Secretary's letter to I.A.F.P. membership, 7.i.98

Ref GM/BR

Dear Member

This is my first letter as Secretary of IAFP to members of the Association. After a successful 1997 we now look forward to a fruitful 1998 for the Association. The major event of the year will of course be the 7th International Conference hosted this year by our Danish colleagues in Copenhagen. We hope very much that as many of you as possible will be able to travel to Copenhagen in May, our appetite is already stimulated by the provisional programme that Peter Gottlieb, Ulla Noring and the Organising Committee have circulated. Still on a conference theme the 1999 Conference will once again return to the UK and I can confirm that the venue will be Sheffield. Professor Christopher Cordess will host the 1999 meeting, the date of which will be confirmed at the Copenhagen meeting. There is a recommendation that the Millennium meeting should be held in Boston, hosted by our American colleagues Dr Jim Gillinghan and Dr John Young. We would very much like to know the views of members about this as this would be the first International Conference to be held outside Europe and although it will be a greater distance for many of us to travel it would be an exciting development. A conference in America would give us the opportunity of hearing about forensic psychotherapy from an American perspective as well as strengthening our transatlantic links.

Since the London Conference we have been busy transferring the Secretariat from Wales to London. I am enclosing an up to date list of members of the Association together with the minutes of the Annual General Meeting from the London Conference. Our membership number has increased from approximately a hundred to a hundred and thirty-six since the London Conference. There has been quite a lot of work involved in transferring the secretariat and updating the membership list and my apologies to anybody whose name, position or address is not correctly designated. Please could let me know if there are any alterations required or any other mistakes on the membership list by faxing, telephone or e-mailing at the Secretariat address above. If you know of anybody with an interest in forensic psychotherapy please could you tell them about the Association, membership forms are always available from me. The London Conference also saw the transfer of the financial centre of the organisation from Holland to London when Mr Bruce Irvine took up the office of treasurer of the Association. Bruce is in the process of streamlining the Association's financial infrastructure but currently he reports that the Association is in reasonable financial state.

As you will see in the minutes of the Annual General meeting Gwen Adshead announced that the title of the Memorial Prize for the Tim Scannel Lecture, is "Forensic Psychotherapy and the Arts" details of this Memorial Prize are to be found in the minutes but I encourage you to publicise the competition and encourage submissions.

We hope very soon to re-launch the IAFP newsletter which Dr Estela Welldon is currently undertaken to do. Please save all items of news relating to forensic psychotherapy or achievements of members of the Association and send these to Dr Welldon at the Portman Clinic. (8 Fitzjohns Avenue, London NW3 5NA, Telephone number 0171 794 8262 and Fax number 0171 447 3748). Your can also find us on the World Wide Web on the IAFP home page (HTTP://psyctc.sghms.ac.uk/iafp/)

Finally please feel free to contact me at the Secretariat with any comments, queries or ideas and we look forward to seeing you at Copenhagen.

Kind regards

Gill McGauley Secretary of the IAFP Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Forensic Psychotherapy

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