updating of our logo and overall branding. Branding encompasses visual and design-related strategies to ensure our mission reaches our target audience, which includes both Iowa psychologists and Iowans seeking psychological services. We invite you to review additional member benefits on our website, which you are encouraged to share with others who may be interested in joining our thriving community.
On behalf of the Membership Committee, our Executive Director Suzanne Hull sent recruitment letters in September (originally written by Dr. Jody Jones with updates from Dr. Laura Fuller) to every psychologist who became newly licensed in Iowa since September 2022 and we had three newly licensed members join within one month. Student members have collaborated with full IPA members to meet with students from every doctoral program in Iowa for recruitment efforts (with clear results - we had 7 sponsored student members join within the month following the meetings). Student member Angelica Castro Bueno, in collaboration with IPA Student Representative Ashley Banta, created a beautiful infographic to print for student recruitment and to include on our website – it is well worth a look: https://www.iowapsychology.org/student-benefits-expanded.
In 2023, IPA hosted social events in Des Moines and Iowa City and an after-conference social that were well attended. Many thanks to Dr. Ashley Freemen, Dr. Sarah Fetter, Dr. Valerie Keffala, Dr. Lauren Garvin, Dr. Laura Fuller, and Executive Director Suzanne Hull for organizing these events. We look forward to social events planned for 2024.
Thank you to our many members who have renewed your membership. Every timely renewal helps to lighten the workload of the Membership Committee. If you have not renewed, you still have time! All non-renewed members will lose access to member benefits within a few weeks of the renewal date of February 1. For any members who have not yet completed their renewal, the easiest way is to click the link to your invoice, located at the bottom of one of the renewal emails you have received this month. That link will take you to an invoice that you may either pay online or download to print with your mailed payment. When renewing your membership, please take a moment to ensure your email address and profile on our website are up-to-date. You can do so by visiting www.iowapsychology.org and, without logging in, review your profile for accuracy under the “Find a Psychologist” tab. You can then log in to your account and make edits as needed.
We appreciate your continued support of IPA and we look forward to another great year of connection, education, advocacy, and growth!