Saving CalABA: Session 130 with Jennifer Harris and Greg Elsky

The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

Matt Cicoria

Science, Mental Health, Skinner, Behaviorism, Behaviorconsultant, Aba, Behavioralpsychology, Health & Fitness, Appliedbehavioranalysis, Autism, Acceptanceandcommitmenttherapy, Fba, Social Sciences, Verbalbehavior, Bcba, Functionalassessment, Discretetrial

4.8 • 648 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2020

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I've never attended CalABA. In fact, I've never even set foot in the state. And while I live all the way across the country, I recognize the importance of Behavior Analysts banding together to advocate for our clients, our communities, and of course, our profession.

When CalABA had to cancel their conference in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the timing was such that they were not able to recoup the costs associated with hotel reservations, conference venues, and the like. The amount of money CalABA lost from this "black swan" type of event was staggering.

In this podcast, Drs. Jennifer Harris and Greg Elsky take us behind the scenes of the events from the ill-fated CalABA 2020 conferecne. Specifically, we talk about what it was like leading up to the scheduled conference itself during the infancy of the Covid-19 pandemic, how they learned they had to cancel the event, what it was like to share this news with the attendees who were streaming into the venue, and we talk at length about the devastating financial consequences of cancelling the event.

We also talk about how CalABA can overcome such a difficult situation with their current fundraising campaign. To be candid, without an influx of cash, CalABA's ability to advocate on behalf of the field in the nation's most populous state will be seriously jeopardized.

Moreover, legislation that negatively affects the practice of Behavior Analysis in California has the potential to influence other states and provinces.

Based on these factors, I will be supporting CalABA in their fundraising efforts. The Covid crisis has hit many of us in the wallet (myself included), however if you have the means to do so, please consider donating to what I believe is a worth cause.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everyone, welcome to this very special edition of the Behavioral Observations podcast. In
0:05.3	session 130, I'm joined by Dr. Jennifer Harris and Greg Elski to talk about supporting the California
0:12.9	Association for Behavior Analysis. You'd be forgiven if you live in a different part of the country
0:19.3	and you weren't paying attention to what
0:21.9	was going on with Calab last year for not knowing that they suffered a massive, massive financial
0:27.8	loss. They had to cancel their conference at the, literally as people were walking in, as attendees
0:33.1	were walking into the venue. Last spring, this occurred in the infancy of the COVID-19 pandemic.
0:40.3	And the impact of this cancellation was nothing short or staggering. And it's really putting in
0:47.1	jeopardy the ability of Calaba to quite literally exist. So it's with that in mind. I want to draw
0:54.0	your attention to the fundraising campaign
0:56.0	that they have going right now. You can find links to that in the show notes of today's episode,
1:01.6	and they have about a half a million dollar hole they're trying to fill. Now, you might be wondering,
1:09.2	hey, I don't live in California, what's in this for me.
1:13.3	And, you know, I've shared my thoughts about this on LinkedIn and on Facebook.
1:20.0	And, you know, it basically comes down to this.
1:22.1	I think having a strong CalABA is good for the practice of behavior analysis writ large.
1:29.8	I think other states pay attention to what larger states do. And so we want to have a strong representation of behavior analysis
1:36.7	in our most populous state. And again, I think that's not only good for Californians who
1:42.3	are behavior analysts, Californians who receive behavior
1:46.1	analytic services, but for the rest of us who are practicing behavior analysts. In other words,
1:50.7	there are downstream positive consequences to having a strong functional CalABA.
1:57.1	So we talk about all that stuff and more and go behind the scenes, like I said, to what it was like at the time.
	...

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