About ACPA

ACPA and NASPA: Exploring a Common Voice

Unification Information for ACPA Members

FEBRUARY 2010 UPDATE

ACPA and NASPA Subcommittee Information Now Available

In the ongoing discussions and considerations of whether ACPA and NASPA should consolidate and form one new association, and in reviewing what a new professional association might offer, the boards of ACPA and NASPA approved a joint resolution establishing a Consolidation Steering Team and eight primary subcommittees. The subcommittees’ work will be to review current provisions in each association in eight areas, to propose the best of what now exists in both associations, and to envision what more, or what different, might be included to benefit our memberships.

The eight subcommittees include: Governance Bylaws and Structure, Social Identities Groups (currently Knowledge Communities/Standing Committees), Functional Areas (currently KC/Commissions/Divisions), Membership Structure, Conferences/Conventions, Geographical Organization, Placement Services, and Publications/Scholarship. Members representing both ACPA and NASPA have been appointed to each sub-committee and co-chairs have been designated (one co-chair from each association). Each subcommittee was given a specific charge to investigate and make recommendations.

This downloadable document shares general information about the process and the work of the subcommittees. The work will be completed by July 2010. Members are invited to share comments, suggestions, and perceptions with the co-chairs of the sub-committees. While all comments will be read, and may be shared with the entire sub-committee, submissions will not be responded to so as to allow the persons working on the sub-committees time to concentrate on their formative work.

If you have questions about the work of the sub-committees or the process being followed to consider consolidation, please contact the incoming presidents of both associations: Elizabeth Griego for NASPA or Susan Salvador for ACPA.

Background                                                                                                                                      1.  Mike Segawa and Tom Jackson ran in 2008 for the NASPA and ACPA presidencies, respectively, on platforms that promised to take under consideration the possibility of the long-standing issue of bringing the two associations together.                                                                                                                   

2. The executive committees of the two associations met June 4-6 and September 13-15, 2009, to consider how to proceed with discussions, planning, and tasks. Deliberations were open, frank, objective, congenial, and trusting. It was determined that there was mutual interest to proceed.

3. The NASPA Board of Directors and ACPA Governing Board met separately for their regularly scheduled meetings in June 2009 and, as part of their proceedings, reviewed the Midpoint Report of the Task Force on the Future of Student Affairs. As part of this report, it was indicated that the final report would include a recommendation for unification among their other recommendations. After discussion, both boards voted to receive the mid-term report and to “consider favorably” its initial recommendations, commending the report “to the membership for further discussion.”                                                                                               

4. The executive directors were charged with reviewing administrative and service areas of both associations and engaging consultant Dadie Perlov, specializing in advising nonprofit organization in consolidation, and attorney Peter Wolk, currently serving as counsel to both associations.

5. Both associations committed to communication plans to solicit member feedback on a possible unification.

Initial Rationale for Exploring Unification                                                                                     

In the deliberations at their June and September meetings, the executive committees of the two associations agreed on the following advantages to moving forward with the exploration of unification:

1. Use the combined strengths of both associations to enhance professional development program offerings. 

2. Reduce redundancies in administrative and service areas.

3. Eliminate confusion about the difference between the two associations and rebrand as a single association that exists on behalf of all student affairs professionals. 

4. Allow members to join one comprehensive professional association instead of having their loyalties pulled between the two. 

5. Create an association for contemporary student affairs professionals who tend to have different attitudes about their connections and loyalties and who associate for different reasons than some past generations of members.

6. Insure a more robust membership by reducing the competition that currently exists.

7. Increase access to all the brightest minds in student affairs – thereby strengthening scholarship, among other things – who currently choose to affiliate with one or the other association. 

8. Eliminate the real and perceived elements of distrust between the associations. 

9. Transform into an association better equipped to meet the demands of a rapidly changing environment in higher education.

10. Be more nimble and increase our ability to rapidly adapt to change, while maintaining identity and continuity of the core values for which each individual association is known.

11. Better position the comprehensive association for student affairs to compete for private grant funding, federal funds, and corporate sponsorship. 

12. Define an association that provides for formal connections with other associations, including those outside of student affairs, with the potential of a stronger impact on public policy and higher education leadership.

Identification of Issues to be Discussed pre-Unification Vote

While most issues will be planned through convening work groups following a unification vote, some matters are so central to both associations that they deserve discussion in advance and may be included in the wording of the resolution for the unification vote. To this end, the executive committees will establish small work groups and solicit membership input on particular issues such as the following:

1. Governance: What positions should sit on the new association’s governance board? Representation by geography, by constituency group, or others?

2. Organization: Should existing local structures continue or be redrawn?

3. Membership Structure: What categories of membership should exist for the new association?

4. Representation: How should voting privileges be structured in a unified association?

5. Conferences: Should a single annual national conference be retained? Should a unified association plan two major conferences each year (north/south or east/west)? Should there be a series of issues-oriented major conferences? Are there other possible approaches?

6. Leadership Timing: How does leadership transition happen in a unified association, given future officers would already be elected for the coming year before any vote is taken?

7. Publications: Should all current publications continue to be published until further review following potential unification?


What Can You Do?                                                                                                                       

You are vital to this process. It is important that you communicate accurate information about this process and ask that you use the information that is shared with you. Please don't make assumptions or conclusions – rather help people understand that this is a process that will continue to unfold and be appropriately addressed. We are committed to keep you informed. As a leadership team we need to communicate regularly and openly. Our thoughts regarding this process are important.  

Please understand that when we talk about unification we are talking about the creation of a new comprehensive student affairs organization.

 

Feedback & Contact Information                                                                                       

We want to hear what you have to say. Please direct your comments to one of the three e-mails listed below:

ourcommonvoice@gmail.com - (read by both Tom Jackson, Jr. and Mike Segawa)
msegawa@naspa.org - (read by Mike Segawa) 
acpaprez@gmail.com - (read by Tom Jackson, Jr.)


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