Greetings to all WAIMH Affiliates. Over the past few months WAIMH has been engaged with a number of key projects such as: preparations for the WAIMH Congress in 2016; the social media initiative; and the ongoing development of the statement concerning infant rights. In addition, the Infant Mental Health Journal (IMHJ) saw a change in Editor-in Chief. We welcome Paul Spicer as the new Editor-inChief and say a huge thank you to Hiram Fitzgerald for his work, over many years as Editor-in-Chief.
This brief update alerts you to a few forthcoming Affiliate issues: updating affiliate profiles; a brief survey to update the voting process; and an invitation for you to contact us with any ideas you might have to further develop the Affiliates’ Council.
Annual Update of Affiliate profiles
Over the next month each affiliate president will receive an email with a request to update your affiliate profiles. We understand this is another demand on your time however, keeping our profiles up to date with current contact details helps us to communicate efficiently with each other. It’s also an opportunity to check how each affiliate is going with regard to maintaining 10 financial members. As discussed earlier, we are here to support affiliates that are struggling with this aspect of their affiliate status. In addition, we acknowledge that affiliates are dynamic social systems, therefore, sustaining close communication between affiliates and the AC is important so we can work together to celebrate each affiliate’s work and provide support during more difficult times.
Voting system within the AC
After continuing discussions since 2010 and online surveys inviting your views, we are now ready to invite you to vote. As such in March of this year you will receive an online invitation to vote. To recap, you will be asked to agree or disagree with the following recommendation:
When voting for the election of AC officers: each affiliate will receive one vote except in cases where:
An affiliate is made up of more than 1 country.
In this instance, each country within that affiliate (up to 5 countries) will hold one vote each; and
In countries where there are more than 1 affiliate.
In this instance, the country will receive 1 vote per affiliate, up to a maximum of 5 votes, irrespective of whether or not that country is comprised of more than 5 affiliates.
Affiliate news
We welcome your news, ideas and queries. We invite you to contact us with a brief update of an event, an exciting project that you are part of, or an ongoing issue that is of particular concern to your affiliate. It is always great to hear from you and to be able to share your experiences with other affilates.
Authors
Foley, Maree,
Chair of the Affiliates Council,
Wellington, New Zealand,
maree.foley@xtra.co.nz
Huber, Anna,
Affiliate Council Representative,
Canberra, Australia,
annahuber.marymead@gmail.com
