Dear ISSTD Community,
I shared with you last month that I had adopted a theme of “Healthy Communication and Connection” for my presidential year. With that very much at the front of my mind, I thought it would be of value to share with you a little bit about ISSTD’s recent Annual Business Meeting, which was conducted via livestream in mid-February 2025.
For those of you accustomed to an in-person business meeting at the Annual Conference, I can appreciate that you might wonder why we’d hold the meeting online when it’s usually a more intimate affair at the conference. The reality is that, for a variety of reasons, not everyone can attend the conference. With the Board’s increased focus on IDEA (Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Access), it seemed important to ‘walk our talk’ to ensure that the entirety of the Membership had an equal opportunity to attend. We saw about forty attendees in all – similar to the numbers we would see at an in-person business meeting. What seemed notable to me was that a quarter of those who joined us appeared to be first-time attendees, and that we had representation from around the world.
This meeting is intended as a ‘year in review’ for the prior year. Here is a snapshot of where the Society stood by the close of 2024:
- 1772 Individual Members*
- 11 Organizational Members
- 288 Training Course Participants (Professional Training Program/ASCH Hypnosis/EMDR Basic Training)
- 538 Regional/Annual Conference and Virtual Seminar Attendees
- 354 Participants in Live Webinars
*By the close of January 2025, that number had risen to 1818. This is our highest recorded membership in at least the past ten years – an exciting development, and a testament to the importance of all that ISSTD offers its Members.
A question that has come up more than once as of late is, “Why can’t ISSTD host an Annual Conference outside the United States?” With the rapidly changing political climate, we very much appreciate why this question arises. For the multifaceted answer, I’m going to invite you to view the recording of the Annual Business Meeting, available on the ISSTDWorld site within the Member Resources tab, under Member Documents, which offers a great overview of the Society’s work over the past year. You’ll hear about 2024’s finances from Treasurer Krista Behrens. Immediate Past President Peter Maves will describe last year’s 2024-2026 Strategic Plan achievements. You’ll also be able to listen in on a drill-down discussion of where we’ve been and where we’re going, zooming in on three specific areas of the 2024-2026 Strategic Plan: President-Elect Abigail Percifield will share insights into the Strategic Plan Goal #1 (Increase, Diversity, Engage, and Retain Members). Board Secretary Elizabeth (Liz) Chalenburg will shed some light on volunteer-focused efforts reflected in Goal #5 (Develop a Comprehensive Volunteer Recruitment, Retention, Recognition and Mentorship Program). Jennifer Gómez, Board Member and Co-Chair of Goal #7 (Identify and Develop Compatibilities between ISSTD’s Mission and Vision and the Values of IDEA), will wrap up this discussion with a walk-through of ISSTD’s draft Statement on IDEA, which was developed over the course of the last year. Finally, you’ll hear a Q&A with those in attendance at the Business Meeting. If you were not able to attend live, I hope you’ll be able to carve out a bit of time to take a retrospective look.
Speaking of Members – that would be all of us – Board members Liz Chalenburg and Coral Compagnoni did an amazing job organizing and hosting this year’s first Virtual Mix & Mingle. There were a lot of us there, vying for prizes during a very lively trivia contest featuring ISSTD history and fun facts about Boston. Thanks to everyone who was able to join us – and thanks to Liz and Coral for all your hard work to make this so much fun. (Word has it that this might become a quarterly event, so stay tuned for news on that throughout the year…)
I’m gearing up to ship off to Boston for ISSTD’s 2025 Annual Conference. I hope you’ll be able to join us!
Thanks for taking time to read ISSTD News. I’ll be back next month to share my impressions of the conference.