Truth be told, the Futures Conference is most relevant for and applicable to the practice of school psychology in the United States. So why am I devoting a second column to the topic in this newsletter? Because with a little thought and creativity, there a number of implications for the broader world of school psychology that emerge from this experience.

For one thing, I think the model employed, both in terms of conference design and implementation, may be one that ISPA national affiliate organizations may want to consider for their own countries. The features that worked particularly well, in my opinion, included:

• Soliciting participation from all school psychology groups within the country (this may be more relevant in some countries than in others).
• Opening up the process to school psychologists who may never have participated in school psychology association or leadership activities. In the case of this conference, having applicants write an essay on a topic central to the conference purpose, was an effective way to do this, but their may be other ways as well.
• Ensuring wide demographic representation among participants. In this conference, this need was paired with the essay process, so that participants were selected both on the basis of high ratings on the essay and satisfying the demographic requirements. Ensuring variation in age and years of experience as well as equity in university/practitioner representation was important.
• Building in activities to be accomplished by conference participants before the conference. This was critically important in order to make the best possible use of conference time. And given the use of website and email, it was an easy step to incorporate.
• Opening up the conference to wider participation via webcasting. Although there were technology costs associated with this element at the conference site, many remote sites used Real Player to view the proceedings, an approach that cost virtually nothing. This was one of the most exciting aspects of this conference. Real time participation in a conference like this communicates energy and excitement in a way that can’t be achieved by follow up newsletter articles, website coverage, or even viewing the conference proceedings via webcast after the fact. Having some remote sites sponsored by school psychology associations and others by university training programs enabled the conference to reach the two groups that, ultimately, will need to become very active in implementing the action plans.

I see no reason why this model could not translate to other countries looking to engage in national strategic planning regarding the future of the profession. The technology is available now in most countries—that ensures ongoing communication at critical stages of the conference (before, during, after) as well as wide participation of both practitioners and trainers.

Secondly, there may be lessons learned that are applicable to ISPA itself. What might those be?

• ISPA may want to consider sponsoring a similar conference to address common goals for the profession in countries around the world. What if every association affiliated with ISPA agreed to work on a single common goal and engaged in a common strategic planning process? Would it be possible to change the way our profession is viewed both by those within the field and by our key publics? For instance, what if a common goal around crisis intervention were identified? Or what if every ISPA affiliate organization agreed to develop strategies for promoting home-school partnerships to enhance children’s academic competence? Either of those goals could help school psychology forge a clear path to a distinctive identity that would also meet a critical need for children, schools, and families.
• ISPA Leadership Workshops have discussed in recent years the possibility of involving national affiliates more in the planning and governance of ISPA. Although time zones create some obstacles, a model that employs this kind of technology to achieve 2-way communication among multiple sites may be a model worth investigating. Cost has always been a prohibitive factor in considering how to find a greater role for national affiliates. The creative use of technology may be one way to reduce this obstacle.
• Most ISPA members are unable to attend every colloquium. ISPA should think about the possibility of webcasting portions of the colloquium—perhaps some keynotes and the General Assembly, with the opportunity for remote viewers to submit questions and comments via e-mail or e-forums.
• If financial constraints in the future prevent the Executive Committee from meeting face-to-face, then simultaneous webcasting may be an option worth exploring. To bring 8 people from all over the world together is still not inexpensive, but with a reduced meeting time, it may be a possible, and certainly preferable, in my mind to telephone conference calls.

These ideas probably represent only the beginning in thinking about how the lessons learned from the Futures Conference could work to ISPA’s benefit. Readers, I’m sure, can no doubt thing of other applications.

Peg Dawson, President, ISPA