The information provided below is to help our Board of Directors and Council of Advisors with various procedural aspects of governance. Please contact info@ippanetwork.org with any questions you may have.
IPPA Mission and Goals Through 2025
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 the Board of Directors will play a key role in helping to reach these goals:
The IPPA Constitution, Leadership, and Committees
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 and Board of Directors members are ex-officio, voting members of the COA and serve for the duration of their terms with the exception of the Executive Director, who is non-voting.
- 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 handles coordination of social media for all Divisions, maintains the IPPA Events calendar, assembles the Monthly News Roundup, coordinates voting procedures, and takes care of the registration and physical creation of each Division event. She will be your contact when looking to schedule any event that will interact with the membership or public. She can be reached at info@ippanetwork.org.
Committees
- World Congress Committee
- This committee is responsible for organizing the different aspects of the World Congress, from early planning stages through execution, including abstract management, Congress programming, marketing, and more.
- Current Committee Members can be viewed here.
- Accreditation Committee
- This task force aims to establish a robust accreditation scheme for positive psychology education providers. This initiative aims to draft the rising demand to quality positive psychology education and the absence of international accreditation standards of educational programs such as Masters in Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP), diplomas and certificates. The goal of the project is to provide a cohesive yet inclusive framework to safeguard quality of positive psychology education and training.
- Current Committee Members include:
- Tayyab Rashid
- Ilona Boniwell
- Operations Committee
- An Operations Committee has been formed to assist IPPA with regular processes as well as finding potential new sources of revenue, keeping action items on task, and generally assisting with IPPA’s maintenance and growth.
- Current Committee Members include:
- Andrew Soren
- Kris Peterson
- Liz Corcoran
- Gerhard Huetz
- Marita James
- Danny Fung
- Claire Doyle
Upcoming: Global Task Force – This committee will be charged with helping to expand and diversify the representation of IPPA by moving it out of a WEIRD-centric membership focus. This effort to assemble a full committee is being led by Michael Steger and Helena Águeda Marujo.
Divisions and Contact Information
Please use the information below to reach out to Division leaders to inquire, collaborate, and coordinate strategies and goals with one another.
Note: Coming in 2025 will be a seventh Division, Positive Arts and Culture!
Election Procedures – Board of Directors
Board of Directors Roles and Terms
The role of President of the Board of Directors is a 6-year total term, beginning with 2 years as President-Elect, two years as President, and two years as Immediate Past-President with terms corresponding to the World Congress and are not eligible for re-election.
Board of Director Officers (Treasurer, Secretary, Members at Large), serve 4-year terms that correspond with the World Congress and are eligible to be re-elected for up to 8 successive years (two terms), and must then wait two years before being eligible for re-election.
The Executive Director is chosen by the Board of Directors and will be a non-voting member of the Board.
Nominating Procedure
All officers are elected by the Council of Advisors after being put forward by a nominating committee made up of some or all members of the current Board of Directors. Please note that Board members are ex-officio voting members of the Council of Advisors for the duration of their term, with the exception of the Executive Director.
One Member at Large’s term should expire each year. Each year, or when a resignation occurs, a call for nominees is put out to the IPPA membership for recommendations of individuals who should be reached out to for nomination of any open roles.
Following this round of recommendations, the nominating committee of the Board of Directors finalizes the names of those to reach out to for nominations. Those nominees are directed to complete an application for their respective position.
The nominating committee reviews the applications and puts forward a final list of nominees to the full Council of Advisors for voting.
The final list is provided to the full Council of Advisors for a vote on who the next Board of Directors officer(s) shall be.
Announcements then go out from the Executive Director, informing the candidates either of their new Board Member status and their role’s starting date, or that their candidacy did not result in election.
When a leadership position transition occurs, please contact info@ippanetwork.org with the name and contact information for the new leadership member, as well as a short (1-2 paragraph) biography and headshot that is at least 500×500 pixels.
Election Procedures – Council of Advisors
Council of Advisors members are those individuals chosen by IPPA as part of a global network to assist in fulfilling the association’s vision. Each member serves a term of two years, and they are renewable at the end of those terms. New Council of Advisors members are nominated by the Board of Directors as deemed appropriate, and they and all members up for re-election are voted on by the current Council. Approximately half of the Council of Advisors should be up for election each year.
Reporting, Policies, & Procedures
Board of Directors Meetings
At regular intervals, currently approximately every two months, the Board of Directors meets to review the state of IPPA.
Annual Report
Each year, the full Council of Advisors is provided an Annual Report, provided by the administrators of IPPA in conjunction with the Board of Directors and leadership of the Divisions. This document is a summation of the past year’s financials, activities, and more, and provides a look into the future plans for the IPPA, Divisions, and the World Congress
COA Annual Meeting
It is the goal for IPPA to have a full Council of Advisors meeting, either in person, virtually, or both, each year, where the annual report is reviewed, and the state of IPPA is discussed.
Annual Disclosure Documents
As a part of best practices, a series of disclosure documents is required from each Board Member by September 15th of each year. Those documents can be found here, and should be sent to kpeterson@ippanetwork.org:
- Board Conflict of Interest
- Individual Conflict of Interest
- Record Retention & Destruction
- Whistleblower Policy
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 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 IPPA’s members. Regular content updates will encourage conversation and interaction with your membership. Recordings of webinars and meetings will be archived in the Learning Library.
