By Jeffrey T. Mitchell, Ph.D., CTS

ICISF

A funny thing happened on the way to the 7^th World Congress on Stress Trauma and Coping. I got busier and busier and even busier. I got married and Shannon and I had two children. Then I fell down the steps! Well, all that did not happen all at once, but over a period of a decade or more. The positives of an intensely busy professional life, marriage and children and the very negative experience of falling down a flight of steps all converged and caused me to do some very serious thinking. While I was recuperating for several months during the summer from a nasty back injury (see fall down the steps above), I watched my backlog of work become even worse. I thought and thought and thought (you have a lot of time to do that when you cannot do anything else). Here is the outcome of some of that thinking.

I realized I was traveling far too much and was handling too many administrative duties and thus I was having too little time to devote to my personal life and to writing, teaching, planning and organizing. It was clear to me that I was certainly having a great deal less time to be with my wife, Shannon and our two daughters Kyla and Angela, than I needed.

I thought about how my desk was piling up and I was becoming less able to keep up with the paper work and the everyday administration of ICISF. I thought about how I was becoming so backed up with e-mails as to be unable to keep up with the overload. I thought about the books and articles I needed to write, but couldn’t find the time to start. I thought about the administrative things that ICISF needed a quick response on, but which went without review or a signature for days or even weeks. I simply was experiencing an imbalance of too much time on the road coupled with a wide range of administrative duties. As a result, I did not have enough time for a host of other important things such as responding to the critics of CISM and our very important contacts with national and international groups.

While I was on the disabled list, Don Howell, ICISF’s Executive Director, had to temporarily take over the vast majority of the administrative duties for ICISF that I had been doing since 1989 and up to early June of 2002. After that temporary takeover of administrative duties was accomplished, it became quite clear to me that the organization did fine without my administrative input. By early October, I provided to the Board of Director’s of ICISF a letter asking them to consider my resignation as President to the foundation so that I could put my best talents to work for ICISF in areas that I do well such as writing, teaching and attending essential meetings.

The Board of Directors saw the wisdom in reallocating my responsibilities to the Executive Director and to other staff in order to allow me to focus on other significant tasks for ICISF. At my request and with the approval of the Board, the position of President was absorbed by the Executive Director. These actions were accomplished on a trial basis during November and December of 2002 and January of 2003. It was decided that the announcement of these changes would be made at the World Congress in mid February once the Board was assured that the new administrative arrangement worked effectively and efficiently. Many of you were present when that announcement was made on the last day of the Congress (2/16/03).

During the trial period, I set to work to review as many negative and positive outcome articles as possible and write them up in a "Crisis Intervention and CISM Research Summary". The final version of this extensive 59-page document was put on the downloadable articles section of the ICISF web site on February 10, 2003. (The article issued on February 10 supercedes all previous drafts and it is the most complete.) It represents a prime example of how having less administrative duties allows me to achieve more with my best talents.

The question in many minds now is what will happen next. First, let me assure all of you that ICISF remains strong. It now has over 6,800 members and is growing stronger with each passing month. ICISF’s goals, objectives and its mission are the same as always. Its education and service programs are not impacted by the change of administration. All commitments to ICISF’s partner groups are intact. In fact new partnerships are being developed at this time. My resignation from the position of President of ICISF means that all administrative duties formerly managed through that position will now transfer to the position of the Executive Director. Donald Howell has handled that position since 1997 and, as you know, is doing a superb job.

Dr. Victor Welzant, who has been active in CISM for 15 years and who served on the ICISF Board of Directors for the last several years, has been hired part time to assist Don Howell in managing the administrative aspects of the Foundation. He will also handle numerous special projects that ICISF is currently engaged in. The Board of Directors will carefully monitor the workload now on the Executive Director and will determine if additional staff or other administrative restructuring is necessary.

I will continue to work within ICISF in numerous other capacities. The Board of Directors has generously bestowed upon me the honorary title of "President Emeritus". I will teach programs, write materials, offer advice, and attend local, regional and national meeting of importance to the CISM field. I intend to stay very active as an employee of ICISF. I will also remain very active in the CISM field. My commitment to ICISF and the CISM field remains unchanged. Here is the really good news for me. Now I will not have to deal with bank statements, governmental forms, contracts, employee issues and a wide range of administrative duties that had previously consumed much of my time. I have been freed up to do the things that I do the best!

I am grateful for the support you have offered while I served as the President of ICISF. I appreciate your many kindnesses and your persistent thoughtfulness. May we continue together to grow the organization and the CISM field. We all have much work to do. Keep in mind that our work does make a difference in the lives of others.

I am excited about my new role in ICISF and I am looking forward to continued contacts with you as we all work together to develop better training programs and stronger standards of practice in the CISM field. I am looking forward to our next World Congress in 2005. I hope that if I am not running into you before then that I will at least see you there.

Best wishes to each of you and success in your work!

Jeffrey T. Mitchell, Ph.D., CTS

President Emeritus

2/16/03

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