Heidi Thumlert |
National Dialogue – The Work Continues
We continue the work with biweekly meetings. At the moment we are feeling a lovely sense of accomplishment as we have completed the rough draft of the Chapter Governing Policies and Operating Procedures. It is now ready for legal review. This document sets the guidelines for a variety of items: Chapter Formation Requirements, Chapter Compliance Checklist and Chapter Agreement.
We continue to work with NAEYC Legal Counsel to produce a webinar that will assist Local Affiliates whose incorporation status resides in Washington DC; and there are several in our state. If you are one, keep watch for when that will be available. In addition, the CAEYC Staff is compiling information to assist you in the following areas; where to find:
- Information to dissolve your corporation (if that is your Local Affiliate Board’s decision);
- Information about your corporation’s status (good standing, forfeited, suspended) and the steps to bring your corporation into compliance if not in good standing
Important reminder, CAEYC cannot do that work for you or offer advice. What we can do is provide links to where you can find information.
We have given great thought to looking at the current Service Areas (presently identified as the Local Affiliates) in our state to confirm areas where members are being served and areas where members are unserved. Presently, members join NAEYC, CAEYC and a Local Affiliate of their choice. The CAEYC statewide governance is based on six regions throughout the state and the CAEYC State Board includes two representatives from each region. CAEYC will be reorganizing into a Chapter system with some Chapters being responsible for smaller areas, which we are calling Satellite Communities (yes we gave up the title of sub chapters). In evaluating the well served and underserved areas as we reshaped the Service Areas, we considered the following factors:
- Actual raw data where our members live (the office staff did an amazing job of putting that together);
- Geographic challenges (we have a few);
- Information that you gave us on how you wanted to move forward (dissolve, chapter); and
- Looking at areas that are under served.
We also wanted to honor long-standing AEYC communities in our state that continue to provide membership opportunities. We firmly believe that one of the most important benefits of being a member is having that sense of community with your peers. The proposed new Service Area map will be revealed at the Affiliate Day Summit on July 10 in Ontario, which will give us an opportunity to have a collaborative conversation. We are really excited about all of this.
In July we have one more opportunity to have constructive conversation with NAEYC about membership dues distribution. We continue to be committed to the idea having a line item in the CAEYC budget called Chapter Development/Support.
We were honored to have President-Elect Jacque Sell represent us at the NAEYC Professional Development Institute in Baltimore. She was asked to be part of a panel of four discussing National Dialogue. It was a wonderful affirmation of the work that all of us have been doing together. Jacque did us proud!
As always you are welcome to be in touch.
Heidi Thumlert
Chair, CAEYC National Dialogue Ad Hoc Committee