The switch is flipped and nothing happens, just a sense of disbelief followed by annoyance over having to arrange repairs. Fortunately, when such emergencies occur at meetings of The American, the Arrangements Committee is on hand to deal with them. Although most members of The American know little more of the committee's work than is seen on these rare occasions, it in fact includes a great deal more than this.
Chairing the committee is Muriel Laskin, who succeeded Mervin Hurwitz in 1985. She brought to the position extensive experience, having served on the committee for several years and serving also as arrangements chair for both the Psychoanalytic Association of New York and the Psychoanalytic Institute at New York University Medical Center, positions she continues to hold. Working with her on the committee are Barbara Rosenfeld and Irene Chiarandini of New York, John Kelly of Colorado, Kenneth Gottlieb of San Francisco, Joseph Natterson and Nicole Pelinquin of Los Angeles, and the most recently appointed members, Linda Altman-Fischer of Delaware and Richard Cornfield and LeRoy James Byerly of Philadelphia. (The late Roy Ginsburg of San Francisco was a dedicated committee member, deeply involved in planning the upcoming Annual Meeting in that city.) The committee works closely with Helen Fischer, Debra Eder, and Carolyn Gatto of the Central Office staff.
Each year, two new committee members are selected in consultation with the presidents of the local societies from the city hosting the Annual Meeting three years hence, to replace the members from the previous host city. L. David Levy and Dorothy Holmes, both of Washington, D.C., site of the 1992 Annual Meeting, have most recently completed their terms. This arrangement affords new members valuable experience before they assume major responsibilities.
In past years there was little to decide regarding the siting of meetings. The Annual Meeting was almost always held in the same city as the meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, with a scheduled weekend overlap to permit joint attendance at the two events. Since the APA meets in the spring, the second meeting of The American was held in late fall, a pattern broken only in years when the APA met in New York City. Then The American's Annual Meeting would convene in New York to coincide with the APA meeting, and the Fall Meeting would be moved to a warm site. This happened last in 1990, when the Fall Meeting was held in Miami Beach. The pattern was broken also in consequence of The American's decision not to hold its Annual Meeting in any state that had not approved the Equal Rights Amendment: in May 1985, when the APA met in Dallas, in a state which had rejected the amendment, The American chose instead to meet in Denver.
In recent years, booking a hotel that meets the organization's needs has become increasingly difficult, and Laskin warns that as a result Annual Meetings will not always be held in the same city as the APA meeting. Not only does The American need a quality hotel with enough guestrooms at reasonable prices; it also requires a great many meeting rooms of various sizes, as at any one time up to 24 rooms may be required to accommodate discussion groups (the number of which has nearly doubled in recent years), committee meetings, scientific meetings, and other functions. Not many hotels anywhere meet these specifications, and when the choice is limited further by the requirement that the Annual Meeting be held where the APA convenes, the problem can be insurmountable. As a result, when the APA meets in Miami in 1995, The American plans to meet in Los Angeles. In 1996, when the APA meets in New York, The American will meet in Chicago.
Committee members in the city where a meeting has been slated are consulted and often do the initial legwork, whereupon Central Office staff travel to the site to inspect hotels that might be acceptable. Recently the committee chair has also participated in this work. When the selection is finally made, a contract is signed, with the approval of the Executive Committee. Reasonably priced rooms are a must, as The American must guarantee a certain number of occupancies. If this guarantee is not met, the hotel must be reimbursed, and this can run to considerable sums.
Perhaps surprisingly, some hotels do not find The American a particularly desirable group. The meetings of The American require a high ratio of meeting space to guests (a decided negative), and compared to conventioneers on corporate expense accounts, members of The American are not exactly a free-spending band of party animals. Hotel revenue from bars, restaurants, and room service is minimal when compared to that generated by business conventions.
Once a sit is selected, the Central Office begins to inform the hotel of the organization's requirements as regards meeting rooms and such special equipment as televisions, VCRs, and movie projectors. Laskin usually arrives in the host city on the Sunday or Monday before the start of the scientific meetings on Wednesday afternoon. There she checks and double checks the hotel's preparations., in order to discover and correct any glitches before they can occur. At the New Orleans meeting, for example, when she and Debra Eder discovered that there were no house phones near the meeting rooms, they were able to consult with the hotel staff, who then provided the committee with walkie-talkies.
At the meetings, individual committee members take responsibility for monitoring specific rooms. They make sure that needed equipment is on hand and rooms are cleaned between sessions, and in the event that problems occur are responsible for contacting the hotel staff. And of course, in spite of all precautions, things do go wrong. At a recent meeting, Laskin discovered that the telephone number the hotel had given her to report problems to was connected to an answering machine, a curious system of emergency communication that was quickly rectified.
Frequently members question the fairness of convening in New York every year, arguing that meetings should be rotated among the various regions. The legal requirement that The American hold yearly meetings in New York State, where it is incorporated, could be met simply by a meeting of the Council's Executive Committee. Nevertheless, it is an interesting fact that meetings in New York have consistently drawn the highest attendance, as regards both total numbers and those registering from out of town. By contrast, the 1990 Fall Meeting, held in Miami Beach, had the lowest attendance of any recent meeting and occasioned The American a severe financial loss.
Asked how she reacts to complaints, Laskin says they are inevitable and even appreciated. She adds that those on the committee are pleased by the frequent compliments paid them by the membership. Bernard Pacella, President of The American, is one of those who sing the committee's praises. “The Arrangements Committee,” he says, “gets little publicity, but the success of the meetings depends on the careful study and hard work carried out behind the scenes by Muriel Laskin and her very competent and energetic colleagues.”