The MI-ATSA board continues to work hard in a variety of areas. If you are reading this, you must have found the new, revised and updated MI-ATSA website, which is now fully functional. Feel free to look around the site where you will find information on board activities, the upcoming conference, and information/links to significant issues in our field.
On the website you can update your membership, and the board would encourage you to do so. Membership benefits include access to referral opportunities a forum for having your voice heard within state policy decisions, and discounts to the MI-ATSA conferences.
Speaking of conferences, be sure to save the date for October 18, 2019. MI-ATSA will be bringing Geraldine Crisci to present on normative sexual behaviors.
The board is also preparing for input into issues related to the recent federal court direction for the Michigan Legislature to correct constitutional issues in the sex offender registry. This is an exciting time for us to help the state create a registry process that is more evidence- and risk-based. Our position is that the state should make these kinds of decisions based on what we know about individual offenders, and in a way that creates more public safety, not less. We will be posting more on this in the near future.
As always, your questions and input into these issues are warmly welcomed and encouraged.
David J. Berghuis President, MI-ATSA