CSJ Official Update

Hello, CSJ!
I hope this email finds you well and getting ready to enjoy your summer! It was a pleasure meeting with our members at the Town Hall Meeting at the ACA conference back in March. We received so many wonderful ideas from you. Today the CSJ board met and reviewed the notes from the Town Hall Meeting. Our president-elect, Rachael Goodman, drafted a plan for the upcoming year using your input. The board is happy to report that planning is underway! There will be more to report on this after our June meeting, I’m sure, but initial goals have been established:
Goal 1: Increase communication to and among CSJ members,
Goal 2: Increase social justice support and information to members, and
Goal 3: Increase clarity of purpose/roles and engage in long term planning.
To begin addressing these goals, we are researching software to improve our online discussion boards (Goals 1&2), taking steps to offer regular professional development to our members (Goal 2), and have been developing social justice-oriented policy statements, such as the one we released on healthcare (Goal 2). Additionally, the board now has a policies and procedures handbook in place, as well as approved by-laws (Goal 3). In addition, we have established a procedure for developing a CSJ university chapter and you can find information on our website: https://counseling- csj.org/csj-chapters/
Lastly, we are currently taking nominations for the following CSJ board positions: President Elect, Governing Council Representative, Student Representative, Retiree/Limited Means Representative, and Community Representative. Nominations are due to ACA by September 1. You can get details of requirements for each office and let us know if you would like to run for a CSJ board position or if you would like to nominate someone else by contacting Rita Chung at rchung@gmu.edu.
As the secretary, I will be sending out letters like this to you following each CSJ board meeting to keep you informed of what we are doing on behalf of you and the rest of the CSJ membership. And, on behalf of the board, I wish you a peaceful transition from the spring into the summer, whenever that happens for you.
In solidarity,
Lauren Shure
Your CSJ Secretary