Committees

The By-Laws offer to us the practical tool to acheive all these purposes: Article IV concerning the Committees states that: "the following standing committees shall be appointed by the President with the approval of the Executive Board. The terms of service of standing committee members will be set in such a manner as to allow sufficient continuity for effective conduct of the duties of the committee. Ordinarily, at least one member of each standing committee will be a member of the Executive Board of the Society".

The listed Committees are:

1. Bi-annual and Regional Congress Scientific Committee:

Composition: "a Chairperson and additional members appointed by the President and Regional Vice-President with the approval of the Executive Board"
Goals: "have complete responsibility for planning the program for the bi-annual and Regional Congresses"

2. Congress Organizing Committee:

Composition and Goals: "The President and Vice-President shall appoint the Chairpersons of a Congress Organizing Committee to oversee the local arrangements for the bi-annual and regional Congresses. Chairpersons shall, in turn, select a suitable number of Society members for this committee from the local Congress site to ensure adequate planning and preparations. If feasible, at least one member of this committee shall also be a member of the Congress Scientific Committee. The Society’s Treasurer shall be an ex officio member of this committee..."

3. Publications Committee:

Composition and Goals: "The Committee on Publications may be appointed by the President and approved by the Executive Board. This committee shall oversee publications that the Executive Board shall authorize, and relationships and projects with commercial publishers that are consistent with the purposes of the Society. Guilford Press, publisher of the Journal of Personality Disorders, has arranged to have the Journal serve as an official publication of the Society. This committee shall assume responsibility to review this relationship and report their judgements of Journal’s progress to the Board"

4. Collaborative Research Committee:

Composition: "a Chairperson and additional members selected by the President with the approval of the Executive Board"
Goals: "encouragement, facilitation and coordination of international research projects and other scholarly endeavors relevant to the personality disorders and promote guidelines for research grants"

5. Committee on Scientific and Scholarly Awards:

Composition: "a Chairperson and additional members selected by the President and approved by the Executive Board"
Goals: "it shall make recommandations to the Board regarding awards to individuals in recognition of their meritorious contributions to the study of personality disorders..."

6. Ad Hoc Committees:

Composition and goals: "The President and the Board may appoint Ad Hoc Committees from time to time as deemed necessary to further the purposes of the Society"

7. Nominations and Elections Committee:

Composition and goals: "The Committee shall be appointed by the Executive Board. It will be responsible for preparing a slate, and for supervising the election of Officers and Members of the Executive Board"