International Committee – Our mission is to help psychological science be about all people, across world regions and cultures. Towards that goal, we put together a Professional Development Workshop entitled "Conducting Social Psychological Research in non-WEIRD settings,” submitted to the upcoming SPSP Annual Meeting. In addition, we received excellent proposals for the newly launched International Bridge Building Travel Award, which we hope will serve as an incubator for testing innovative ideas to help achieve our mission. Starting next year, psychological scientists from the Middle East and South America will join our committee as members.
Convention Committee – The Convention Committee has been busy planning SPSP’s first virtual convention! We received over 1,600 submissions and will be sending out acceptances in the next few weeks. We continued to offer two submission options that have proven successful: (1) presentations based on not-yet-collected-or-analyzed data, and (2) a “single-presenter” track, which allows submissions to be simultaneously considered for a talk, datablitz, or poster. We are also working to incorporate perspectives from members in non-academic settings and to increase transparency about acceptance decisions. Stay tuned for more details about the virtual convention and program!
Early Career Committee – The Early Career Committee hosted successful virtual writing sessions twice a week across the summer that helped build community and research writing accountability. They were so great, that we are continuing to offer writing sessions this fall term too! Please reach out if you want to join! We also had a successful election for two new incoming committee members starting after SPSP 2021, showing the continued interest in this new committee!
Fundraising and Development Committee – We suspended fundraising from March through May 2020, both because we were concerned that appeals during this difficult time might be seen as insensitive, and because we were developing new initiatives to address COVID-specific concerns among our membership. During this time, the Committee focused on compiling a more diverse list of candidates for the Wall of Fame for this year’s two fundraising cycles. In response to the pandemic, we instituted Emergency Bridging Grants, and dedicated all of the funds from the Annual Campaign run through June and July to these grants. SPSP provided $500 Emergency Bridge Grants to 37 SPSP members.
Government Relations Committee – The Government Relations Committee had a busy first year and is now moving forward with several exciting initiatives. In the coming months, we will be launching a second Social Science Vignette challenge, focusing on the role our field can play in the response to COVID-19. In the meantime, we submitted a professional development symposium for SPSP 2021 to start a broader discussion about how our field can interface with public policy, and we have been attending monthly "Headlines" webinars on social science policy hosted by COSSA (Consortium of Social Science Associations).
Professional Development Committee – This summer the Professional Development Committee has been busy planning for next year’s virtual convention. We solicited the SPSP membership for PD sessions and workshops on a variety of topics and have received a number of excellent submissions, which we are in the final process of reviewing. In addition, because most people are currently socially isolating during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are trying to offer more online content than usual this year, including the ever-popular #SPSPchats on Twitter and more webinars. Over the summer, Benjamin Le (Haverford College) and Yanna Weisberg put together a great webinar on teaching online for faculty at liberal arts institutions. We are currently planning a webinar series on power analysis. If you would like to teach or organize a webinar this fall that you think would be of interest to the SPSP membership please let us (chairs Rich Slatcher and Alex Schoemann) know!
Student Committee – The Student Committee (SC) has been busy preparing a survey of the non-academic job market, in an effort to help students better understand what the experience is like and how to prepare. After successfully hosting eight six-week summer writing groups, the Student Committee has also been coordinating efforts to maintain these groups during the fall. In addition, the SC has been coordinating a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Workshop as part of the SPSP series of webinars on racism, bias and diversity. Finally, the SC is getting ready to receive submissions for the Outstanding Research Award and Student Poster Awards, and are already recruiting reviewers.
