Article archive / April 1, 2013
Originally published: . Volume 4, No. 8. Source pages: 2.
Kudos to the psychology board for its open, participative climate at their recent Long-Range Planning Meeting.
Maybe it’s just me, but some things seem very different in the board’s group climate, in comparison to say, 2009, when I first started watching the board and trying to report on issues in the community.
In the March planning meeting, Chair Dr. Lee Matthews led the discussion in a candid, open, participative style. This style seemed comfortably supported by other board members and something tells me that the Executive Director Kelly Parker had a hand in developing the more engaging and open style of this meeting.
No telling how many bureaucratic rules they were breaking by this effort at participative creativity. I kept waiting for someone to bring out a copy of Robert’s Rules of Order and hit someone else over the head with it, but they never did. People just talked, and listened.
It certainly must have helped to lower the anxiety in the room by having most of the public attendees –there weren’t all that many unfortunately– to be past board members like Drs. Janet Matthews, Darlyne Nemeth, and Joe Comaty. But still, the group climate appeared to me to be designed to be more collaborative and open toward whatever community stakeholders showed up.
And something really amazing happened.
Dr. Steven Welsh came to speak about school psychology during the discussion of multi-level licensing. He said that this was the first time in 30 years that he or someone from the Louisiana School Psychological Association had been officially asked to talk with the psychology board.
I hear that the president of LPA, Bryan Gros, went over and talked with the counselor’s association.
It seems that a collaborative approach, with some appreciation for diversity and also open communication, is taking hold with a new wave of leaders.
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