President's Message

Jacque Sell

I would like to begin with acknowledging the traumatic experiences of the wildfires that have impacted so many communities, programs, families, businesses, towns and the lives of our members in countless ways.  We know it takes time to process the experience, take inventory and recover. Please know that as your family child care home, child care program, preschool, families and communities are recovering, we will be ready to help wherever we can…we will wait to hear from you when you are ready. As you have questions or need resources please reach out to info@caeyc.org and we will coordinate outreach to help as possible.

As I’ve been talking with members in the past few months, I regularly answer one question: Why did the name change? As part of a structure change with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), affiliates made a name change to clarify who the groups are. As CAEYC, it wasn’t always clear to other states who we are and doing a search for CAEYC could bring forward results for Connecticut AEYC, Colorado AEYC and other local affiliates. All affiliates now have a unique two letter identifier in their name, the two-letter state abbreviation. We have already seen great benefits from this change—more people are able to find us easily. On September 15, the transition to the new NAEYC structure was implemented. We started 2017 with 29 local affiliates and one state affiliate in California. Throughout the course of the year, we have transitioned to one state affiliate supporting 18 local chapters. This is a great opportunity for members and our local chapter leaders to focus on providing service to the local member, rather than focusing on administrative tasks.

The new structure also includes membership changes. NAEYC strategically spent time doing a great deal of research to design membership levels with a strong balance of benefits for an affordable price point. Now you can select the membership category that best meets your needs—professionally and financially. Look for more information about the new membership categories on the NAEYC website and watch for member benefits from CAAEYC and local chapters. NAEYC now also has a Family Membership and CAAEYC will be announcing our programs, services, member benefits for family members.