During the Annual Business Meeting at ACHE Philadelphia, the ACHE membership will cast their vote on a slate of proposed changes to the ACHE Constitution and Bylaws. Most notable amongst the proposed changes are some substantive changes to ACHE's membership categories.
Please visit the following links to see our current Constitution and Bylaws and the text of the changes you will be voting on in November.
Current Constitution and Bylaws
Complete text of the proposed changes
Current membership categories
Proposed membership categories
ACHE is a member-driven organization; your input is critical to the success of this process, so please comment below!
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Hey Rick, I'm all for "inclusion" but it would appear that the primary consideration for voting membership under the proposed changes will now be limited to "live persons of the world". I have no problem with the institutional member change. But a change that (as you indicate)"would allow an organizational member who does not work at a college or universit to become President of ACHE", seems to go a bit far. Isn't our name Association of Continuing Higher Education? Isn't our organization for the direct laborers of our field? I'm sorry, but I don't want some other association representative or a vender as the president of ACHE. As far as professional members being able to run for leadership offices, if there is enough local support from the home institution for a professional member, it's a simple task to make that individual member the institutional member. Executive positions in national organizations are a positive for the home institution as wel as the individual, and some obvious selectivity is good and will show positive that it is to the home university. I think the Student Membership is a good thing, however voting rights is not appropriate. I believe that a voting membe should have made a commitment to the field and be working in the field, not just checking it out. Finally, the retired member is fine, but would certainly have more credibility for voting than a student. I wonder if the committee is putting the emphasis on membership fees and openness to all over an association of dedicated professional educators with a like mission and involvement in higher education. I'm a bit concerned about the emphasis on quantity over quality that this seemingly presents. But I just may be too old to understand.
ReplyDeleteDon, thanks for your comments. They are thoughtful and insightful as always. Believe me, you are not alone in your concerns, and I appreciate that you care enough about ACHE to share them.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that the changes would allow someone who does not work for a college or university to become ACHE President. However, I believe we have the appropriate checks and balances in place to ensure that only an exceptional individual would emerge from the process. The individual would have to be recommended by the Nominations Committee. He/she would then have to receive more votes from the membership than the other candidates. I think this is unlikely to occur. However, why close the door to ACHE leadership?
The recommendation to allow student members to vote came from the Regional Chairs and the Chair of the Committee on Inclusiveness, I as recall. This was during the vetting process. Ultimately, we felt that it was better to err on the side of expanding voting privileges than on the other.
I don't expect these changes to significantly change our membership numbers, but I do hope to see more international colleges and universities join since they will then have all the privileges of institutional membership. I don't think anyone would quarrel with that change. And frankly, the student membership was not without controvery: it's possible that current members who are in graduate school will opt to join next year at the lower student rate. ACHE would lose money if that happens. However, the student membership category was a recurring recommendation from the Committee on Inclusiveness, and we felt it was the right thing to do. And the timing seemed right.
I hope one result is a growing number of new, young, productive student professionals in the organization. I hope another is that we can keep retired members active and vital in ACHE. And, of course, I hope these changes improve our organization.