Dear fellow ISSTD Members,
At this time of the year the ISSTD Board of Directors is working on a strategy for the direction in which ISSTD could grow over the next three years.
As any professional organization is really its members, one of our primary concerns is to foster an engaged, welcoming and inclusive community within ISSTD. We would like to increase our membership, retain all members, and diversify our membership because that strengthens us. To assist with this vision, we want to develop a comprehensive communication strategy and build on recent work to improve our communication both within ISSTD and with the rest of the world.
ISSTD’s mission to advance clinical, scientific, and societal understanding about the prevalence and consequences of chronic trauma and dissociation finds most of its expression in the many educational events that we offer. In the next three years we would like to expand and diversify our training and educational opportunities to reach people in more parts of the world, in more different kinds of communities, and in different kinds of service settings. Our expanding virtual trainings and conferences already contribute to this vision of making our education more accessible. We will further pursue this expansion and diversification by establishing and strengthening new strategic collaboration with organizational partners.
ISSTD’s infrastructure will need to keep up with these dreams for the future. We will need to expand our staffing to align with our organizational needs. Having reached much-needed financial stability now, we would like to implement a fully integrated financial policy across all ISSTD groups and committees.
It is my pleasure also to inform everyone that the vote to elect Rosita Cortizo to the President-Elect position has concluded and it passed. Rosita has now been formally elected by the ISSTD Membership as our next President-Elect. ISSTD is indeed fortunate to have Rosita step into this role. The experience, skills and wisdom that Rosita brings, will help our organization grow and prosper over the next few years.
Take care and stay safe,
Christa Krüger, ISSTD President, Pretoria, South Africa