The Association of Administrators, formerly known as GOES (Group of Executive Secretaries) celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary at the midwinter meetings in December. Organized in 1957 through the efforts of Bertram D. Lewin and Helen Ross, the group meets twice yearly at the time of the midwinter and annual meetings of the American Psychoanalytic Association. These meetings serve as a forum for the exchange of ideas and are an important part of the group's organized efforts to help achieve stability in administrative work in psychoanalytic administrative offices and to help these offices to become more effective in local organizations and the American.
Originally including Executive Secretaries of seventeen institutes, the Association is now made up of twenty-six members. The Executive Secretaries regularly attend the meetings of the Board on Professional Standards and have found such attendance a valuable experience. Those who also work for a Society attend the Executive Council meetings as well.
In his introduction to the Tenth Anniversary history of The Association of Administrators, Dr. Lewin stated: “Ten years ago, there were Executive Secretaries, thoughtful and earnest individuals, working out for themselves their isolated destiny. Occasionally they heard indirectly that there were others like themselves, but often they had no acquaintance with these colleagues personally. Today, this isolation is inconceivable. In a relatively short time, through talent, intelligence, and work, a new very special profession has been created: the office administration of a psychoanalytic institute.”
The role of Executive Secretary is a complex one with many responsibilities and duties not easy to define. First there are the tangible functions of office manager, administrative assistant, registrar, bursar, and a myriad of others. Then there are the less tangible functions such as availability, understanding of confidentiality, value as liaison between candidate and instructor or member and officer, and accessibility for guidance on policy and procedure.
Perhaps the most important function from the point of view of the American was pointed out by Joan Fleming at a meeting she attended on May 4, 1962:
“In so complex an organization with its changing leadership and personnel, with its shifts of channels of communication, the one element of continuity is the Executive Secretary upon whom can rest the responsibility for directing the lines of communication. For example, in the past, communication from a committee of the Board to the Fellows of the Board or to Education Committees have often been lost in the transitional period of new elections or appointments or have come to rest in a general file and never reached the people concerned.” She expressed the hope that with increasing recognition by the American of the important role of the Executive Secretary, this person should receive all official mail for appropriate direction and action. Indeed, the Association of Administrators worked with representatives of the Central Office to formulate such a practice, which is still in place.
In so complex an organization, with its changing leadership and personnel, with its shifts of channels of communication, the one element of continuity is the Executive Secretary.
Against this background, what did the Executive Secretaries see as their goals and functions? One clear goal was to establish and maintain an efficient and effective administrative system; this system must serve the needs of a unique educational system of psychoanalytic training as a link in an organizational structure where the professional personnel is constantly changing. To this end, the members of the Association have been involved over the years in surveys on various aspects of record keeping and policies within the institutes, each Executive Secretary frequently learning from the solutions found by others a more effective way of handling their own work. Workshops have been held on more complex procedures, such as site visits, treatment clinics, and extension divisions.
For example, with the acceleration of site visits by the Committee on Institutes, each executive secretary has had further opportunity to participate in data gathering and program scheduling for the visitors to their particular institute. The exchange of ideas and experiences in this area at meetings with colleagues has been invaluable, particularly in guiding those executive secretaries who have not yet been involved in a site visit. The executive secretaries whose institutes were organizing treatment clinics benefited greatly from organizations who had already been involved in setting up such a structure. Extension divisions just coming into being have been facilitated by the information gathered at workshops.
Because of the increasing turnover in the executive secretaries among the institutes, certain subjects can be repeated periodically to great advantage; welcoming the new members of the group with information and support is part of meeting the need of administrative continuity. Thus, every year or two the subject of destruction of records will appear, as will confidentiality, new equipment, record keeping, fund raising, and others. Each time there will be something new in the discussion for each executive secretary.
Most recently the Association of Administrators has been involved in a tuition survey which has been sent to the Committee on Institutes as a possible basis for a workshop.
This twenty-fifth anniversary is a time to stop and reflect, to define where one has been, and where one wants to go. There can be little doubt that the Association of Administrators, as a group and as individuals, will continue to work with the American to enhance the effectiveness of our common pursuits with dedication and good will.