North East England Branch The North East of England Branch is one of the largest of the Society’s regional branches in terms of the area it covers and the number of members. It stretches from the River Tweed to The Wash and from Hull to the borders of Lancashire. The branch has about 5000 members. The major event for 2009 was our second annual conference, held at Sheffield in June. The conference took place over two days and highlighted psychology in the region. As it was a relatively new undertaking, it was a learning experience for us and perhaps more work than we had anticipated. So, again, could I extend my thanks to those committee members who took on the main roles of organising the conference? The conference focused on psychological research and innovations that were taking place in the region. We had three distinguished keynote speakers: Dr Helen Gavin from the University of Huddersfield, who gave a stimulating talk on the psychology of sexual deviance; Dr Penny Dick from the University of Sheffield, who spoke on professional part-time work, inequality regimes and strategies of resistance; and Professor Nigel Beail from the University of Sheffield, who spoke on individual psychotherapy with people who have intellectual disabilities. The conference also featured a number of papers by other local applied and academic psychologists as well as several workshops and posters. The conference was well attended, particularly by students at local sixth form colleges, who gave positive feedback, so we hope we have encouraged them to follow a career in psychology. We held our Annual General Meeting at the conference on 26 June. This was also well attended. In spite of the difficulties in putting on the conference we feel that it was a great success and that we have learned from the experience. We are currently in the process of planning next year’s conference and AGM, this time in the north of the region at Radisson Hotel, Durham, on 22 October 2010. The conference will focus on the psychological work that is being done in the region in the areas of sexual behaviour and on food and appetite. Lynda Boothroyd, who gave a very interesting paper at this year’s conference, has agreed to be one of our keynote speaks.
Branch officers The office bearers for 2009-10 elected or co-opted were: Chair: Dr Simon Whitaker Vice Chair: Dr Shripati Upadhyaya Chair Elect: Dr Roxane Gervais Secretary: Dr Jonathan Mitchell Treasurer: Ian Conyers Ordinary Members Keith Schofield (PSYPAG Representative) Dr Gemma Traviss Carmen Laird Chloe Randal Shaista Meer Ann Whaley Anne Shepherd A N N U A L R E V I E W 2009
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