AASP Newsletter - June 2017

Angus Mugford, PhD, CC-AASP, Toronto Blue Jays, Canada

I am excited to have the opportunity to update members on the work that has been undertaken by AASP over the last 6 months to achieve the goals identified in our current Strategic Plan.

Job Creation / Development

AASP has just launched a dynamic new Career Center on our website that I believe will quickly develop into the central clearinghouse for sport and exercise psychology related positions. Our leadership team has also started work on the creation of an “Interactive Job Description Decision Making Tree”. Our goal is to provide an outcomes­‐based approach for key stakeholders at the professional / elite and NCAA institutional ranks (specifically GMs, ADs, and coaches) that (a) guides their implementation of a sport psychology model, and (b) acknowledges the different models of “successful and sustainable” service. We recognize that a large hurdle to clear for many teams and organizations is not knowing specifically what they want or need, how to develop a job description or how to structure a department. This initiative is aimed at addressing many of these issues.

Professional Standards / Certification

No doubt that you’ve read the regular updates that Jack Watson and the Interim Certification Council have provided to members about AASP’s new Certification Program. The progress that the ICC has made since last Fall has been substantial and we are still on track to have the new 100­‐item examination available at online testing centers around the country in late 2017. Jack and I will be traveling to the 2017 ISSP World Congress in Spain this July to share the evolution of our new program and what it means for sport psychology professionals all over the world.

Even with AASP placing a primary emphasis on overhauling our certification program over the past 12­‐18 months, a long overdue revision of our professional Ethics Policies and Procedures has been completed, including a range of educational and sanctioning mechanisms for addressing misconduct. More information to come on the rollout as our Fellows will be asked to weigh in and help us shape the final details.

AASP Pro Summit

Modeled after the popular Leaders Conference (but on a smaller scale), the inaugural AASP Pro Summit will bring together 25-­30 applied practitioners who work across various professional and elite sports in the US this August in Florida. The convocation will serve several purposes, including a sharing of best practices, creating recommendations on how to increase our exposure, grow job opportunities, connect non‐member professionals to the AASP community and have a voice in the future direction of practitioners and the field. I’m personally excited to organize the first Pro Summit as there has never been a forum where these professionals have gathered under the same roof. We also hope to hold future summits that focus on collegiate sport, youth sport and non‐sport performance applications.

Education & Professional Development

If you submitted an abstract for the 2017 Conference, you probably noticed the new abstract categories from which to choose – ones we think better define the current scope of the field as well as the populations with which we work. We expect our conference in Orlando to be one of the largest in our history – keynotes include David Epstein (The Sports Gene), Gabrielle Oettigen (Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation), Sean McCann, USOC (Coleman Griffith), a special “Transition Out of Sport” panel with former pro NBA and WNBA players and coaches and a featured panel on “The Conundrum of Pervasive Positive Youth Sport” that includes the National Council of Youth Sports (NCYS).

AASP has also locked down its conference locations for the next few years and we will visit places the group has never been – Toronto (2018) and Portland (2019).

Public Relations & Outreach

In their role as AASP’s new PR firm, The Rosen Group (TRG) is working on initiatives aimed at increasing our PR and Media Outreach. They are also helping us to implement a cross‐platform media strategy aimed at raising the awareness of the field, promoting AASP as the go‐to organization and, most importantly, highlighting AASP’s professional leadership within sport and exercise psychology. TRG has been very proactive in suggesting improvements to our overall approach and initiated several positive changes since coming onboard at the end of 2016.

Within TRG’s work with reporters and media outlets seeking story and feature input, the main emphasis is on proactive branding and messaging. AASP members on Twitter may have already noticed a new wrinkle – tweeting information about the latest research and practice articles in our journals, which has resulted in very positive social media metrics.

Publications & Communications

AASP members will notice the recent uptick in association news and professional articles delivered to their email box, the result of a change in format and more frequent issues of our newsletter. We’ve also placed a greater emphasis on producing special issues of our journals that are representative of the interest areas reported by members. “Organizational Sport Psychology” will be highlighted in a special issue of the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology in early 2018 while the Journal of Sport Psychology in Action will offer “The Uses of Technology in Applied Sport Psychology” in 2018 and “Mindfulness” in 2019.

Research & Practice

AASP just held its third annual Virtual Conference entitled “In Order to Thrive, the Field of Sport Psychology Must…”, building on the successful programs on Youth Sport and Consulting with Elite Athletes in 2015 and 2016. If you didn’t have a chance to catch it live, remember that it is available for on demand viewing on the AASP website. Rumor also has it that a live version of the session may be offered at our 2017 conference in Orlando, so stay tuned.

The Research to Practice Committee is currently implementing a ListServe communication platform that members can use to share research ideas and collaborate on projects. The impetus for this initiative was feedback from members about collaboration opportunities (or lack thereof) and creating space for like‐minded members to come together and discuss their ongoing and future research.

Finance & Administration

Belong to a SIG and want to produce educational content for members or external consumers? AASP has created specific recommendations and guidelines for creating content. This covers social media and blog posts, newsletter articles, YouTube videos, webinars, conference presentations, journal manuscripts and position papers. We encourage members to share their knowledge and expertise!

AASP has partnered with a NYC‐based sport marketing firm to enhance our revenue stream via corporate sponsorship of our conferences and programs. As the conference has grown in size and scope over the past 5 years, we believe there is an opportunity to attract valuable sponsors who are interested in interfacing with the professionals in our field.

As you can tell, there is quite a lot happening within AASP as we continue to advance both the association and the field. I look forward to providing additional updates on our progress at the upcoming conference in Orlando this Fall. Hope to see many of you there!