By Mike Wilson, AAEA President
If you read the Byline story about our April board meeting, you know AAEA is moving ahead with some exciting changes. One change we’re considering is in the constitution, so it will be up for a vote by the membership at our July meeting. I wanted to let you know about this so you can think about it, discuss and ask questions.
The board is taking a hard look at how the current constitution might limit leadership potential for AAEA’s future, especially as we restructure the organization to become more inclusive within the agricultural communications profession.
Our constitution currently only allows active (click here for a definition of active and affiliate members) members to participate in the AAEA Executive, or Governing Committee (President, Vice President and Past President). The board voted to begin exploring the viability of allowing affiliate members to fill one of the three positions on the executive committee.
The makeup of remaining directors at large (8) – six actives, two affiliates – would not change.
Why the change? First, look around our industry. There are fewer and fewer working journalists, the folks who fall under the active member category. And, truth be told, many actives are reaching the later stages of their career and may have already served in an AAEA leadership role.
At the same time, there are more and more members who have jobs related to agricultural communications – bloggers, creative directors, designers, e-content editors, social media specialists, and communications directors – who may fall into the affiliate member category. These are very talented people, some with excellent leadership potential.
Given that careers in communications typically change over time (previous actives might now be considered affiliates and vice versa) and seeing the great wealth of talent among our affiliate membership, this constitutional change makes sense for the future of our organization.
That’s why the board agreed, in principle, to begin exploring potential constitutional modifications that would allow this change in how we operate. I also asked Pam Caraway, our affiliate advisory committee chair, to survey her members for their opinion.
“The Affiliate Advisory Committee supports the proposal to allow an affiliate member, if elected, to serve on the governing committee for the board,” Pam told me. “Our group sees the proposed change to the constitution as a natural progression. As we’ve seen our membership change – and as we’ve watched many members move from one side of the aisle to the other – the distinction between actives and affiliates has blurred. The key, regardless of one’s career, is that people elected to these roles keep the best interests of our organization at the forefront when making decisions as representatives of our membership.”
Well put, Pam.
The goal right now is to get this idea before the membership for voting in the July business meeting. The proposed changes can be found here. Your opinion is important, so please let me ([email protected]) know what you think. And thanks for your support of AAEA!