Organizational Updates
1996-1998
and some old material deleted.
Much is outdated.
But many issues recur....
|
|
|
Note! Much information in this update is now outdated!
See our home page for current details.
This summer I moved from Illinois to Massachusetts, where I'm still getting settled. [...] My UIS email address still works.
The RadPsyNet website still gets a lot of hits--over 6000 in all. We're also now a member of two web rings.
Formal membership continues to grow slowly but steadily. We're now almost at 200, with members in 26 countries. We continue to get email from people around the world.
The radical-psychology-nework email discussion list now has 211 subscribers. The number has fluctuated and is now down a bit, but recent discussion topics have been more varied than in the past. Personally, I find it pretty interesting reading these days.
A money update: Leaving Illinois, I've closed the RadPsyNet account at UIS and am now waiting for them to send me a check. According to my records we only have about $80, which I'll deposit in a Massachusetts bank. It's enough to pay for a couple of mailings to members without email and occasional photocopies. If we decide to reserve a meeting space at next year's APA convention (here in Boston) we will ask for donations to pay the $50 fee. [see changes in our past dues policy, if you're interested]
The Books & Reviews Section originated separately by Donna Tabish has now been incorporated in this site.
Steady website increases since the summer--often more than 100 visits a week. About 3000 visitors since the end of 1996.
Formal membership is now more than 150 for the first time, with members in 22 countries.
Email list subscribers: 246.
A report on RadPsyNet's recent growth spurt and increased web activity, and a question about future directions:
Formal Membership: now up to 143, a significant increase over several months ago.
"Members" are those who send in their names, addresses, & phone numbers and ask to be a member. They are listed on the Membership List we send out to new members. (Subscribing to the email list does not make you a RadPsyNet member.) If you are a member and would like me to email you a current list, let me know. If you're not a formal member and would like to be one, let me know that too.
The membership list is not entirely accurate as it includes a dozen or so people whose addresses are no longer current as well as others who probably no longer consider themselves members. But it still reflects some growth, mostly from people who have recently been to the website, with more members from other countries (18 countries in all). [2005: Now in 34 countries.]
Suggestions? With the growth in membership, perhaps it's time to return to the question of what we want out of RadPsyNet. Is the network meeting your needs? Are there projects you'd like to see us get involved in? What can the group do to advance radical perspectives in psychology, bring about progressive social change, make life easier for left-leaning students and faculty, ....
The website includes a variety of ideas for projects. Feel free to start one. We can always add material to the website or link the RadPsyNet site to your own if you have papers, course syllabi, or other information you think is relevant.
Stay in touch!
Dennis Fox
RadPsyNet Co-coordinator & Webmaster
Although we did not have a formal business meeting at this year's APA meeting in Chicago, at least 15 RadPsyNet members attended the conference. With some friends along for company, a dozen of us met for dinner one evening and mostly shmoozed. Diners represented a wide variety of RadPsyNet's many overlapping interests, from psychiatric survivors to academic theorists to political activists. Good dinner.
Discussions throughout the convention repeated topics of the past couple of years: whether RadPsyNet can be more than just a website and email list, whether acitivism is a real possibility, whether we need a more theoretical stance, whether the focus on organizing within mainstream psychology is diluted by the growing interest in the group by nonacademic members, and so on.
No business meeting, no decisions.
We go on.
Now in our fourth year of existence, the Radical Psychology Network is undergoing an unavoidable transition. For the time being, we will not be printing RadPsyNews, our newsletter. Instead, we will concentrate on building our World Wide Web site and adding supplemental sites. We also must consider revising our dues policy. Please read the information below and let us know what you think.
For RadPsyNet's first two years, I edited 9 issues of the newsletter, increasing from a two-page information sheet to up to 14 pages of articles, book reviews, and announcements.
Last year, with an emptying bank account, we were forced to reduce the size of the newsletter to 5 or 6 pages per issue, primarily announcements. Because of my own changing time constraints, Jackie Klosek took over as editor and did great job.
Unfortunately, Jackie is now out of the US, and our bank account is in worse shape than ever. The solution for the moment seems to be to rely on a less expensive and less time-consuming operation: our World Wide Web site (soon to be sites).
What we seem to be working toward is having not a single RadPsyNet site but a network of sites. If anyone would like to maintain a regular RadPsy site, let me know. (For example, you might want to keep up with conference announcements, and anyone with a relevant announcement could email it to you for you to convert to html and post. Someone else could maintain book reviews. And so on.)
When we had the money to include articles and book reviews in the newsletter, many of you sent in useful, well-written, thoughtful material. You can still write that material and let us post it or link to it!
Even better, put your articles or other material on your own university or personal web site. If you send us the URL, we will link the main sites to yours.
Alternatively, if you want to write but don't want to bother with the html conversion and the like, email your material to me. I will convert it to html (using software that makes the operation relatively painless). I'll send the long articles to Tor and post shorter articles and announcements on my own site.
Although we will not have a nicely printed newsletter to distribute to others, please remember that anyone with web access can download and print articles. So readers around the world can still distribute articles, reading lists, announcements, etc. to classes and colleagues. In fact, more people worldwide are likely to read your material on the web than is the case for the printed newsletter.
Although the Web has great potential for allowing radical psychologists to find and learn from one another, clearly we lose something by no longer having a paper newsletter. Being able to distribute newsletters at conferences, in class, and so on is a great advantage. Not everyone has access to a computer.
Of course, if our bank account picks up, AND if we have someone able to step in as editor, we can go back to paper. If you'd like to take on an editing role, please let me know.
The [original] radical-psychology-network email discussion list continues, maintained by David Nightingale. It serves members of RadPsyNet and others as well. Archived email discussions are available!
Without a regular paper newsletter, I propose we stop asking people for annual dues. Our goal should be to expand and publicise our web site and encourage people to check it out and add their own material. As a primarily electronic network, dues become somewhat irrelevant.
We still spend money to send past newsletters and leaflets to interested persons, register for a meeting site at the APA convention, etc. Perhaps we can take care of this with donations rather than regular dues. So if you'd like to send some money our way, please do! If we reinstitute the paper newsletter, we can reinstitute dues, or perhaps have a separate subscription charge for the newsletter.[see 10/98 update]
Please check out the web sites for changing information. There are new links. And a summary of August 1996's meeting during the APA convention. More to follow!
We are going through a transition in technology and organization, but let's remember that our primary function is to help radical psychologists meet and work with one another. That's up to all of us!
Dennis Fox
RadPsyNet Co-coordinator
