President's Report

This year began with wild and tumultuous weather here in Northern California, but NCSPP is off to a fairly smooth start in 2023. The board welcomed Luba Palter and Ronna Milo Haglili, the incoming chairs of Impulse and Education, respectively, both of whom bring new talent and a fresh perspective. The first board meeting of the year was held in person following three years of remote work, which lent a sense of connectedness to the proceedings and laid the groundwork for recommitting to our working group. Our cohesiveness as a board is essential to moving forward with our planned growth and our organization's pledge to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in its membership and in the larger psychoanalytic community. Progress takes time, but the ongoing commitment to our DEI mission is strong among board members, and there is enthusiasm for implementing new programming and outreach efforts.

Later this year we are relaunching our popular Intensive Study Group, which was on pause during 2021, our restructuring year, and which lacked enough committee members to operate successfully in 2022. Our Programming Division chair, Robert Deady, has stepped up as co-chair for ISG this year, and the committee's efforts have resulted in securing wonderful instructors to take up the theme of “belonging” in their courses.

Our Tech committee launched NCSPP's first Instagram and Twitter accounts, where anyone can follow along with our programming and updates. Creating a social media presence for NCSPP offers the potential for increased engagement and connection with our members and followers, which in turn will influence the ways in which our organization evolves and serves the community. It is an exciting frontier for us to explore.

Although these are areas of smooth sailing, we find ourselves in choppy waters in others. Recruitment for unfilled positions has been challenging. Our Prelicensed Clinicians committee remains unstaffed, and we are unable to offer what have always been pop