Dear Colleagues:
It’s hard to believe that we are now in a new year. The BPD Conference in LA was a wonderful
experience with excellent presentations, great social events, uplifting plenary speakers such as Barbara Solomon, the Hartford
Foundation breakfast and ongoing support and much more. I will always remember Father Boyle bringing us laughter and tears
and a focus on celebrating what we can do in our roles as social workers.
Update is now exclusively online with a focus on information about what is going on in BPD, so I want to share
with you what the Board has done to begin this year. The Board met in January
in the CSWE offices in Alexandria
where we have our BPD office. For a few board members, this was the first visit and it helped us all see what goes on there
and how the BPD Association Manager, Kristine Moreno Paschalis, gets it all done. We encourage members to stop by.
The Board approved a new Strategic
Plan that will be posted to the Web. It will provide direction for BPD in the next three years in terms of committee work
and professional activities. Please check the website (www.bpdonline.org) to see where the Board wants to direct its focus and ways you can help.
Our budget is in good shape thanks
to the wonderful work of Debbie Simpler, our Treasurer for the past 3 years. Anne Summers inherits a stable and transparent
budget process.
The BPD Mission to support excellence
in baccalaureate social work education means that to continue our work, we need all of you to join BPD this year. Today we
need to maintain linkage to achieve our goals; there are too many outside forces to fight individually. We have to work with
other organizations and we will with your support. Here are a few reasons to be a part of BPD in 2007 even without a conference:
- Providing input into the EPAS process including our support of the continuum of social work education
- Our work on the Leadership Roundtable discussing unification of the profession
- Our work on the Social Work Reinvestment Initiative and support for the national Social Work Research
Center through membership on the ANSWER coalition
- Our emphasis on obtaining grants and federal funding opportunities for social workers through membership on
the IASWR coalition
- Determining the components of quality baccalaureate programs as part of the Benchmarking project
- Being a part of the Doctoral Task Force to discuss the needs of the profession for well-trained faculty
and researchers
- Planning the 25th Annual Conference in Destin, Florida,
March 3-8, 2008 to celebrate BPD
And speaking of the 25th
Annual conference, we want to encourage all of you to submit abstracts for presentations, mark your calendar for the conference
and spread the word!
Make sure you renew your
membership by April 1, 2007 to be entered into a drawing for a free conference package in Destin!
And of course, the Nominations Committee
will be developing a slate of officers this spring. If you are interested in running for office, please let them know or fill
out the Membership Form when you renew your membership.
We have a great year ahead of us.
Please be a part of it in every way you can!
Linda Moore
