Dr. Charles Huffine announced that he was finalizing the ballot for the election of officers and board members. The Board changes at the end of the May APA Annual Meeting. The official change will commence at the Membership Forum at the Annual Meeting. Ballots will be sent in early March and the cut off date for receipt of ballots will be in mid-April.

Dr. Anita Everett plans to host the 2003 AACP Winter Meeting in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Dr. Steve Goldfinger announced the NAMI meeting will be in Cincinnati June 26-30.

There was a discussion begun at the IPS Meeting about industry support to the organization. Funding is becoming more difficult and the Board feels that a policy needs to be outlined for contributions to the organization. Overall the grants from pharmaceutical companies have been decreasing. The percentage of income has been dropping 3-4% steadily each year.

Dr. Ken Thompson met with Dr. Bernie Aarons of the CMHS to develop a plan for preparation training for bio-terrorism and terrorist activities. Mr. Mel Haas of SAMHSA requested a conference call at the 2002 AACP Winter meeting for a planning conference funded by CMHS. The conference call was held during the Board meeting with some of the Board Members and guest, Dr. Tony Ng, Director of the New York-based Disaster Psychiatry Outreach, in attendance.

According to initial plans, psychiatrists from around the country would be invited to the conference for a one or two-day experience to be educated on these issues. This would ensure community psychiatrists an opportunity to participate in training on dealing with any mass casualty event. This is a part of a larger response to the September 11, 2001 attacks and would involve working with the APA, State Commissioners of Mental Health, and local organizations. The goal would be to develop a plan for a national response.

Dr. Tony Ng reported a plan to focus on disaster response plans that have been developed by other specialties. A workshop put together with SAMSHA would aim to train community psychiatrists in disaster preparedness/response. In addition, other goals would include learning the responses of other specialties, working with emergency medicine providers, and learning a flexible way to respond and know your local responses. A blue print would be developed and then a document written.

Mr. Haas from SAMHSA will work to select a hotel, venue, and determine the attendees. The suggestion of hiring a professional facilitator was discussed.

There is a mutual desire by both AACP and the APA/BMS Fellowship to increase involvement between the two entities. The Quality Management Committee plans to involve the APA/BMS Fellows with their committee activities. Some opportunities could involve developing a product such as an instrument or journal article. Dr. Bob Goisman will follow-up with Ms. Bea Edner of the APA/BMS Fellowship to discuss further possibilities.

Dr. Jackie Feldman has submitted recommendations of AACP member appointments to APA committees to APA President Dr. Paul Appelbaum.

Drs. Huffine, Cutler, Goldfinger, and Feldman will be meeting with Drs. Appelbaum, Harding, Mirin, and other APA staff to discuss the IPS Meeting and its future. At the last IPS meeting, there were concerns about the future of the IPS Meeting and how the AACP could best address this issue.

Dr. Huffine noted that he is a member of the IPS Program Committee and that he has been working to play a strong role in defining the meeting as a venue for community psychiatrists. The AACP contributes greatly to the program and will continue its contribution. The AACP would like to foster its involvement with the APA in order to enhance the future of IPS.

Dr. Peter Forster is requesting to form a virtual task force to develop a resource guide for members to use in their states to fight budget cuts in mental health benefits. Dr. Forster is interested in pulling together the material and developing a list of people available to be consultants to members.

Dr. David Cutler reported that Mr. Dave Van Ronk, the legendary blues and folk artist, was undergoing treatment for colon cancer in New York. He noted that there was a concert on his behalf to raise money for hospital bills. Mr. Van Ronk has participated in AACP activities such as a music celebration at the IPS Meeting in New Orleans with Odetta and in a workshop on blues and depression at the IPS meting in Philadelphia. ( Mr. Dave Van Ronk subsequently died on February 10, 2002. Please read the exceptional article in this issue by Dr. Cutler about Mr. Van Ronk.)

Dr. Pollack reviewed the instructions for official AACP submissions for the APA Annual Meeting. The leadership of the AACP will be meeting with the leadership of the APA in the next week to review the IPS Meeting and its future. There will be a discussion of the "official" AACP submission.

Dr. Wes Sowers reviewed the Recovery Oriented Services Quality Standards and Indicators. The committee will discuss the document and develop a resource bank. The committee will draft a preliminary version of this for the next meeting.

The possibility of looking at attitudes toward recovery was discussed and specifically whether organizational attitudes towards recovery exist and ways to measure this. The committee will be putting together a survey about recovery principles. The committee will also be looking at a quality of care document on continuity of care in relation to the difficulties we encounter tracking people in different settings.

The results of the membership survey were reviewed. There was a 30% response rate. The information indicated that most of our members are male, Caucasian, and working in CMHC settings in large urban areas. In general, responders were interested in AACP only using pharmaceutical funding for educational purposes.

Dr. Warachal Faison noted that every effort is made to post the newsletter to the website before the members receive it in the mail. The Board also recommended that the committee investigate whether most of the members would prefer to continue receiving the paper newsletter or to have access to the newsletter via the website. Dr. Faison will survey members about this.

There was a recommendation from the Board to enhance the website by having a members only section to allow members to access the Community Mental Health Journal articles. Dr. Cutler will follow up on this with Kluver, the publishers of the journal. Dr. Ken Thompson is considering establishing a "Grand Rounds Online" on the website where there is in interactive commentary between the author of an article and the website audience.