Presidential Message to the Membership
David Funder, President SPSP
October 2013
 
Plans for the newly structured Executive Office are well under way, with the first important step in the process now complete: the hiring of a new Executive Director, Chad Rummel. Chad will be the first full-time Executive Director of SPSP in our history.
 
Our organization has grown over the past decade to more than 5,500 members with numerous activities (including our large convention) and a multimillion dollar operating budget. At the same time, the Society's personal and institutional infrastructure – based almost entirely on volunteers and part-time employees – has not kept pace. Therefore, for the past two years, the Executive Committee has moved toward setting up a permanent office and professional staff. The first step in this process was the recruitment of a full-time, professional Executive Director.
 
I chaired a search committee for this purpose, and the other members were Jenny Crocker, Patricia Devine, Jack Dovidio, Jamie Pennebaker, Paula Pietromonaco, and Wendy Wood, assisted by Nanette Blandin of the search firm Isaacson-Miller. SPSP is widely known and respected as an organization, and the position attracted many excellent, highly-qualified candidates. One rose clearly to the top and was the enthusiastic choice of both the search committee and Executive Committee.
 
Chad currently manages a portfolio of Division Services for the American Psychological Association (APA), a job that includes strategic planning, meeting management, budgeting, and coordinating large numbers of volunteers in the service of an organization of psychologists. His past background includes work in journalism, event planning, and teaching.
 
As he transitions out of his many responsibilities at APA into his (even more) numerous responsibilities at SPSP, Chad will officially join SPSP on a part-time basis as of November 4, and full-time on November 18. One of Chad's first tasks will be to set up a permanent office in the Washington, D.C., area, with additional support staff. He and Jack Dovidio will work closely together until Jack's term as Executive Officer ends on June 30, 2014.
 
In the meantime, Chad can be reached at: [email protected]
 
This is an important step for SPSP and probably the biggest thing we have done since instituting our independent annual meeting. I am looking forward to seeing what we can accomplish in this next phase of our organization's history.
 
David Funder
President, SPSP