Welcome, and thank you for taking on the responsibility of leadership for one of IPPA’s Divisions. The information provided below is to help you as you transition into your position and guide you as to what is expected from your position and from your Division as a whole. Please contact info@ippanetwork.org with any questions you may have, and review this brief video to see what information is available on this page to assist you!
IPPA’s Divisions play a vital role in advancing our mission. Specifically, divisions:
- Help members learn, connect and collaborate
- Advance the science and practice of positive psychology
- Develop thought leadership and best practices
- Bridge research and practice
- Share the findings of positive psychology with other professions
As a Division leader, you play an essential role in leading volunteers, serving members, and advancing strategic efforts. This onboarding guide is meant to give you the tools and resources you will need to succeed.
IPPA Mission and Goals Through 2025
Working in conjunction with Divisions and leadership, IPPA has specific strategies through 2025 that it wishes to achieve, and a strategic layout to do so, all while aligning with IPPA’s mission. It is the hope that Divisions will play a key role in helping to reach these goals:
Current Divisions and Contact Information
Please use the information below to reach out to your fellow Division leaders to inquire, collaborate, and coordinate strategies and goals with one another. IPPA encourages you to work together both within and outside of the quarterly meetings to assist one another, ask questions, and work on any cross-Division activities that may help to serve all of your goals.
Note: Coming in 2025 will be a seventh Division, Positive Arts and Culture!
General Volunteer Orientation
Please take a few minutes to review the volunteer orientation presentation that has been provided, which will help you acquaint yourself with the roles and responsibilities of each IPPA volunteer, including Division leaders. Please check with your Division leadership to determine what your individual position entails.
Please review the IPPA Code of Conduct. This is displayed on the IPPA website and also must be accepted by all members when joining IPPA Engage.
Division Leader Orientation
After reviewing the Volunteer Orientation, please review this Division Leader orientation presentation, which will help you to better understand IPPA and your role within the organization. Combined with the documents below, these will help guide you through your responsibilities as a Division leader. Your volunteering helps to keep IPPA living and thriving!
Upon taking office, please make sure to have the following:
- Contact information for your fellow officers and Division leaders
- A comprehensive understanding of what items your predecessor was working on, including volunteers they were working with.
- Your Division email address and password
- Constant Contact Campaign Creator username and password
- Access to the Division Events calendar
To receive access to your IPPA Division’s email account if it has not been provided to you, and for the Division Events calendar access, please contact info@ippanetwork.org.
Volunteer Management
You will be the face of the leadership for your division volunteers, and well as determining what volunteer opportunities are open for your Division. Use the best practices guide to help shape your requests for volunteers as well as communication best practices to ensure that everyone is working towards a unified goal.
Below are the links to each Division’s charter, as well as the IPPA Constitution, and the sections pertaining specifically to Divisions for your reference, and to give you a full understanding of the Division’s place within IPPA.
Charters, the IPPA Constitution, and IPPA Leadership
Division Charters
- Positive Clinical Psychology
- Positive Education
- Positive Health and Wellbeing
- SIPPA (Students of IPPA)
- Spirituality and Meaning
- Work and Organizations
IPPA Constitution
IPPA Leadership
- Board of Directors
- The Board of Directors (BOD) is the governing body of IPPA, and provide the direction for helping IPPA to achieve its mission throughout the world. They coordinate the World Congress, are in charge of handling budgetary considerations, and help to steer the day to day operations of IPPA.
- Council of Advisors
- The Council of Advisors (COA) is a global network of leaders in positive psychology who bring their expertise to assist in fulfilling IPPA’s mission. They are in charge of electing the Board of Directors. Each member serves a term of two years, and they are renewable at the end of those terms. All Division presidents are ex-officio, voting members of the COA and serve for the duration of their terms.
- Division Liaison
- Liz Corcoran is the current Division liaison with IPPA. She is the contact for all needs that the Divisions have that they would like to present to the BOD. She also coordinates Division training, organizes regular meetings, and collects the annual reports to present to the Board and Council of Advisors. She can be reached at efcorcoran79@gmail.com.
- IPPA Administrator
- Claire Doyle with Admin Solutions is the current administrator for IPPA and its Divisions. She currently handles coordination of social media for all Divisions, maintains the IPPA Events calendar, and handles the registration and physical creation of each Division event. She will be your contact when looking to schedule any Division even that will interact with the membership or public. She can be reached at info@ippanetwork.org.
Election Procedures
Division Officers (President, President-Elect and Secretary), serve 1 or 2-year terms that correspond with the World Congress. They are elected by a selection committee or by general election of Division members, as determined by the Divisions and laid out in their respective charters. Please note that Division presidents are ex-officio voting members of the Council of Advisors for the duration of their term.
Committee Leads (various program leads, communication, etc.) are appointed by the Division Officers. These leads may serve 1 or 2-year terms.
When a leadership position transition occurs, please contact info@ippanetwork.org with the names and contact information for the new leadership members, as well as a short (1-2 paragraph) biography and headshot that is at least 500×500 pixels.
Feel free to use the following transition checklist template to help guide you as you bring your elected incoming position on board with your division. Not all items may be relevant, but it can assist with planning the steps needed to provide the knowledge to your successor.
Reporting, Policies, & Procedures
Annually, Division Officers are required to provide an activity report for the previous year by March 1st of the current year. These reports are shared with the Board of Directors.
To request money from the budget that has been set aside for Divisions, a request form must be filled out with monetary usage plans specified, and submitted to info@ippanetwork.org. No money may be requested until the current year’s Activity Report has been completed.
Membership Engagement
Post Volunteer Opportunities
We have a brand new Volunteer Opportunity page! If you have a volunteer position that you would like to post on this page, please send a brief description with contact information (your Division email account is recommended) to info@ippanetwork.org.
Monthly News Roundup (MNR)
This is your opportunity to reach the entirety of IPPA membership once per month. Feel free to include calls for submissions, volunteer opportunities, upcoming events and more. Send your submissions to info@ippanetwork.org.
IPPA Engage
IPPA Engage is one of the many ways that you can connect with your Division members. Regular content updates will encourage conversation and interaction with your membership. Recordings of Division Webinars and meetings will be archived in the Learning Library.
Webinars/Meetings/Retreats
Each Division can set up their own meetings, retreats, webinars, and more! All Division virtual events are hosted through the IPPA Zoom account, and registration is set up on your behalf. You will need to provide a host or presenter who is familiar with running Zoom meetings or webinars for each event. Please note that for any event that has a cost or extends invitations to non-members, registration will close two days prior to the event. Make sure to request access to the Division Events Calendar from info@ippanetwork.org to review upcoming Division events and avoid any duplicated times, and send the Event Submission Form and Speaker Release Form to the same email.
Constant Contact
Now you have the opportunity to send correspondence to all of your Division members! As Campaign Creators (set up through the Division’s IPPA email account) you can create an email campaign with targeted content. Once complete, send an email to info@ippanetwork.org to have it mailed out.
