Greetings from the Board of Directors! We are thrilled to reintroduce the Board Briefs column in ISSTD News, which will provide our members with important updates from the Board of Directors on a quarterly basis.
Board Elections and Appointments
In January, we welcomed three newly-elected Board Members: Jennifer Gomez, Patti van Eys and Elizabeth Davis, as well as two newly-appointed Board Members: Krista Behrens appointed to fill a two year vacancy, and Graham Pringle appointed to fill a one year vacancy. With the election of former Treasurer D. Michael Coy to the role of President- Elect, Board Member Nicole Black was appointed in January to fill the remaining two years of Michael’s term as Treasurer.
In March, prior to the start of the Annual Conference, the Board of Directors met for their annual in-person meeting where they discussed our current financial position, reviewed results of our 2023 Membership Survey, discussed updates to our governance documents including our bylaws, began planning for consolidation of some committees and groups, as well as discussed the future of the Annual Conference, which has seen a decrease in attendance and significant financial loss each year since we returned to in-person events in 2022.
2024-2026 Strategic Plan
In December 2023, the Board of Directors finalized all strategies and tactics for our 2024-2026 Strategic Plan which will focus on these seven goals:
- Increase, Diversify, Engage, and Retain Members
- Evaluate, Consolidate and Develop Education Programs
- Establish, Strengthen and Lead Strategic Partnerships
- Establish a Framework for Allocation of Financial and Human Resources
- Develop a Comprehensive Volunteer Recruitment, Retention, Recognition and Mentorship Program
- Develop a Comprehensive Marketing Strategy and Budget
- Identify and Develop Compatibilities between ISSTD’s Mission and Vision and the Values of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA)
Work of the objectives under each of these goals has now begun by our Board Working Groups and Committees. We hope to provide quarterly updates on our progress through this column as projects are completed or significant updates are available.
Membership
Our membership continued to remain strong with overall membership consistently around 1700 for the last several years. We continue to see strong interest in our 12 special interest groups as well as our six regional online communities. As part of the strategic plan, a focus will be placed on establishing regional online communities in all regions of the US and Canada by the end of 2026. If you are in a region that does not yet have a regional online community and are interested in helping to form one, please email membership@isst-d.org and a staff member will be happy to provide you with additional information.
In late 2023, we completed an overhaul of our Organizational Membership offerings to allow for more flexibility in choosing benefits that fit the needs of each member. These benefits now include individual memberships, discounted education pricing, exhibit and sponsorship opportunities, advertising and more. For more information on these updates, check out the Organization Membership page of the ISSTD Website.
2024 Conferences and Seminars
We are excited to announce a number of upcoming conferences and seminars. We will host our second annual virtual seminar, this year focused on EMDR, on July 12-13. This seminar will feature Michael Coy, Jennifer Madere, Marilyn Korzekwa and Ana Gomez. Registration for this event will open in April.
Our Washington DC Regional Conference will be held at the Hilton Arlington in Arlington, VA, October 25-26 and will feature Dan Shaw, Richard Loewenstein & Jennifer Gomez. We hope to have registration for this event opened in late May or early June.
Our Fall Virtual Conference will be held November 9-10. The Call for Proposals for this conference will open April 15, and we hope you will consider submitting a presentation for this event.
Fundraising
Thank you to all of our members who donated to one of our five funds in 2023. Your contributions helped us to provide funding for training, education and research. We have now started our 2024 fundraising efforts for all funds with some very exciting events.
We held two fundraising events as part of our Annual Conference: the Taste of Texas reception to raise funds for the Goodwin Fund and our raffles to benefit the Caul Fund. These two events brought in more than $3,000 to support these funds.
In early April, we will launch registration for our second annual Ask the Expert Series featuring experts David Archer, Julian Ford, Lauren Lebois, Valerie Sinason, Martin Dorahy and Elizabeth Howell & Shelly Itzkowitz. This six-session series allows ISSTD members to participate in virtual meet-up discussions with legends in the field of trauma and dissociation. Money raised from this event will benefit the Fridley Fund.