Dear fellow ISSTD Members,
I hope things are still going well with everyone.
In the last few months there have been several committee developments in ISSTD, which will hopefully spur ISSTD to even greater heights.
On the financial side, an overarching Grants Committee will oversee the work of the sub-committees that disburse specific ISSTD funds. At this stage, the active sub-committees are those that disburse the Caul fund and Goodwin fund. The Caul fund is used for students’ research projects. The Goodwin fund is used for professionals’ education.
Then there is a new Fundraising Committee that will work closely with the Grants Committee to ensure good alignment between disseminated grants on the one hand, and fundraising and marketing efforts on the other.
On the educational side, the overarching Center for Advanced Studies Committee will serve as the connection among the Professional Training Program (PTP), Webinar Committee, EMDR Therapy Training Committee, Virtual Book Club, Online Learning Center and all the conferences. When it comes to conferences – in addition to the existing Annual Conference Committee, ISSTD’s explosively growing conference offerings will also be organized by a new Regional and Virtual Conference Committee and a new permanent Australia and New Zealand Regional Conference Committee. A new Public Health Committee was also created.
Task Forces have also been established to work on the updating of the ISSTD DID Treatment Guidelines for adults, as well as children and adolescents. I think most of us are looking forward with keen anticipation to the updated treatment guidelines.
On the membership side, the recent launching of Regional Online Communities (ROC) will hopefully offer additional ways for ISSTD members to connect – in this case, members who live and work in a certain region and who want to connect around issues that matter in your area. The ROCs are hosted on ISSTDWorld and each has their own dedicated online home. The first ROC to be established was the Ontario Regional Online Community, and we hope many more will follow. See the ISSTD email that was sent to members on June 18, 2020 for more information and how to propose and apply to establish a ROC.
Thank you to all who responded to the recent volunteer match call. There will be another call soon, so if anyone wants to get more involved with the work of the various committees, please look out for the volunteer match calls to see where there are currently vacancies for volunteers to join committees. When you join a committee, there will be an excellent new volunteer orientation process and a helpful buddy program, so that you will not feel lost in the system.
Speaking of conferences… the upcoming 2020 Fall ISSTD Virtual Conference, “Impacts of Societal Trauma in Marginalized Communities”, October 10-11, 2020 represents one of the ways in which ISSTD contributes to ending racism – by facilitating high-quality scientific and clinical discourse about racism and other forms of systemic oppression. Visit the virtual conference webpage to register. See also the ISSTD email to members of August 26, 2020 where the inspiring plenary speakers are introduced.
Just to remind everybody also that ISSTD’s public statement about racism (‘ISSTD Statement on Racism and Trauma’) is now more easily accessible on the ISSTD website under ‘Publications’, and also via a large banner that appears across the top of the ISSTDWorld home page as one logs in, and which links to all recent ‘Press Releases and Statements’.
Take care and stay safe,
Christa Krüger, ISSTD President, Pretoria, South Africa