It is with sadness and a deep sense of pride that I write this final presidential newsletter.  Looking back on my career, I know that this will be one of my favorite chapters. Thanks to all of you who trusted me with this responsibility. I was truly honored and humbled to serve a term as president of our wonderful organization.  As we all know too well, however, time flies and soon it will be time for me to turn the keys over to Colleen Bryne; trust me, we are in great hands.

   The state of (our) union is strong.  As president, a major goal was to expand APTC and its membership. Looking at recent data, we are clearly accomplishing this goal. In 2009-2010, we had 140 full members. In 2010-2011, we had 166 paid members.  This year, we have 140 paid members and 58 memberships pending – for potential membership of 198!  Along this line, to determine our full potential for APTC membership, graduate students at WMU used the official listing in the American Psychologist to look up every APA-accredited clinical psychology, counseling psychology and combined program in the United States.  Their mission was to determine how many of these programs had training clinic directors who were not members of our organization. We determined that there are approximately 56 potential clinics that are not members of APTC.  A vast majority of these clinics are affiliated with clinical psychology programs. Thus, there is a bit more room for growth but with increased recruiting efforts over the next few years we may be able to reach our capacity.

   In terms of annual meeting attendance, we are also doing well.  Our attendance at last year’s meeting in New Orleans was 64. This was up approximately 33% from the previous year’s meetings in Orlando (2010; N = 48) and Chapel Hill (2009; N = 47).  My hope is that this upward trend continues in the coming years including our meeting in San Diego in March 2012. I can only assume that it is the warm-hearted members and the highly relevant programming (and warm weather) that draws our folks to attend these meetings.

   Another major goal was to promote science and scholarship efforts among our members. Here we also seem to be alive and kicking. At the 2011 APA Convention, our members presented more than 24 presentations!  As you may recall, this was truly an impressive list of presentations that demonstrated the impact our director colleagues are having on research/scholarship at the national level. Many members are continuing to publish their work in top-tier psychology journals as well.  Also on the research front, our multi-site study of client expectancies is up and running with approximately 6 clinics on board.  In this study, we are examining the impact of client expectations on therapy drop out and attrition. We have been collecting data and will have some results to present to you all at our 2012 meeting. 

   As president, I have also been working to promote our group to other professional organizations.  For the past 3 years, I have represented APTC at the APA’s Education Leadership Conference in Washington, DC.  This year's conference was held September 10-13 in Washington, DC with the theme “Interdisciplinary and Interprofessional Teaching, Research and Practice.” In addition to APA governance members and division representatives, participants included APTC and representatives from over 25 organizations external to APA – all of whom are concerned with education and training in psychology. As president, I was also invited to become a member of the Inter-organizational Task Force on Cognitive Behavioral Psychology Doctoral Education. This 18-member Task Force consists of leaders of various training organizations within psychology. The purpose of this group is to design a model curriculum for doctoral education in cognitive and behavioral therapy. Drafts of these guidelines have been written and will soon be vetted back to our executive committee before they are submitted for publication.

   In closing, it is clear to me that APTC is a vibrant and healthy organization. I am proud of all we have accomplished and how we have grown and matured as an organization over the years. We are now central players in any national discussion about education and training in psychology. With all these exciting developments, however, I am most pleased that we continue to support and care for each other. Let’s keep it going!