The Road Ahead

Happy New Year 2020! Just saying that conjures a sense of vision. My hope is that this year—indeed, this decade—is one of vision, foresight, and generativity. I’m staring down the road of my second year as president—and thinking beyond. I’m reflecting on the thematic aims and hopes I expressed last year for my term of service in this leadership role.

I will aim to provide a picture of the road ahead for the coming year and beyond. I hope you will share in the sense of excitement we feel and join us as we meet the dynamic future that is ever evolving in AAMFT and beyond. The board is committed to three major initiatives to be launched this year: 1) The Approved Supervisor Inclusivity Task Force; 2) a renewed Bylaws amendment to open and simplify the member categories, and; 3) a comprehensive strategic plan review.  I’m personally excited about each of these initiatives because they speak to the heart of my hopes and themes for greater diversity, inclusivity and equity in AAMFT.  We plan to redouble our focus on those themes, and the elimination of unwarranted barriers to access and a felt sense of belonging in AAMFT.

Before I proceed, however, I want to acknowledge some felt tension I have in writing this column. I want to make it personal and to be open and transparent as the person of the president. At the same time, my role compels a responsibility to highlight the 30,000-foot level view of AAMFT and association management in general. On the personal level, I can talk all day about the things I am excited about, and eager for the board to actively engage members about the future of AAMFT. Since the governance orientation last month, I have been more keenly aware that at an organizational level, members sometimes don’t know (or sometimes forget) all the things that are interconnected in AAMFT, and exactly how they fit together (and sometimes don’t) for achieving our purpose and mission.

In my last FTM column (September/October 2019), I tried to unpack some of the board work and thinking around the actions supporting the bylaw amendments. And you may have noticed the new governance series we launched recently in the AAMFT eNews. We are aiming to provide clearer context for the processes the board engages in around their deliberations and actions. In the bi-weekly eNews, you can see how specific policies and governance practices guide the board’s processes and lead us to more thoughtful and deliberate strategic actions. You can clearly see the work that goes into vetting any board actions.

This brings me to the board vision for 2020. One of those major initiatives is the recent appointment of the Approved Supervisor Inclusivity Task Force (ASITF). This international group of seasoned approved supervisors (AS) and trainers will closely examine our current AS standards for any unintended barriers that may pose unreasonable constraints to achieving that prized AS designation. Upon the completion of their work and report, the ASITF will offer recommendations for the board to consider that could enhance inclusivity, access and equity, and increase the number of highly qualified approved supervisors.

The second major initiative is related to our bylaws. If AAMFT is to survive and strategically compete in the professional association world, we simply need to change our membership categories. The board is vigorously committed to the member category change and will engage in a greater outreach effort to our members and stakeholders to help them see how the overall organizational vitality and viability is on the line. The unintended barriers to AAMFT membership with our current member category scheme are undeniable and unsustainable. Opening our doors to simplify access to membership in AAMFT is in alignment with our overarching purpose of AAMFT: To advance the profession and practice of systemic therapy.

Let me pause to ask: how else might we advance the profession in the face of an evolving and accelerating trend of retiring members? How do we advance the profession when more and more stakeholders tell us that they wish to join; and though they were trained in another discipline they identify as a marriage and family therapist. I think that to simply do ‘more of the same’ in the face of such trends is irresponsible from a board position, and unimaginative from any angle. In my view, the voiced fear of ‘selling out’ the MFT licentiates was alarmist and distracting from the reality that we do not own the practice of systemic family therapy. We continue our strong and abiding stance of advocacy.  In fact, we continue to rack up more cumulative state and provincial advocacy wins with the Family TEAM than ever before. AAMFT will always fight to protect the independent licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am incredibly proud of my LMFT (so much so that I maintain my MFT license in 4 states). I fully embrace the uniqueness of that license. I am also incredibly proud of my rigorous MFT training at Purdue, as I am about the stellar graduates of our COAMFTE-accredited programs. But remember, our roots as an organization have been proudly interdisciplinary and we have held passionately to the concept of equifinality. We must recognize that there exists a multiplicity of ways for one to earn their systemic family therapy stripes. Thus, I still believe that we can be a big tent again—only more vibrant in our diversity, more inclusive in our access, and more collaborative in our equity of belonging in AAMFT.

The board sees a key driver in our effort to become a more inclusive organization directly relates to our membership categories. There were concerns voiced among different segments of the association who worried the 2019 bylaws amendment might alter the DNA of our association. I believe that concern was not founded on the facts which the Board viewed as mission critical. Another concern we heard in the last vote was regarding the composition of elected officers and the assurance of deeply committed systemic leaders in AAMFT.

This past December, the board acted to direct staff to craft new language for another bylaw amendment this summer, which will again seek to open and simplify the member categories, and to clarify this issue regarding committed systemic leadership of AAMFT. We aim to strengthen our assurance for the members to that end. The board is committed to member outreach and communication and to fully address any other voiced concerns. And we will ask the nearly 60 percent of voting members who supported the change to please help your member peers see the vital importance of this vote for change. The board strongly believes that opening and simplifying the member categories will reflect a clearer equity of access and lift unintended barriers to international members, systemic oriented professionals trained in other disciplines, and students who will become eligible to vote.

This leads me to the third major undertaking in 2020, and arguably the most exhilarating for the board and me. After the upcoming March meeting, we will be launching a comprehensive strategic plan review. I want to highlight that this is BIG! It will be the first major substantive review of the plan since 2013. Yes, we have made minor tweaks and adjustments in our biennial review years (2015 and 2017, respectively). And in July 2018, after careful consideration and discussion with an association consultant, the board voted to defer a substantive review of the strategic plan until 2020. Well, that time is now, and I hope that everyone who wants to become engaged and offer their input to that process will join one of the many prospective virtual town hall meetings.

The first task of this initiative will be the appointment of a strategic plan steering committee to identify the architecture for the process and priorities in developing the new plan. The board vision is that this process will involve all levels of governance and stakeholders—members, network leaders, commissioners. The aim of the steering committee will be to develop policy-informed processes for AAMFT to be continuously thinking and planning strategically and generatively. You can look for more details about the planning process and opportunities for member engagement after the March 2020 board meeting.

Happy New Year 2020! Finally, it occurs to me that AAMFT is many things to many members. Like growing up in a large family, each member has their perspective and sense that their needs are unique from the others. Oh sure, we share a common bond of systemic thought, but our social locations and the intersectionality of each one of us lead us to different experiences of (and the community of) AAMFT. Our experiences of belonging and attachment and affiliation vary. The board, its task forces and committees, and staff have worked diligently this past year to attend to our D & I policy to remove unintended barriers and to open up space for greater diversity, inclusion and equity. It is a work in process, but it is intentional work that is ongoing. We want to invite your voice in that process. Thank you.