Alberta ABA

By Renai Sveinson, Nicole Jedrzejewski, & Miranda Macauley

The Alberta Association for Behaviour Analysis (AltaABA) is in its fifth year as an affiliated chapter of ABAI. In March 2020, AltaABA held online elections for their student member position. All other open positions were uncontested. The Annual General Meeting (AGM) for members occurs in the Spring of each year and, unfortunately, 2020’s AGM was cancelled when we were all faced with the COVID-19 pandemic. The AltaABA membership was sent a digital AGM report to provide the required updates on committees, finances and future activities.

The 2021 AGM was held virtually in May and was paired with an invited speaker event discussing literacy development using Direct Instruction by Michael Maloney. In May 2021, AltaABA also welcomed new members to its Board of Directors, following nominations in March 2021 and online voting by the membership in April 2021. AltaABA’s membership has grown by 11 members over the last year to a total of 67 members at the time of this report (March 2021). The current total number of active BACB certificants in Alberta also increased by 5 certificants this past year, to a current total of 2 BCBA-Ds, 46 BCBAs, 0 BCaBAs, and 6 RBTs province-wide.

A noteworthy accomplishment was the development of AltaABA’s first 3-year Strategic Plan, which was released in December 2020. This plan was created based on input from a 2019 membership survey, as well as discussion and feedback from the entire Board of Directors since the results of the survey. This plan has 3 long-term goal sections that consist of 14 short-term actions. The plan now guides many actions taken by the Board to further the association’s mission and vision moving forward.

As outlined in AltaABA’s strategic plan, the association is also taking steps to further the use of technology and membership benefits for AltaABA members. As such, a “proof of membership card” and cited resource links were added to the AltaABA website. Efforts have been made to expand committees to engage more of AltaABA’s members this past year. Specifically, the creation of an events committee, and formalizing a social media committee.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, AltaABA did not hold their usual social events over the past year. However, the first online trivia night was held in March 2021 and was a resounding success. It was attended by students, certificants, and interested individuals alike. AltaABA’s activity on social media platforms has increased over the past year to continue to engage the current membership, and in an effort to garner further interest and dissemination of accurate information.

Finally, AltaABA continues to maintain a relationship with the MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, and its Behavioural Interventions Certificate of Achievement Program (BICA; a VCS course sequence at the bachelor’s level) by supporting students that reach out to the Board.

For further information, to view AltaABA’s Strategic Plan, or to join the chapter, please visit: www.altaaba.ca or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.