Throughout 2002 and 2003, President Newell Fischer conducted a series of Town Meetings with APsaA affiliates across the country. Concerned about keeping alive the momentum generated in the Town Meetings, Fischer established a network of those analysts who are involved with outreach, marketing, and/or public relations for their institutes and/or societies. They would be the designated liaisons from the local affiliates to APsaA's biannual national meetings, where they could convene to exchange ideas and provide mutual support. The network became known as the Public Affairs Network (PAN). Its goal is to assist the analysts in heightening their institutes' and/or societies' visibility in their own communities in order to increase the numbers of both candidates and patients.
Serving as the APsaA staff coordinator for the group, I was able to draw on my professional background and offer assistance in marketing, public relations, and outreach. From my view, the future of APsaA lies in the strength and vitality of its affiliates across the country.
PAN first convened during the 92nd Annual Meeting held in Boston last June. The structure of the meeting was that of networking and sharing what programs and methods of outreach were and were not working for each liaison.
PAN convened the second time during APsaA's recent Winter Meeting, where the agenda included a presentation by Mavis Wylie, the Baltimore-Washington (B-W) Institute for Psychoanalysis liaison, who co-chairs B-W's Outreach Committee, and Patrick Cody, of Cody Communications, Washington, D.C., who is preparing a marketing plan for B-W. Wylie and Cody discussed the outreach B-W is undertaking as well as several programs that have been successful in their community. Cody, the former director of communications for the National Mental Health Association (NMHA), has a keen understanding and appreciation of psychoanalysis. He also understands the challenges psychoanalysis faces in the marketplace. The rest of the PAN meeting was devoted to the analysts each presenting the outreach activities at their respective affiliates. These ranged from an upcoming forum on “Overcoming Homophobia in the Family and Community,” organized by the Florida Psychoanalytic Society to a family film series organized by the Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Institute, Society, and Foundation in conjunction with the local library system to a lecture series organized by the Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute in conjunction with several departments at the University of Washington.
If you are interested in becoming involved with the Public Affairs Network, please contact me at .
Dottie Jeffries is director of public affairs for the American Psychoanalytic Association.