STARTING A NEW CHAPTER

Perhaps you have become interested in creating a local Chapter in your area.

Chapters vs. SIGs

Chapters are distinct from Special Interest Groups. Chapters are established within states, regions, countries, or within language communities, while Special Interest Groups are defined by specific topical areas. (Organization at a level smaller than "state" aren't being encouraged as of Sept. 2012, but please talk to us.) Given their purpose, Chapters are more formal entities than SIGs.

Applying to Become a Chapter

Please consult the ACBS Chapter Handbook, the ACBS Chapter Board Handbook and the Sample Bylaws (attached below; you must be logged in as a paid member to view these files) to learn how to form your Chapter and review some of the requirements. Then you may complete the:

Online Chapter Application

Don't forget! Before your Chapter application can be reviewed by the ACBS board, you must submit the signatures in support of the development of the Chapter to Emily in the main office. Only current ACBS members can submit their signature in support of the Chapter. Electronic signatures are accepted (with the person's name, email, and full affiliation in the signature), and please compile them into one document before submitting them; do not send them to Emily individually.

Getting Started: Considerations

We recommend considering the points here, but we also affirm the need for each group to find their own ways of moving things forward. It's all about workability.

1) Consider: who is interested. You may wish to a) collect a list of email addresses through friends, colleagues, folks who have attended conferences, workshops, or other local events, b) create a network of individuals who are interested in the Chapter and each of you work to create a list of interested individuals.
2) Consider: if you have left anyone out of your call to interest potential chapter members. Did you contact practitioners with varying educational backgrounds and work environments (e.g., university faculty, students/trainees, hospitals, clinics, private practice, social workers/marriage and family therapists, psychiatric nurses, school counselors, etc)? There is no rule about who to contact but it may be important to consider all of your options. Ask yourself who and what types of individuals might benefit from your local Chapter and be sure to find ways to invite them to participate and to get their feedback.

Creating accepting, active, values-based groups within ACBS

When you start a group, be mindful of the possibility that there may be others who could feel left out or threatened if they are unaware of it in the early stages. Please be sensitive to that subtle human problem -- inclusion is a value in the ACBS community. If you are interested in a specific Chapter you may know who might be expected to be involved at the ground floor. Reach out to them. Err on the side of inclusion -- for example, you might first circulate the idea for such a Chapter on the main listserves. Be especially mindful of the need for democratic and open processes in choosing leadership as the group forms. If there are "competing groups" in a particular country or problem area, try to get them all involved in the process. If we are to create open values-based groups, the very process of creating them needs to fit that purpose.

3) When you have a sense of who is interested, possibly even before talking to them about their goals, consider: what is the most effective area to consider for your Chapter? It may be logical to consider a state-wide chapter (for example) but when you poll your potential members, you find that there are two centrally located groups who would not be interested in activities beyond an hour or two drive. If face-to-face activities are important for these groups, consider if a state-wide chapter with a couple of different concentrations makes sense or if a region or country chapter is a better fit. Perhaps the goals of the potential members include both monthly face-to-face activities that can alternate between two relatively close areas (e.g., a day trip) as well as a local, weekly peer-supervision groups in their area. Or perhaps the larger group is interested in putting on workshops for both area Chapters.
4) Ask the folks who might be interested what their goals are. This is probably best done in a face to face meeting, wherever possible, or via a telephone or video conference call. It is important to let your interested Chapter members have a voice -- and early on in the planning process.
5) Consider: how the Chapter will stay connected. Is a chapter-specific email list warranted? In addition to that, how will you stay connected to your chapter? Video/phone conferencing? Do you want to develop a website? If so, consider doing so within the larger ACBS site or at least coordinating with us regarding your site so members interested in joining your Chapter from that area may be able to find you through the larger ACBS site.
6) Consider: the types of activities to plan. There are so many different activities that your Chapter members may find of interest. In discussions with successful Chapters, activities can span all levels of involvement and may be very small to large conferences. Our advice: start small unless there is a high level of interest with many people available for organizing large-scale or very frequent events that take a lot of planning (such as conferences or monthly workshops).

Here are some sample activities and initiatives that might be useful to consider:
Peer Supervision Groups. Is there a group of individuals within a concentrated area interested in meeting weekly, twice a month, or monthly to discuss supervision issues? Who might be interested in leading such a group? Where can the group meet (with all due privacy)?
ACT "Video Night". Perhaps members will be interested in getting together and watching ACT training and discussing ways to practice these concepts over the successive weeks following the event
Social Networking Events. Are your members interested in getting to know each other personally to further their networking with others who have similar interests? Perhaps these events could be a place where your members meet and discuss their interests more personally, share experiences, and from there, both formal and informal activities planned.
Reading Groups. Perhaps your members are interested in creating ACT, RFT, behavior analysis, or philosophy reading groups. If so, will they meet in person? Online? Via email?
Workshops. What size and type(s) of workshops might your members be interested in? Is there a need to bring in trainers from the larger ACBS community? Are there folks within your Chapter who might have something to offer? When and where might they be held?
Also, once you become an ACBS affiliated chapter, you will then have the opportunity to receive discounted fees for the application process to hold a CE co-sponsor event with ACBS. To learn more, please check out the ACBS CE Co-Sponsorship page.
Your Chapter in the Larger Community. If your Chapter is interested in bringing awareness of ACT and related principles to the community, in what ways might you do so? Are there people or institutions that your Chapter members wish to educate about ACT and related principles? Is there a desire to make institutional changes? Are there directives or training initiatives for your area that you can work to meet (or perhaps work to change)? Are there particular things related to practice that are unique to your area, such as certification or continuing education requirements? Perhaps you can consider providing events where training/continuing education credits for your state or country are made available.

7) Consider: Fees. You may consider collecting dues for Chapter membership or charging members a discounted rate for events sponsored by the Chapter. If you do consider charging dues, please email the ACBS staff to discuss how this might work and additional responsibilities related to accounting that you will need. ACBS can not collect Chapter dues on behalf of the Chapter, sorry. Charging for specific, large-scale events has occurred, but many events are still provided for free.
8) Consider: resources (particularly for international members). What resources (books, articles, training manuals, etc.) are already available for your members? If the Chapter is internationally based and primarily non-English speaking, what might need to be done in terms of translation? Might the Chapter members be interested in establishing initiatives to translate sections of the ACBS website or other important materials into another language?
9) Consider: the role of research and tracking client progress. Perhaps you, or some of the other people interested in forming the Chapter are interested in research or collecting some form of data on clients as they progress through psychotherapy. If there is a specific desire to learn research methods, how might you best achieve this goal? Is there an interest in bridging the clinical practice - research gap? If so, consider how you might address this issue. Is there a set of measures (particularly if translated into other languages) that have worked for general clinical work, or for specific populations that the group can discuss? Are there ways that practitioners have tracked client progress or organized research studies (e.g., single case, multiple baseline, or open trials) that they might consider sharing with the group? For example, a clinician might ask her clients the questions from a couple of quick process and outcome measures at the beginning of session, type the answers into an excel spreadsheet, and then has a formula programmed in to score the measures. Then as clients return each week, the progress on each measure can be seen in graphed form. This could be a group process for the Chapter to consider how to do. In the meantime, there are folks who have established spreadsheets like these; see Resources for Clinicians for Joe Ciarrochi's client progress tracking spreadsheet as an example and there are more out there. There are clinical practice & research networks forming within ACBS to aid in this process, but at the level of your Chapter, you might have something to contribute to the international effort that is currently underway.
10) Consider: how to write your By Laws. This probably sounds like the most painful part of the process, but it's really not that bad. Use the sample By Laws document attached to this webpage. Perhaps the most important thing for you to consider is the make up of your board, so ask yourself "Can we sustain this?". The sample By Laws attached are based on ACBS's By Laws. I'd be extremely surprised if a local chapter could support so many board positions year after year. Consider a few of these ideas: longer terms; fewer members; perhaps no student member, but allow students to run for "Member-at-Large" positions.

For Additional Information

Read the additional tips from the 2010 World Conference (listed in a child page at the bottom of this page).

Join the Chapter Officer's Listserv

This listserv is where Chapter officers ask for help in setting up Chapter activities, and share what has worked in each Chapter. Email community@contextualscience.org to get your chapter leaders added to the listserv.

Good luck!

Chapters Made Possible By:

A big thank you to the Chapter and SIG Committee for their hard work toward making the development of both official Chapters and Special Interest Groups possible.

admin November 11, 2010 - 11:42pm

Recommendations for Chapter Elections

Below is a list of recommendations about how to conduct an election for ACBS Chapter or Special Interest Group (SIG) boards.

Note: ACBS is willing to run the actual voting of your first election to ensure that the first board is created impartially (and to give you some time to get organized). We indicate in bold text below how this will work. In the future, it may be useful for your board to identify one of your board members as responsible for running the election. Alternatively, you could appoint an election committee consisting of board members and/or other group members to manage the election process.

First, you will need to have an updated membership list with email contact information for everyone in your group. If you have this already, that’s great. If your group is a chapter, ACBS could provide you with a list of ACBS members living in your chapter’s geographic area.
Once you have that list, you will send an email to your group asking for nominations. You will want to note that self-nominations are accepted and encouraged. Be sure to list out the position titles in the email, and set a clear deadline for receiving nominations.
Once nominations have been made, contact each nominee to determine their willingness to run (except for the self-nominated individuals). Sometimes, you may have too many nominees for one position and not enough for others. For example, you may have six nominees for president and only one for treasurer. In such a case, you may ask people if they would be willing to consider running for another position. In addition to assessing people’s willingness to run, you may also want to request from them a brief biographical statement and platform statement that will be used to inform your group of the nominees (this is not always required... it depends on the group). If you do this, be sure to give people clear word limit guidelines, and set a deadline for their response.
Next you will want to compose your ballot. It can be useful to do this with a free online service (such as surveymonkey) in which you can create online voting forms. (NOTE: If this is your group’s first election, ACBS will complete this step for you if you let us know the nominees).
Once this is done, compose an email to notify your membership that the election is occurring. It can be useful to list the candidates in this email, along with their bios/platform statements. Be sure to give a clear deadline for voting, and send this email only to those individuals who are eligible to vote. We recommend a voting window of 7-10 days. (NOTE: If this is your group’s first election, ACBS will send the email for you if you let us know the nominees, the voting deadline, and email addresses of eligible voters).
When voting is complete, the nominees should be notified of the results first. Then, email your group members with the results. (NOTE: If this is your group’s first election, ACBS will notify you of the results).

Please contact ACBS staff through the "contact us" link above if you have any questions.

Douglas Long April 22, 2013 - 7:35pm

What's Worked So Far? Considerations from Existing Chapters at the 2010 Conference

At the World Conference VIII in Reno 2010, there was an informal Chapter meeting. We had representatives from the Spanish Chapter, the Italian Chapter (ACT-Italia), the Washington State Chapter, the Colorado Chapter, the Chicago Chapter, and Austrialia/New Zealand (ANZ) as well as other individuals interested in starting a chapter.

It appears that the main function for most Chapters are the following:

1) Training

2) Peer Consultation

3) Staying true to ACT principles in clinical work and research over time

4) Dissemination of ACT into different settings

Suggestions from this year's meeting:

1) The Board. Consider a long-term strategy for developing a new Chapter. One-year terms for anyone on the board are NOT recommended to maintain a healthy and vibrant Chapter. Instead, we recommend finding ways to increase the board members' involvement over a longer period of time to promote continuity and to provide momentum as the Chapter develops. A few ideas for board member terms include:

a) asking that board members move up through the ranks each year (e.g., from Secretary or member-at-large all the way up to President) to facilitate as much institutional memory as possible each year.

b) including some combination of President-Elect, President, and Past-President roles -- so that the same person remains on the board for at least the first 3 years of the Chapter's development.

c) existing chapters unanimously saw the need for at least one person (e.g., the president) to sit on the board for at least 2 to 5 years at a time (in the early years) whether that be as President/past or elect, or changing roles.

One way to avoid unbalancing the board with such long terms may be to have a former president or board member continue to sit on the board for another period of time (e.g., a year or two) as a Consulting but Non-Voting member. This may preserve some institutional memory without unbalancing the board.

2) Trainings and Activities. Consider a balance between local activities (e.g., trainings) and bringing in 'big-time' ACT trainers from outside the chapter community. Some chapters found that bringing in a big-name trainer, while expensive, is still the only way to afford to pay a trainer for the training because the turn-out balances the cost. Other chapters have found much more success in having more smaller activities. If there are folks within your community who have a wide-spread appeal, this could make the trainings more affordable. Most chapters still recommend finding a way to do local trainings and events frequently -- even if only some of the members can attend. Perhaps there could be an event in each of the major cities or major regions in the Chapter throughout the year, etc.

3) Realistic Expectations. Consider that a volunteer board may take longer to get things done, no matter how excited or well-intentioned. This can be true also for any large activity organizing. One chapter discussed how the development of a website for the chapter had taken about a year, even though the amount of work needed for it was minimal. Managing expectations and timelines should be flexible, inspired, but also realistic.

4) Clarifying Chapter member/Board member roles. This is an important discussion to continue throughout the first years of the Chapter who will be responsible for what -- and writing it down! We recommend an email list, formal or informal (e.g., YahooGroups or just within your own email) to keep in good touch. Also, quarterly or monthly meetings -- in person or over video/phone conferencing -- can facilitate the effective functioning of your Chapter and each individual's role within it. It may also be a good idea to parse out who will be the contact person (on the ACBS website for your chapter as well as any external site you develop) for different activities or roles. For example, perhaps the Secretary could be the contact person if someone wants to join the Chapter, or you could identify someone who is a VA contact, an MD contact, a social work contact, a contact in a particular field of study, etc.

5) Language Communities vs. Countries. It became clear that while chapters in different countries are functioning very vitally, that there is a need to consider how the Chapter in a particular country could also meet the needs of folks in the same language community but different location. Also, a main function of any non-English-speaking Chapter could be translating the existing ACBS site into another language, as well as posting any translated or original materials in that language to the site.

6) Stay connected to each other! Please visit the Officer's Listserv in Yahoo Groups. This listserv will allow all of the existing Chapters to share their ideas, support each other in developing programs and events. All Chapter officers are invited to join and Chapter Presidents are particularly encouraged to join. Simply email the moderator (acbschapterofficers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com) to join!

Jen Plumb June 28, 2010 - 8:26pm