Report of the Executive Director
July 2016
Status of Affiliation Discussion
Affiliation agreements have been signed with: AR, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, and WV
Organizational/transitional visits have been made to Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia
An organizational meeting will be held on August 5th in North Carolina. I will attend that meeting to assist in the development of that state affiliate.
Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma and Virginia are in the process of submitting a NAEYC affiliation application and have stated their intent to dually affiliate with SECA
Alabama does not meet affiliation criteria for either SECA or NAEYC. (The 501-c3 of AAYC was revoked in 2011 and I have been unable to determine that any incorporation filing was maintained with the Alabama Secretary of State.) Discussions have been held by conference call with their leadership.
Texas has not decided whether to sign with SECA and held a discussion concerning possible affiliation at its board meeting on June 26th in Dallas, Texas. I was in attendance at the full board meeting on the 26th and attempted to address concerns; however, there was a significant amount of misinformation about what affiliation with SECA would mean in terms of the responsibilities of the TAEYC affiliate. Refer to the questions below that were utilized for a preliminary discussion prior to my appearance at the Board meeting. The locals/chapter representatives were instructed to take the affiliation agreement back to their leadership and I understand that a board vote will be taken on August 1st. Cille and I worked on a benefit comparison piece that was sent to all TAEYC board members.
E-mail Message from Earlene Gonzales, TAEYC Immediate Past President, to TAEYC Board (6-22-16)
Hello, Team!
The types of questions that may come up for discussion on Friday evening are:
- Will we have access to the SECA bylaws and policy manual that are referred to in the agreement? (See 4.1 specifically)
Affiliate Agreement Section 4.1: Affiliate Status, Activities and Purposes. Affiliate represents and warrants that it is in good standing under the laws of the Territory in which it operates and with all IRS requirements for entities that maintain a 501(c)(3) designation. Affiliate shall conduct all of its activities under this Agreement in accordance with the highest legal and ethical standards and shall have as its purposes those set forth in Association’s by-laws, Article II, as follows:
- To work on behalf of young children and their families.
- To provide opportunities for the cooperation of individuals and groups who are concerned with the well-being of young children.
- To further the development of knowledge and understanding of young children and the dissemination of such information.
- To contribute to the professional growth of persons working with and for young children.
- To work to improve the standards for group care and education of children and improve the quality of life for them.
Furthermore, Affiliate shall conduct its activities in accordance with policies and procedures set forth in the Association’s policy manual concerning affiliate organizations.
2.Also, what does “Proportional representation” on the affiliate’s board mean? (See 6.2) Does that mean the Texas AEYC will need to ensure the all Texas AEYC board members are SECA members or does it means that board representation on the TEXAS AEYC board by SECA members is proportional to the percentage of members in TEXAS AEYC who are SECA and NAEYC members? Or, does it mean that there are more SECA reps on the SECA board?
6.2 Board Representation: If Affiliate chooses to dually affiliate, Affiliate will ensure that members from both organizations with which Affiliate has signed an agreement are represented on the Affiliate Board of Directors. Affiliates may choose the method by which they ensure proportional representation on the Affiliate Board of Directors.
3.In the new SECA Affiliate Agreement, Texas AEYC will be required to submit any proposed changes to its bylaws to SECA as listed in #4.2 for review by SECA before sending out to its members? Have we been doing this for NAEYC or SECA in the past?
4.Also, in #4.2, has Texas AEYC been reporting annually to SECA its list of members, educational programs, mailings of publications, use of educational materials, financial systems and other activities and operations within 30 days of the close of each fiscal year? In the new agreement with SECA, Texas AEYC will be assuming additional responsibilities that need to be discussed along with the budget impact of each new task.
Affiliate Agreement Section 4.2: Recordkeeping. Affiliate shall maintain all records related to its corporate and tax-exempt status and shall forward to Association, if it has not yet done so, copies of its Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, and determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service (if not included under Association’s group exemption). Further, any amendments to the Articles of Incorporation or Bylaws to be proposed to Affiliate’s membership shall first be submitted to the Association for review. Affiliate shall maintain records related to its list of members, educational programs, mailings of publications, use of educational materials, financial systems and other activities and operations. Affiliate shall submit, within 30 days of the conclusion of the Affiliate fiscal year, a report to Association with respect to the above.
5.Refer to #4.4 and review the SECA expectations for educational programs under the new SECA affiliate agreement. As a dual-affiliated state we will need to ensure all components of both agreements are met. Are there areas of the educational program section that Texas will need to change to meet the SECA expectations with respect to serving the purposes for SECA as our second association? Remember that when the SECA affiliation agreement is signed, the Texas members of Texas AEYC board (as SECA will allow the name to remain Texas AEYC according to their approved system for future dually affiliated states) are equally responsible for two organizations with two separate agreements.
Affiliate Agreement Section 4.4: Educational Programs. Affiliate shall endeavor to sponsor educational programs which further and serve the purposes of Association set forth above, and shall use its best efforts to ensure that such programs are of the highest quality with respect to program content, materials, and logistical preparation. Affiliate shall send to Association an annual schedule of upcoming meetings, conferences and seminars, as well as other related activities that Affiliate intends to sponsor and Association may, at its sole discretion, send representatives to observe and participate in such functions.
Food for thought before Friday evening………………..We want to go in with our eyes wide open and our minds ready for dialogue around changes that will affect the future operation of Texas AEYC’s board and its office staff.
See you all soon.
Action/Discussion Items for the SECA Board of Directors
1)Consideration and approval of the proposed dual affiliate agreement.
2)Approval of the affiliation policies and procedures
3)Adoption of a minimum number of members which must be maintained to remain a SECA affiliate or to be considered for affiliation
Membership System Development
Development of the technology system is on-going and is anticipated to be ready for review and approval within the next few weeks
The home visitor membership has been added to the website….marketing of that membership will begin in August through state administrators and individual programs
The center membership should be up and running in September, along with the new on-line system…..marketing of that membership will begin in August as well
The dues structure in Tennessee and West Virginia has been modified to reflect the affiliate/SECA membership only and new dues levels
Action/Discussion Items for the SECA Board of Directors
1) The SECA Board must decide if they are willing to allow us to offer an option to “add-on” a SECA membership to an affiliate/NAEYC membership. This would allow someone to join the dual affiliate and then pay SECA the $22 to add that additional membership: no affiliate payment from SECA would be included in this option. Proof of membership in the affiliate would be required. This will be built into the membership system for those states if agreed to by the Board and would resolve the issue of a duplicative affiliate payment for members. Virginia has requested this option.
2)NAEYC has proposed that a SECA membership option be added on their on-line system that would put SECA membership in a “shopping cart” that folks could select when they join. For them, it’s a simple “add on” because the SECA membership is a flat $22. They are proposing that we do the same on our end; however, because they have multiple membership options, it gets more complicated for us.
Publications
Design work has begun on an infant/toddler caregiver series that was developed originally by Dr. Nancy Coghill and edited by Nancy Cheshire. We anticipate launching this first of the e-books inventory in early fall.
Following the launch of the infant/toddler caregiver series, we will begin formatting the Outdoor Classroom contest articles that have appeared in Dimensions into short booklets. We will invite experts to do a forward to the book or perhaps utilize an article that was published in Dimensions.
Dimensions for Home Visitors and Dimensions Extra for Home Visitors is under production and we anticipate having a full year’s worth of this publication available by the end of the year. (We are expecting 250 home visitor memberships to come our way in the next month, so we need to be ready for distribution.)
A contract has been executed with Suzanne Gellens of Florida to write 13 of the monthly member e-mails. These will be interspersed with submissions from other sources.
A contract is pending with Susan Carrigan of Oklahoma to produce 6 issues of The Leadership Letterfor 2016 and 2017. Three topics have already been identified by the Leadership Commission.
A contract extension for Mari Cortez, Dimensions Editor, will be executed for November 1, 2016-October 31, 2017.
The Dimensions manuscript tracking and review process that is maintained by the SECA office has been re-assigned from Maurena Farr to Claire Cade. The system utilizes an on-line board/posting tool and Claire will communicate with Mari as the process moves forward on each manuscript.
The SECA Reporter Blog is being reformatted to include an initial posting one month and then an “invited” response by an expert the next month. The blog post will be available for comment for two months. We are utilizing conference presenters who have demonstrated expertise on the topic and inviting them to create a post.
We are awaiting edits/revisions/updateson two publications: Behavior Guidance for Infants & Toddlers and The Portfolio and Its Use. The Behavior Guidance book will become a series of short booklets that can be utilized to train staff. Portfolio continues to be utilized as a college text, so it will remain intact as a book; however, because we are now selling it in the e-book format, the cost for the student has been cut in half (or more, depending upon the college bookstore mark-up). This process was begun in 2015.
I am assuming that work has stopped on several other publications that were sent to Susan Barnes and her colleagues. It is my understanding that the Editorial Committee did not feel they should be revised or updated.
Action/Discussion Items for the SECA Board of Directors
1) Are there recommendations on how to enhance and increase revenue from sale of publications? Themed compilations of Dimensions articles…other ideas?
Conference
Keynoters for the 2017 conference have been secured: Dr. Susan Neuman, Dr. Tammy Pawloski and Carol McCloud & Red Grammer
Dr. Charles Fluharty of the Rural Policy Research Institutehas agreed to provide the public policy luncheon presentation.
A contract is pending with the Pyramid Model Consortium for presentations at the Director Seminar and Trainer Institute. The focus of the training will be on Practice Based Coaching
An agenda and speakers for the research symposium that will be held on Wednesday, March 8th, is completed.
Proposals have been forwarded to the 3 reviewers that Carol Montealegre selected. They have been given a deadline of August 19th to submit their recommendations.
Preliminary marketing has begun, including ads in Dimensions and website postings. All information will be completed by the middle of August and posted on the website.
I am working with Kathy Young to integrate the faith based track into the conference.
Action/Discussion Items for the SECA Board of Directors
1) The Board must give recommendations on potential sites for 2018. We do not have a contract in place at this time. Proposals should be solicited and site visits made during the next few months.
2)An agenda and theme for the 2017 Leadership Summit must be completed at this meeting. If a speaker or trainer will be compensated, a budget discussion should occur.
3)If MsECA wishes to do a special event, a confirmation on the event must be provided no later than August 15th.
4)Any other content that the board wishes to incorporate into 2017?