Good afternoon PTCMW Members and friends!
This issue of the PTCMW newsletter covers important upcoming events, news from around the industry, and provides a brief update on our recent past events, membership and financial operations.
Upcoming Events
There is still room for folks to attend the June 18th workshop at GW, “The diversity characteristic that affects us all… eventually: A primer on contemporary EEO issues related to age.” The workshop will be conducted by Eric Dunleavy and Don Lustenburger of DCI Consulting, and Martha Hennen of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. This is an incredibly important topic for the aging federal workforce, not to mention private sector employers running into hiring issues related to low levels of unemployment and encore career applicants. If you want a better understanding of how age discrimination relates to other forms of discrimination, from legal, measurement, and intervention perspectives, this is a fantastic workshop, and a great value. The workshop is only $40 for members, $50 for non-members, and now FREE for students with code: workshop2019. Register here: http://ptcmw.org/event-3418060
On July 24th, we have an educational event at McCormick & Schmick’s in Crystal City, VA, led by Gilad Chen, PhD of the University of Maryland, entitled “The state of I-O psychology research: Where have we been and where are we going?” Dr. Chen is a recent editor of the Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP), and will cover some key issues from the JAP Centennial Issue as well as important research and publication trends from recent history and the foreseeable future. This presentation is sure to be thought-provoking for those of us looking for new ways to integrate new thinking into our practice. Register here: http://ptcmw.org/event-3418082
By the way, if you’ve never attended an event at McCormick and Schmick’s, it’s a great venue for PTCMW. It’s right on the blue and yellow lines, so it’s very convenient for Metro riders. There is also free parking at 4 PM in all the underground Crystal City lots. The venue provides free appetizers and wine, and the event is during happy hour if you prefer something else. After the event, there are plenty of nearby bars and great restaurants for dinner, including right there at M&S.
We’re also planning a networking happy hour in late July or early August. Be on the lookout – registration should open within the next few days.
We will also be making announcements soon about the Fall Event, Student Consulting Challenge, and seeking nominations for the PTCMW Service Award. So keep checking your email!
Industry News
Register now for IPAC 2019! The International Personnel Assessment Council (IPAC) conference runs from July 14-17th in Minneapolis, MN. The theme is “MAX Assessments in MINneapolis”, which is a pretty good one if I am judging it in terms of dad humor. IPAC is always a top notch educational and networking conference for folks doing work in the private sector. More information: http://ptcmw.org/blog/7577261
The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) is seeking ideas for Merit Systems Studies. If you don’t know about the MSPB’s work, it’s amazing. Their website and newsletters are incredibly informative resources for understanding how the federal hiring, evaluation, and promotion system works and much of their work can easily be applied to private sector applications. More information: http://ptcmw.org/blog/7577289
PTCMW Update
We’ve had an exciting 2019! PTCMW continues to put on thought-provoking and productive educational events, and we’ve been happy to provide networking opportunities for members and friends to get together in a professional environment.
The Point Blog. The PTCMW board is constantly reviewing our operations, event, and partnerships to better understand how we can provide better services to our members. As a first step in that process, Andrew Naber, the PTCMW Membership Committee chair, reviewed the data from our member database. The results are very interesting. You can read Andrew’s article here: http://ptcmw.org/blog/7570078
The next step in this process is to conduct a member survey to evaluate how PTCMW is doing and how we can serve you better. We will eventually use that information to conduct some strategic planning regarding the future of PTCMW. So be on the lookout for that survey! Your feedback is highly valued and if you have any thoughts about how we can serve you better, we would love to hear them!
Events. We had some terrific events in the first few months of 2019. Past President Josh Isaacson started us off with a fantastic presentation about knowing when is the right time to make a job change, and how to do it when you do. He drew on personal experience as well as getting input from other PTCMW Past Presidents. In February, UMBC and Past President Matt Fliesher hosted our Career Panel, featuring insights from Amanda Allen (Edison Electric Institute), Funda Sinani (The World Bank Group), Kayo Sady (Amazon), and Matisha Montgomery (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). The event was well attended and got great reviews! In March, we went technical with Mike Aamodt discussing issues relating to the persistent wage gap, how we can better measure it, and what we as I-O psychologists can do about it. Mike always finds great ways to make the technical stuff more tangible. In April we had researchers from UVA-Darden and SHL come in to talk about leader derailment. Jasmein Khattab led the presentation with input from Mark Van Buren and Morela Hernandez. The presentation led to a rich discussion about identifying leaders at risk for derailment and what we can do about it. In May, Rich Cober (MicroStrategy), Julisara Mathew (US Dept. of State), and Allison Yost (BetterUp) discussed alternative career paths for I-O psychologists. The panel shared terrific insights on how the tools you gain through studying and working as an I-O can be utilized in a wide variety of work settings.
All of these presentations are available to members in the webcast library. Make sure you log into your PTCMW account and follow the link under “Events”. It’s a great benefit of membership to be able to revisit these presentations when you find yourself recalling their relevance!
While all of that was going on PTCMW served as a sponsor for the SIOP Conference at National Harbor. PTCMW sponsored the Newcomer Reception and made several good connections with people new to I-O psychology, many of whom will be in the DC region in the near future. We also had an ad in the conference program and hosted an unbelievably well-received hospitality suite with IPAC. Lastly, we established a number of connections with local I-O groups from other regions to exchange information on how to keep these organizations providing high levels of service to members in an ever-changing world.
Budget. Lastly, financially, PTCMW is financially well-positioned, but this year we had a number of unique expenses that have affected our net cash position in a negative direction. First and foremost, the SIOP activities represented a unique opportunity to reach out to potential new members now and in the near future, to enhance our relationship with SIOP, and to provide additional networking opportunities for our members. From what we’ve seen, that expenditure was justified. We did get a few new members, we made lots of contacts with SIOP student members, we have a few joint projects moving along with SIOP (which will be announced soon), and we received a lot of positive feedback about our networking event with IPAC.
Second, we needed to replace the PTCMW laptop and some accessories so that we could provide more reliable webcast service. If you attended a webcast in late 2018 or early 2019, you might have noticed a high rate of technical glitches. In some cases, we issued refunds as a result. We updated our equipment, and delivery method, and that seems to have addressed the problems. Special thanks goes out to Semret Yibass for her work on this issue!
We’re looking for sponsors for our educational events. So if your organization is interested in sponsoring a PTCMW educational or networking event, please let us know: president.ptcmw@gmail.com.
Cheers!
The PTCMW Board
