Washington Meeting 1948

On May 14, 15, 16, 1948 one of the most enthusiastic, interesting and best attended meetings of the American Psychoanalytic Association took place at the Hotel Statler, Washington, D. C. This meeting was in many ways a departure from previous ones and was therefore observed with great interest by those who had been active in its organization. As with all such ventures, some aspects far exceeded the expectations and others fell short of their goals. However, many lessons were learned from this experience which will be of help in planning future meetings. The overall experience was a fruitful and gratifying one. For instance, those sessions which were open to the public were attended by an overflow audience which filled the large ballroom set aside for these meetings and which was intended to seat about 800 comfortably.

We would like to report the meetings to those who were unable to attend them as well as to preserve a record for those who did. We will therefore describe the proceedings in abstract form.

1) Meeting of the Executive Council

This took place on the morning of May 14th, 1948 under the chairmanship of the President, Dr. Menninger. Dr. Mohr, as secretary, reported the results of the vote on the recently circulated by-laws pertaining to the official transaction of business at the mid-winter meetings. The membership was overwhelmingly in favor of adopting these by-laws. The Council proceeded to consider the report of the newly established Executive Assistant's office. The invaluable service this office has already rendered in facilitating the smooth functioning of the Association was recognized by all who had had occasion to call upon it for help. It was unanimously felt by the Council that the existence of a Central Office had become a necessity to cope with the rapid growth of the Association. Continuation of the Central Office was voted unanimously.

The Editor of the Bulletin then presented a report of his experiences and recommen