VOTE ‘YES’ FOR NEW AEM LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE!
We need your ‘yes’ vote to ratify the Art Educators of Minnesota Council’s proposed plan to change the AEM’s organizational and leadership structure. After two years of research and discussions, the AEM Council voted unanimous on December 3, 2011 to approve the proposed changes that would improve the AEM’s ability to carry out its mission to “Promote and advocate quality art education for all learners by providing professional growth opportunities for Minnesota Visual and Media Arts Educators to learn, collaborate, advocate, and acknowledge excellence in the profession.”
Please take some time to review the proposed Constitution and By-Laws online and cast your vote. You can do both online by following the links below.
Voting is NOW OPEN and will CLOSE February 29, 2012.
What is the vote about?
A “yes” vote means that you approve of the new member-centered structure of an 8-member council of six Committee Chairs, President-elect, and President.
A “no” vote means that you DO NOT approve of the new structure and prefer to retain the current council-centered structure of 36 member representative council including President-elect, President, and Past president.
What is the current leadership structure?
AEM’s current structure is composed of an all-volunteer council system of 5 executive board members (including Secretary, Treasurer, and President), 12 Minnesota state regional representatives, 10 division representatives (such as Elementary, Secondary, and Museum Education), and 9 program representatives or directors (such as Membership, Youth Art Month Chair, and Newsletter Editor). Under the current structure, a person interested in the position of president must consider a six-year commitment (three two-year positions) on the Executive Board as President-elect, President, and Past-president.
Due to the specific job descriptions and expectations, many of the representatives find it difficult to carry out their jobs creating a feeling of job dissatisfaction or failure. Commonly the positions are held for a short period of time or not filled at all. For many of the council members who are unable to carry out the expectations of their positions helping with the Fall Conference and other AEM sponsored activities (even though it is not the main purpose of their job on the council) provide some satisfaction of making a difference for the organization.
As in many organizations, the President, President-Elect, Past-President, Membership/Registrar Chair, Newsletter Editor, and Treasurer provide most of the energy and volunteer time to run the organization. For the President-elect and President most of their time is disproportionally devoted to making sure conferences run smoothly and completing task on other committees that are not being met or completed.
How was the new structure developed and approved by the Council?
Several of the veterans of the AEM Council recognized the problems within the present structure, researched the functions of other non-profits organizations that successfully restructured in a similar manner, and presented position papers on their ideas. After several brainstorming sessions and council discussions over the past two years, the AEM Council last spring voted to give the task of drafting the proposed Constitution, By-Laws, and Policies for a new organization and leadership structure to four council members. During a three-day summer writing retreat, three members drafted the documents and a fourth person who was not part of the original writing team edited the documents. That process was followed by feedback sessions with the rest of the Council members and additional rewriting and editing sessions by another team of council members. On December 3rd, the council members reviewed and discussed all of the documents page by page, made additional wording changes, and ultimately approved to recommend the new structure for membership ratification by unanimously voting to approve the proposed Constitution, By-Laws, and Policies.
What is the newly proposed structure?
The new structure reorganizes the activities of the organization into six committees, based on tasks rather than on individual positions, locations, divisions, and programs. The Executive Board would be made up of six chairs (persons) representing each of the six committees along with a President-elect and President. Instead of being appointed or elected to a representative position, any AEM member can volunteer or be appointed to help on any committee or committees. More importantly, there would be no time commitment or job description that would be expected from the participating committee member. The member’s participation would be as unlimited or as limited as he or she wishes in helping the committee achieve its tasks. The chair of each committee, however, would be expected to hold their position for at least two years. Those people currently holding a representative position can retain the title within the assigned committee as long as they can carry out the job description of their position. Each committee would determine which representative positions would be retained or eliminated.
Information, updates, and proposals would flow between the committees when the committee Chairs meet as an Executive Board. A President and President-Elect would serve to facilitate communication and oversee committee functions. More importantly planning the fall conference would not be the job description or responsibility of the President-Elect unless the person so chooses to lead that activity in the specific committee of Professional Development.
Why are we recommending the new structure?
The new structure opens AEM’s leadership to the entire membership, allowing members to serve at any capacity or time periods. Those AEM members who may not have wanted to hold a representative position under the current structure because of the job expectations and time commitment, may be very interested in participating in a specific task in an area in which they are interested. They can work for one or more committees for any length or time, leave for a period of time, and return to help the same committee or other committees. A member could work closely with the Chair on managing many tasks or perhaps accomplish small tasks once a year!
With our new forms of communication to assist us, committee “meetings” may be held in many ways other than person to person depending on the needs of the committee. Members can participate in contributing ideas and providing input into solutions through emails, chat rooms, online chats, and video conversations. Some tasks could be accomplished in their own homes while other tasks may need their physical presence. It will be up to each committee to determine how and when the members will meet to accomplish their tasks. With art teachers busier than ever, the work of running the organization would be spread out among more people at whatever commitment level they wish--making AEM a more member-oriented and member-powered organization.
What would be the six new proposed AEM committees?
The six committees would be: Member Services, Communications, Professional Development, Advocacy/Public Relations, Finance, and Council Services. A summary of each committee can be found in the proposed AEM Leadership Chart.
Proposed Constitution & Bylaws
Proposed Policies
VOTE HERE! (voting will close 2/29/12)
The 2012 Fall Conference will be held at the Crowne Plaza Minneapolis West on November 9-10, 2012!
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Art Educators of Minnesota is the only professional organization for educators in visual art and media arts for the state of Minnesota. AEM serves K-12 teachers, museum educators, arts organizations, higher education instructors and students in art education certification programs. AEM is an affiliate of the National Art Education Association. National Art Education Association
