Association News

COVID and APCDA

Officer Approved May 2020

As you may all be aware, most non-profit organizations, including APCDA, have been hit hard by the pandemic because we depend on interactions between people and a willingness to pay for professional advancement. COVID has disrupted both face-to-face events and the sense of financial security. 

According to our Vision  statement:

In 2013, we began offering a conference in a different Asian or Pacific country every year.  Soon after, we added monthly Webinars as a way of staying connected and meeting the needs of our members throughout the year.  Our leadership meets virtually throughout the year to advance our goals and projects.

Financially, APCDA survives on conferences.  Our membership fees are low and our membership is small.  Our webinars bring in some income - a bit less than membership fees.  Over the years, we have also developed other ways of boosting income, such as relationships with local organizations.  Conferences include a major amount of risk.  Conferences are relatively expensive because of the cost of travel, hotel rooms, and meeting facilities, but we have learned ways of reducing costs, such as using university classrooms for our conferences when the university is not using the space.  Low attendance at a conference means we just break even.  Higher than expected attendance means we make money, which can be used to expand APCDA services and put into savings to build APCDA’s financially stability.  In normal years, we have very little control over attendance.  Political changes, perception of risk, or visa issues can reduce attendance.  Of course, in 2020, the pandemic intervened.

Luckily for APCDA, our non-refundable expenses from the canceled conference were not overwhelming and the virtual conference paid for expenses incurred for Awards and Shipping costs.  However, without a face-to-face conference, membership is shrinking, tired volunteers are being asked to continue in their positions, and other sources of income are at risk because the other associations with whom we have relationships are also suffering.  We are happy to be in a stable position financially, but we are seeking ways to expand membership and help members feel more connected to us throughout the year.

One of our long-term goals has been to have a paid Executive Director.  This would increase APCDA’s financial needs.  As such, we have been striving to build our financial stability so that we can offer a fair and secure salary to a paid Executive Director.  The lack of growth in our income this year delays this plan. 

We rely on a large number of volunteers to advance the goals of the association and a few dedicated staff who are paid a small amount to manage ever growing responsibilities.  We currently have a half-time Administrator, an Intern for the position of Executive Director, and a full-time volunteer Executive Director.  We had planned a transition of leadership in July, with our intern becoming our half-time paid Executive Director.  This transition has been postponed due to COVID.  Openings in higher education have disappeared during the pandemic.  We are not in a position to pay for a full-time Executive Director, so our current staffing will continue unchanged until our intern finds a suitable paid position for the other half of her time.  Marilyn Maze will stay in her current position as Executive Director until this situation is resolved.

Contingency Plans for 2021 Conference

May 2020

The best wisdom today is that people who have not had COVID-19 will need to hide from it until there is a vaccine, which will take about 2 years to make and distribute (possibly by January 2022).  Of course, this timeline is an average of best and worst cases, and there is no way to know now what will be happening when our conference is scheduled in May 2021.  There are two primary factors to consider.  Singapore may not yet be open to international visitors.  Although the push to restart the economy is strong, there may be good reason not to want international travelers to visit and/or airlines may not be flying regularly.  A second factor is the number of attendees who are interested in attending.  If people who get COVID-19 develop immunity, then those people may feel comfortable in a face-to-face conference.  However, will that group be large enough by May 2021 to make a conference financially feasible?  If a vaccine is developed more quickly than expected, how many of us will have been vaccinated by May 2021? We certainly do not want people to get sick because of our conference.

We want to hold a face-to-face conference in Singapore.  If we cannot hold it in May 2021, it could be postponed by up to 4 months in 2021.  If 4 months is not enough time for the conditions to change significantly, it could be postponed until May 2022.  We expect that by May of 2022, COVID-19 should no longer be a concern.  In this case, all future conferences would be postponed for a year. 

If we do hold a face-to-face conference, we plan to hold a simultaneous Virtual Conference on May 26-28, 2021.  Live presentations at the face-to-face conference would be streamed to those not able to attend. If the face-to-face conference must be postponed by a year, the Virtual Conference will still be held on May 26-28, 2021, but the presentations would be presented virtually. In either case, we will select topics of general interest that are highly rated by the selection taskforce for the Virtual Conference. People who submit proposals for the 2021 conference should be prepared to let us know if they are willing to give their presentation virtually in 2021, should the face-to-face conference be postponed.

APCDA Career Services Competencies

April 2020

After months of work, the Standards Taskforce is proud to announce the new list of APCDA Career Services Competencies.  This list is valuable for improving your skills and those of your co-workers.  Find out which competencies you have and which could use improvement.

This Competencies List is intended to be used in conjunction with the APCDA Glossary of Career Development Terms.  The definitions of terms will be helpful in understanding these competencies. 

These Competencies reference the APCDA Ethical Guidelines, which are available here: https://AsiaPacificCDA.org/ethical-guidelines

This list will be revised as needed.  Suggestions for additions and revisions should be submitted to Ethics@AsiaPacificCDA.org.

Country/Area Council Summary

April 2020

Most of the country reports dealt with the impact of COVID-19 on the country.  Some talked about postponed or canceled events, and others about the new online schools and coaching services.  New Zealand and Australia met together in January to plan a joint conference, which as now been postponed.  Kazakhstan invited us to the Eurasian Higher Education Leaders Forum, which has been postponed until September/October.  Malaysia has postponed the International Counseling Convention. Macau and South China met to share initiatives, which have now been postponed.  Canada and Australia offer resources for dealing with COVID-19 related issues. Many countries reported that education and business have moved online.

Many of our representatives are trying to anticipate what life will be like when the pandemic is over.  Australia talked about legislation to help people who lost their jobs because of COVID-19.  Canada talked about resources for dealing with COVID-19.  Our USA Representative talked about career-related changes which may become permanent.

Some exciting progress was also reported.  Macau computed a survey to guide Career Education in the future.  Japan has been holding meeting and posting on Facebook to raise the image of APCDA in Japan, which caused several non-members to attend our annual Member Meeting.  New Zealand is eager to work on changes that the Career Development Association of New Zealand has been planning related to their website.

For more details, please see the Country/Area Information pages for those who have reports:

• Australia
• Azerbaijan
•  Canada
• China:
• •  Macau
  • South China
• Japan
• Kazakhstan
• Malaysia
• New Zealand
• Taiwan
• USA