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Update April 1, 2020: NCFR is currently proceeding as planned with preparations for the 2020 NCFR Annual Conference in St. Louis, scheduled for Nov. 11-14. Plans will be adjusted as necessary in light of the COVID-19 pandemic  to ensure the health and well-being of our members and attendees. See more info.
 

It’s a Wrap! New Conference Production Under Way

Even before one NCFR Annual Conference ends, planning for the next is under way. In 2020, NCFR will return to St. Louis, Missouri, Nov. 11–14, with Brad van Eeden Moorefield, Ph.D., CFLE, at the helm as the conference program chair. The conference theme is “Family Expansions, Expanding Families: Contouring Family Science’s Negative Spaces.”

The last time NCFR was in St. Louis was October 1974, Gerhard Neubeck was the program chair, attendance was 1,700, and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy joined us for a conference themed “Art and Science of Intimacy and Loving.” For some of you, this may be your last NCFR conference as you join other baby boomers in retirement; thank you for all you’ve brought to NCFR and the Family Science discipline over your career. For others, it will be your first conference of many. You’ll make lifelong friends, meet colleagues whose interests mesh with yours, and discover your professional home. Please mark your calendar now and plan to join us in St. Louis!
 

Take Advantage of New Programs for NCFR Members

Several new member benefits and programs rolled out in 2019. I’d like to highlight two of them here that were made possible thanks to the involvement and work of members.

The first, the NCFR Mentoring Academy, is the vision of our Students and New Professionals (SNP) group leaders who have been working to develop this program over the past two years. The inaugural group of 12 mentors and 12 mentees began their term at the 2019 NCFR conference, where they met one another, shared a meal, and began to plan how they will connect over the coming year. This program will run every year, with applications for the second year due July 1, 2020. The NCFR Mentoring Academy is a great way for all members to receive mentoring at any stage of their career, and also for seasoned professionals to develop leadership skills and learn from their mentee.

Tune in to NCFR’s Zippy News emails and other NCFR member communications for further updates. Program details are online at ncfr.org/mentoring-academy.

The second new program I’d like to highlight is the Résumé and Curriculum Vitae Review Program, which launched in late summer 2019. Members who would like feedback on their résumé or CV can submit their document during our January, April, or August review periods, and experienced member-reviewers will provide feedback about content, formatting, structure, appearance, and more.

For the first round of the résumé and CV review program in August 2019, we had 28 reviewers and 56 resumes and CVs submitted. The next round of submissions will be accepted April 8–22, 2020. As with the Mentoring Academy, you must be an NCFR member to participate. Find details at ncfr.org/resume-cv-review.

In addition, NCFR also added these member benefits in 2019:

• Free webinars for NCFR members. NCFR members receive free access to past webinar recordings beginning one year after the webinar’s live debut! Watch recordings on the NCFR website at ncfr.org/on-demand-webinars.
• Members-only resource collections. Members get exclusive access to an ever-growing list of resource collections of NCFR journal articles, Family Focus articles, conference recordings, and more on key family topics. Our newest collection topics include Military Families and Parental Incarceration. Find them on the NCFR website at ncfr.org/resource-collections.
• 25% discount on most books from Wiley, the publisher of NCFR’s scholarly journals. NCFR members can use code NCFR1 at checkout on Wiley’s website to receive the NCFR-member discount.
• Discount on NCFR journal submission fees. As members, when you submit an article to Journal of Marriage and Family, Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Science, or Journal of Family Theory & Review, your submission fee is lower than for nonmembers.
• Two new focus groups were created in 2019: Diverse Family Structures and Family Communication. NCFR’s focus groups on specific family interests are free for NCFR members to join.

What else do you need from NCFR? Send your ideas to [email protected].
 

From NCFR Headquarters

On the staff news front, Maddie Hansen has moved into the position of manager of member relations from education and certification coordinator, replacing Bethany Cox, who resigned in late August to pursue her dream job of working in fundraising. In late October, all staff participated in unconscious bias training, and we’re eager to continue with trainings and learning opportunities to raise our awareness in 2020.

A Final Note: Awareness and Apology

Speaking of being aware, within NCFR’s office, we encourage everyone to speak up, say what they know, and help all of us be better and do better.

A few of our 2019 conference attendees did just that by pointing out that our out-going president Anisa Zvonkovic, Ph.D., used the term gypped during her presidential address at the conference. As early as the late 1800s, gyp was used derogatorily in reference to the Romani people, often still referred to as Gypsies. Dr. Zvonkovic asked me to pass along to all of you her apologies, and her gratitude to those who spoke up for helping her to do better. Your courage resulted in a learning moment for many of us.

To all our members: Thank you for all you do for NCFR, for Family Science, and for families.