Northwestern Association for Behavior Analysis
2002 Annual Conference Minutes
Courson Conference Center
Central Washington University
Ellensburg, WA

 October 11-12, 2002

 The 2002 Annual Conference of the Northwestern Association for Behavior Analysis was held on October 11 and 12 at Courson Conference Center at Central Washington University, in Ellensburg, Washington. Members of NWABA presented 19 papers and posters covering a wide range of topics.  Approximately 45 people attended the Conference.  Pre-Conference Workshops were offered on Friday and Rob O’Neill from the University of Utah was the Keynote Speaker on Friday evening.  His presentation addressed intensive early intervention for children with autism.  Kent Johnson from Morningside School in Seattle was the Keynote Speaker on Saturday and gave a presentation on 10 Dimensions of Reading Performance.

 At the Business Meeting, Kim Weber became President for 2003.   Other members continuing in the positions they held in 2002 included Betty Fry Williams as Treasurer, Craig Jensen as Secretary, and Warren Street as Webmaster/Membership Chairman.

 Ken Lloyd volunteered to again be NWABA’s representative to ABA and will get NWABA on the Conference schedule for ABA in the spring of 2003.  At that time, elections for officers of NWABA, which normally would have been held at the Ellensburg meeting, will be conducted.  Offices to be filled include:

 President-Elect for 2003,

Site Coordinator and Chairman of Submissions for the 2003 Conference, Conference Program Chair(s) for 2003,

Date for the 2003 Conference. 

 Attendance at Pre-Conference workshops for education professionals was low in comparison with previous years, presumably because due to state budget problems many school districts did not release teachers of state inservice day.  To increase attendance at next year’s Conference members suggested having the Conference two weeks later than it was this year so that there would be more time to encourage student participation.  Faculty members were also encouraged to distribute flyers for the Conference to students in April.       

 Betty Fry Williams volunteered to poll the membership of NWABA before the ABA meeting on several issues:

 1.   Location of the Conference in 2004. Polling on whether the next meeting should be in Bellingham, Ellensburg, Leavenworth, Seattle, Spokane, Victoria, or some other location.
2.   Continued interest in being involved with NWABA and what would increase or maintaining interest in the organization.
3.   Interest in hosting a meeting.
4.   Interest in serving as an officer.
5.   Desire to continue receiving e-mail from NWABA. 

Some members who received their degrees before many behavior analytic courses were part of graduate school curricula have noticed that may not be able to meet the Training and Experience Requirements required to  take the examination for becoming a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Libby Street and Betty Fry Williams volunteered to look into this issue further.  A related problem with the current BCBA requirements is that it may be difficult for some members to qualify as Mentors or Supervisors.  Thus, their students might have difficulty qualifying to take the examination.

 Betty Fry Williams gave the financial report and reported a balance before paying 2002 Conference expenses of $3,555.00. Next year, the annual Conference will be held at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington. 

 

NWABA Business Meeting
 May 25, 2003
7pm at ABA conference in San Francisco

 Attendance: Ken Lloyd, Libby Street, Warren Street, Betty Williams, Randy Williams, & Kimberly Weber

 A discussion about the future of NWABA was started.  For the past several years the organization has been struggling financially.  NWABA tends to struggle with geographic limitations.  Currently no membership dues are required and the yearly conference barely pays for itself. The possibility of merging or linking in some way with CalABA was brought up.  The following plan was set up to look into this possibility.

Other possible alternatives were discussed.  These possibilities also need to be discussed with the larger constituency.

1. Dues for membership
2. Hold regional conference every other year.
3. Add conversational forums to the conference to encourage more intellectual interactions.
4. Look for donations to endow the organization.

 A president for the 2003-04 needed to be elected.  Libby Street nominated Kimberly Weber to remain President for the year.  Warren seconded. All present voted to keep Kimberly as President of the organization for the 2003-04 year.

 Meeting adjourned.