New Year's Wishes and Goals

Happy 2014 and welcome to AASECT's new website! We hope you are pleased with its increased logic, functionality, and search capability, and that you are able to find whatever AASECT information you seek. Please send us your feedback so we may continue to refine and improve our website's usability.

Our deepest gratitude to Sallie Foley, MSW, Chair of Communications, as well as her entire committee; Dee Ann Walker, ED of AASECT; Rob Gates, IT specialist; and the entire AASECT office staff for their work in making the new website a reality.

Website aside, 2014 is looking good for AASECT, thanks to a steadily increasing membership, a vocal advocacy committee, growing diversity, an increase in young leadership initiatives, and improved educational offerings.

Of course, we continue to look for new ways to increase the value of your membership. In the coming months, we will take extra measures to ensure our content and educational offerings equally acknowledge all categories of membership. We are also working on a logo for those who are certified through the organization, which will make AASECT Certified Professionals easy to distinguish within membership categories.

But before moving forward into a better and brighter 2014, I'd like to take a quick look back and extend my gratitude to Bill Taverner and the Center for Family Life Education in Northern New Jersey for a terrific conference just this past December. We sexual health organizations have much to learn from each other, and so much to gain by working with each other. In attending the recent CFLE conference, I found the vision and commitment of the sexuality educators I came across to be energizing. As a social worker, I was particularly moved by Trina Scott's keynote speech: "Let's Talk: A Candid Conversation about Sex Ed and the Dimensions of Racial Diversity." It was a stunning reminder of all we need to keep doing in order to bring more social justice into our work... and all we must do to increase diversity within our own organization!

And speaking of AASECT, here are a few things the board has been working on behind the scenes:

We are streamlining committees and board positions in order to reduce overlap and redundancies.

Rachel Needle, Membership Services Steering Committee Chair, and Logan Levkoff, Public Relations, Media and Advocacy Chair, are working to make an AASECT Student Facebook page a reality.

Joan Sughrue, Professional Education Steering Committee Chair, along with Al Baggett, Director of Education and Certification, successfully retained American Psychological Association (APA) CEC provider status for AASECT for the next five years. This was a major accomplishment, involving countless hours of work, and means we are officially accredited as an APA provider until 2018.

The next two AASECT Annual Conferences — after our 2014 conference in Monterey — are slated for Minneapolis in 2015 and San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2016!

The PESC is also working on Policies and Procedures, particularly for the AASECT Institutes.

The PRMA Committee, chaired by Logan Levkoff, now has two new committee chairs: Ricci Joy Levy is chairing the Advocacy Committee, while Tiffanie Davis Henry is chairing the PR Committee.

The Outreach Steering Committee, chaired by Michael McGee, has a new Development Chair, Kristen Lilla, MSW.

The Certification Steering Committee, chaired by Jo Kessler, has been especially busy. For one, they've created a supervision category geared specifically to educators, called the Certified Educator Consultant. Stay tuned for more information about this exciting addition for educators!

In looking forward to 2014, I want to thank each and every one of you for your membership and dedication to the mission of AASECT. We're making wonderful changes, many of them spurred on by our committed volunteers who spend countless hours helping to improve our membership guild. We have all come to AASECT because of our passion for excellence in sexual health education, counseling, and therapy. You make that excellence a reality. THANK YOU, and here's to a happy, healthy, and peaceful New Year for us all.

Best Wishes,
Michele Sugg, MSW
msugglcsw@gmail.com