It has been a busy summer at NACEP, with lots of changes and shifts underway for the coming year. If you have been monitoring your email you have seen a lot of communications from us covering by-law changes, commission appointments, and elections. It is a lot to keep track of so we wanted to pull together some information to keep you abreast of all the exciting new facets to this vibrant organization.
By-laws, Appointments, Elections. Oh, my!
On June 14, 2019, NACEP’s voting membership adopted new amended organizational by-laws. This was accomplished through a vote of the of members from accredited programs which was conducted the first two weeks in June. The voting membership overwhelmingly approved the by-law revisions and ushered in a new era for the organization. The updated by-laws contained several complex and yet important changes for the way NACEP includes the voice and contributions from all our members. There were three big, interrelated areas of change which can be bit confusing at first look. Given it has been a busy summer for all, we wanted to provide this resource to get everyone up to speed about the changes in the works to help everyone understand how these changes impact the NACEP we all know and love.
Big Change 1: A Reorganization of NACEP’s Board of Directors and Who Can Serve
The previous by-laws restricted serving on NACEP’s Board of Directors to members from accredited programs only (with the exception of the Chair of the Secondary School Partners Committee). The by-law updates reconfigured the structure and opened new opportunities to serve on the Board and Commissions to members from secondary, non-accredited programs, and state agency/system offices. Table 1 compares the historic and new Board structure.
Table 1: A comparison of the historic and new composition of NACEP's Board of Directors. Red text: Denotes a position open to a member from a non-accredited or accredited program, institution, or organization.
The reconfigured Board structure eliminates the position of Past President and shifts/combines committee chair positions into the three new commissions (described further below). A second Two-Year Public Representative was added to the Board, recognizing that the majority of concurrent enrollment in the nation is administered by two-year institutions. The formalization of a Secondary Representative and the addition of a State Agency/System Representative round out the changes to the voting members of the Board. Lastly, NACEP’s Executive Director was added as a non-voting Board Member.
It is important to note that the Board positions in red on Table 1 are open to members of any type regardless of whether they represent programs, institutions, or organizations that are accredited or not, so long as they are a member in good standing. This change is an important and intentional inclusion of a more diverse membership voice, one that is reflective of NACEP’s member type composition (Table 2).
Table 2: NACEP membership composition by member type as of March 2019.
Big Change 2: Supporting NACEP and the Field Through the New Commissions
Another area of major change is the transition from standing Committees to Commissions. The revised by-laws create three new Commissions to cover areas critical to supporting the field: Advocacy, Engagement, and Research. The three new Commissions consist of nine members and are structured to intentionally draw from a diverse cross-section of NACEP’s membership. Each commission has four appointed and five elected members. The four appointed members of each commission are the chair (who also sits on the Board), vice chair, secondary member, and state agency/system office. The five elected members represent one member each from each of the five new NACEP geographic regions (Figure 1).
Figure 1: NACEP's new geographic regions for Commission service.
NACEP’s new commission structure provides for the election of representatives to each of the three new Commissions (Advocacy, Engagement, and Research) from each of the five geographic regions. These positions are open to any member type: accredited program or non-accredited program, secondary, postsecondary, state agency/system office, or partner organization. We opened nominations for elected and appointed positions over the summer and got a strong response. Look for ballots for geographic region elections in your inbox late August.
The Commissions serve an important role in the organization by supporting NACEP’s work by engaging expertise from the field for these volunteer leadership positions. A general summary of the role of each Commission is included below.
The Advocacy Commission’s main function is to:
- Facilitate NACEP interaction with federal and state governments and departments of education.
- Develop & maintain a positive image for dual and concurrent enrollment programs.
- Strengthen communication with policy-making governmental agencies.
The Engagement Commission’s main function is to:
- Recruit new members in support of the organization’s goals.
- Provide professional development and support to all members.
- Serve as a conduit in collecting and sharing the successes and issues of members and other commissions.
The Research Commission’s main function is to:
- To conduct, support and share research on concurrent and dual enrollment.
- To provide tools for programs in conducting program evaluations.
- Curate resources (research, publications, summaries) on dual and concurrent enrollment research, policy, trends and best practices.
Big Change 3: Who Can Vote and for What
The previous by-laws restricted voting in all elections to members from accredited programs. While this is still true for Board positions, the establishment of the new Commissions creates a fresh opportunity for all NACEP members to vote for a representative voice to speak for their region (Table 3). The expansion of opportunities for appointment, and specific inclusion for secondary and state agency voice on each commission is also a new level of member inclusion for NACEP.
Table 3: A summary of who is eligible for, and can vote in, the Board and Commission elections.
Thanks For Reading!
We know this is a lot to keep track of so that we hope this recap has helped you come up to speed and better understand all the exciting changes in store (and why your inbox was so full of NACEP email this summer). If you have questions or need clarification, don’t hesitate to reach out. We are here for our members!