Revising the AAAE Membership Criteria

The Association of Arts Administration Educators membership criteria, contained in our bylaws, were written before the association began accepting undergraduate programs and before the association had significant international membership. Since a clear, consistent, and comprehensive definition of our membership is such a foundation of our current and future success, the AAAE board has been working to revise the definition over the past several years.

Through member discussion sessions at past conferences, board planning and strategic assessment, and individual conversations with current members, the board has drafted and unanimously approved the following new language for our bylaws. The new language will be submitted for positive vote by full members present during our upcoming annual conference in Washington, DC.

PROPOSED BYLAWS / MEMBERSHIP
ARTICLE II: Membership
There shall be three classes of members of this corporation: full, associate, and individual. Each full member program may cast one vote in Association decisions, and its director or designated associate may be elected to serve on the board. Any member may serve on committees.

Programs eligible for full membership:

• confer a graduate or undergraduate degree in arts administration or a related discipline, or confer a comparable academic credential determined acceptable by the board;
• have a designated director, with curricular oversight authority;
• have a published curriculum, approved by the program's host department or college;
• have currently enrolled students in the year of their application for membership.

Associate members will include organizations or programs that do not meet the criteria for full membership.

A side-by-side comparison of the existing and proposed language defining membership is attached to this post. A brief summary of the changes follows. Please feel free to post comments to this post with your questions or concerns about these changes. You can also contact President Andrew Taylor or Administrative Director Barb Harkins directly.

• From four member types to three: The existing bylaws include all of the member levels above, plus a 'student' membership. Since students are just a special type of individual membership (and the board can create classes within each member level), the new language combines individual and student memberships into a single category.
• ''confer a graduate or undergraduate degree in arts administration or a related discipline, or confer a comparable academic credential determined acceptable by the board;'' -- our current membership criteria make no mention of the TYPE of degree program or credential that constitutes a member program. Also, ''degree'' is not used consistently around the world, even among programs that are consistently designed and delivered.
• ''have a designated director, with curricular oversight authority;'' This language is identical to the current membership criteria.
• ''have a published curriculum, approved by the program's host department or college;'' The current criteria only requires that a curriculum be published. And in the digital age, ''publishing'' anything only takes the click of a mouse button. This language confirms what has long been an informal criteria of member review: the official approval of the curriculum by the host institution (through whatever process they follow to do so).
•  ''have currently enrolled students in the year of their application for membership.'' Current criteria require three consecutive years of graduates for full membership consideration. For graduate programs (the original focus of AAAE), this meant four to five years of operation. For undergraduate programs, this means at least seven years of operation. Further, this extensive graduate requirement does not recognize the long and rigorous process any degree program must go through in its own institution to gain approval. This new language seeks to level the playing field, and welcome more new full members to the conversation.

The new language also requires modification to the review and acceptance policies, which will also be subject to member vote in June. Details of these minor changes are included in the attached document.

We look forward to your input and ideas!