The Association of Administrators: An Invaluable Resource for Psychoanalysis

In this article, I would like to introduce a psychoanalytic tool that is often overlooked, and yet it not only affects APsaA's local organizations but APsaA's membership at large. The psychoanalytic tool is the Association of Administrators.

The Association of Administrators (AOA) is an organization that comprises the professional administrative staff of APsaA's accredited training institutes, centers, and affiliate societies. Often they are the first level of contact that your institute/society has with potential candidates and patients.

On the Tuesday of each biannual APsaA meeting, the AOA meets and provides an invaluable network of support. Those who attend often stay on for the BOPS and Council meetings where they become informed about the national issues that are being discussed and debated. They also learn about changes in adult and child training requirements, application procedures or deadlines for training and supervising analyst appointments, Committee on Preparedness and Progress/Committee on Research and Special Training (COPAP/CORST) waivers, or the next Affiliate membership drive. Many also attend the APsaA Academy, an in-depth workshop for skills development in nonprofit management, as well as workshops on local outreach, public information media training, and marketing. During the AOA meeting, they have an opportunity to speak directly with the Association's staff and meet with APsaA's officers. They learn new skills and about new procedures and important national issues. They are introduced to important APsaA tools, such as the nationwide Calendar of Events on APsaA's Web site, the online AOA Manual, and other relevant sections of APsaA's new and improved Web site.

The AOA meeting is an opportunity for local professional staff to dialogue with their colleagues across the country. One administrator called their meeting a life source for their unique professional niche. Another administrator commented: “It helps to know that somebody else feels as overwhelmed as I do!” At the AOA meeting, administrators share a great deal of information from their varied backgrounds, ranging from a comparison of individual job responsibilities to the best practices in institute office organization to the development of large-scale fundraising events and marketing campaigns.

AOA members range from part-timers who work alone to full-time directors managing large staffs. Some work out of small offices while others are connected to universities. As some local organizations change from solely institutes/societies to centers or as perhaps two groups merge, administrators are able to draw on the resources of those who have already experienced such changes and learn from their personal experiences as well as find guidance and advice. And this is just the tip of the iceberg: Administrators bring their experience to site visits by the Committee on Institutes, fundraising events and parties for Freud's anniversary, and local psychoanalytic outreach, and offer their perspectives on which extension division courses are working and which are not. Chances are another society or institute has dealt with the same or related issues before and these connections bring expertise and efficiency by saving the administrator time in the long run.

As local budgets are reduced, one of the items often eliminated is funding to send an administrator to APsaA's meeting. But is this a wise course of action when so much local continuity and coordination are provided by the administrators? The value of the AOA meeting, which provides face to face contact for the administrators and the opportunity to discuss their issues and challenges and assist others with what has worked for them and what has not, is immeasurable and often overlooked as a priority. The expenditure to send an administrator to the AOA can contribute to savings in the future. The organizations that continuously send their administrators tend to hold on to their staff and have less staff turnover than others. In addition, long-term administrators are often the institutional memory of an institute and/or society or center. They remain constant as institute and society officers change every two to four years.

This past fall, President-elect Prudy Gourguechon, posted an e-mail to the Leaders Email Listserv encouraging local groups to send their administrators to participate in this invaluable network. Gourguechon emphasized the national importance of administrator involvement at the AOA meetings.

From a mental health perspective, it is important for people to be a part of a network, especially the lone administrator who, surrounded by analysts, can feel isolated. Not only do administrators who attend the bi-annual meetings find a source of support, but this better prepares them to serve you, the psychoanalytic communities and the general public. Now that's a resource that should not be ignored.

As the liaison to the AOA, I am privileged to work with such a hard-working and dedicated group that truly keeps our local organizations running on track. The next AOA meeting is June 19, 2007, in Denver. Administrators who are new to APsaA or interested in learning about the AOA meetings should contact Janet Garrison, president of the Association of Administrators (). Garrison is also the co-administrative director at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia.