AACTE Forges New Relationship with State Chapters
Last year, the AACTE Board of Directors created a State Chapter Taskforce to study the relationship between the national office and its state affiliates. After a year-long, wide-ranging set of discussions with state leaders to determine how the relationship between AACTE and state associations could be strengthened, the State Chapter Taskforce released its recommendations.
Over the summer, the Taskforce delivered the recommendations related to communication, advocacy, and governance that were endorsed by the AACTE Board of Directors. One of the recommendations was to implement new state association agreements that affirm the benefits of collaboration between AACTE and state associations; provide maximum flexibility and autonomy for state associations; protect the interests of AACTE and its members; and update and standardize agreements across all states.
The new agreement was vetted by the ACSR Executive Committee, state association leaders, the AACTE Executive Committee and Board of Directors. After all suggested revisions were made, the agreement was approved by the AACTE Board of Directors in June 2021. The agreement contains many key changes in the AACTE/State Affiliate relationship including the policy that state associations publish a statement on their websites affirming that their relationship to AACTE is a voluntary, mutually beneficial affiliation between independent organizations. Similar language must be added to each state’s bylaws, as well as AACTE’s.
Based on the above declarations, and the extant minimal financial ties between AACTE and state associations, the new agreement will eliminate an array of sometimes cumbersome requirements of state association (e.g., incorporation, minimum percentage of state association members that are also AACTE members, AACTE approval of state bylaw changes). The new agreement also asks that each state association commit to participating in ACSR, and affirms AACTE’s support for state associations and ACSR.
This month, the State Chapter Taskforce Recommendations and the new association agreement were shared with chapter presidents with the goal of all state associations completing the steps of transition by the 2022 AACTE Annual Meeting in March.
Tags: state affiliate
