Dear Division 45 Family

I hope the holiday season is joyful for each of you and your families!

It has been my honor to serve as your president this past year, but we still have one last task. As you will recall I pledged to address the possibility of a name change for our division. I am enclosing the process by which the Executive Committee, with the assistance of APA Division Services, will engage this important issue. For those perhaps unaware, some of our members have pressed for a name change recently and even longer. According to our By-Laws a change would require a 2/3 majority of those voting (i.e. a Qualified SuperMajority) to bring about a change. Complicating the issue is the question of “What would the new name be?”. I’ve consulted with many of our leaders and attempted to craft a plan that I hope is inclusive, transparent, and will addresses this issue directly and decisively, one way or the other. Let me be clear that we do not HAVE to change the name, and we have relatives on both sides of this issue that passionately and logically state their viewpoint, and, like myself, there are those who are in the middle who can live with either outcome. Wherever you stand on this issue, I wanted your voice to be heard. Thus Dr. Vazquez and I will be calling for a membership-wide vote in a month that will be conducted both electronically and by paper ballot for those requesting it by APA Division Services as outlined below. When you recieve your ballot, please don’t delete or discard it – remember, the issue will be decided by those members VOTING – so please participate in this important event. Please take this time to peruse this proposal and provide me with feedback during the next month. I will ask Division Services to send out ballots immediately following the Multicultural Summit (during wich I hope to garner any last-minute suggestions). My contact information is at the bottom of this post.

Love and Respects
Doug Cetan Gleska (Spotted Hawk) McDonald

Division 45 Potential Name-Change Process
Submitted by Doug McDonald, Ph.D
President, APA Division 45
I. Background. The Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues has been APA Division 45’s name since its inception in 1986. Some prominent division founders, leaders and members have suggested the use of the term “Minority” in the name is becoming increasingly irrelevant and inappropriate. This issue is not a new one. Some members have never been satisfied with the name, although no previous efforts to quantify what “some” is have been undertaken. With that said, it has become increasingly clear that a sufficient threshold of members has wanted the division leadership(s) to address the issue. I believe it also fair to state that many of us are ambivalent, recognizing credence in either argument for changing and retaining the name. The issue has become contentious and controversial enough that I felt it required action. A name-change would require a By-Laws change, which requires a 2/3, Qualified (i.e of those voting) Supermajority (66%) vote of Division 45 members.

Please let me be clear that although I have chosen as part of my presidential initiative to engage this process I am a member of the Ambivalent Tribe – I have neither an agenda or preference – I can live with either outcome. In the interests of transparency and objectivity, all balloting will be conducted by APA Division Services. Additionally, this entire process will cost the Division nothing since I’m using unspent funds from my Presidential Initiatives. We all know that as division members and leaders we’ve talked, argued, tentatively approached, or even ignored grappling with this issue for years. I simply refuse to pass this task along to another president and Executive Committee (EC). I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions.

II. Process and Timeline
1. Doug will submit this draft proposal to the EC for feedback/comment on December 10, 2012. EC omments or suggestions will be gathered until December 20th.
2. Doug will make any revisions and submit the proposal to the membership via email, Facebook, and posting on the webpage on December 20th, recruiting any final comments or revisions from the membership for a four-week period (until January 20th) . Members will be presented with the four top names derived from Dr. Trimble’s canvassing of the Committee of Past-Presidents, and also be allowed to submit other potential names. If any additional potential name is proposed by 1/3 of those responding, it shall be included in the ballot.
3. Doug will announce/remind the members attending the NMCS that ballots will be electronically and paper transmitted on January 21, 2013, and voting will remain open for one month, closing on Friday, February 22.
4. Ballots calling for a name-change, which would require a By-Laws change, will go out via Division Services, on January 21. The ballot will require a 66%, Super-Majority, of those voting for a name change. The ballots will include background information, and present an opportunity to indicate:
a. GENERAL Name Change – YES or NO vote
b. Of those voting YES, rank-ordering of the four options (or possibly more if any emerge from Step 2 above. Members will also have the final opportunity to Write-in a new name and rank it if they voted YES. The outcome will be determined as follows:
(1) IF, of those voting YES to a name-change, 2/3 Qualified Supermajority is NOT ACHIEVED, the process is complete and we retain status quo.
(2) IF a Qualified Supermajority of those voting YES for a change IS achieved, those voting YES will be asked to rank-order the choices (including their write-in if they provided one). If any of the choices achieves a Qualified Simple majority (>50%) it will be selected as the new name.
(a) IF no choice receives a simple majority, the TOP TWO ranked choices will again go out to the membership via Division Services for a final vote. No other choices will be allowed or included other than these two.
5. Division Services will tally the final vote and report to Luis.
6. Luis will announce result
7. If a change occurs, we will undertake the process of changing the name on all documents, webpages, etc. and consider changing the name of our journal as well.

III. The following four names were produced by the Division 45 Council of Past-Presidents as options for a new name for our Division. They are presented in no particular order.
1. Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race.
2. Society for Ethnic and Cultural Psychology.
3. Society for Ethnocultural Psychological Inquiry
4. Society for the Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race in Psychology

J. Douglas McDonald, Ph.D.
President, APA Division 45
Professor of Psychology
Director, UND Indians in Psychology (INPSYDE) Program
Psychology Dept (8380), UND, Grand Forks, ND 58201
Ph: (701) 777-4495
justin.mcdonald@email.und.edu
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