The proposal to amend the constitution to allow any NASW member to serve as an officer did not pass. But public discussions about the proposal and the findings of the ad hoc committee that studied such an amendment’s potential implications revealed that NASW has work to do to better understand our membership, the needs of different constituencies within the organization, what NASW can and should do to better meet those needs, and the implications of changing times for NASW's core identity. NASW's leadership is committed to addressing these challenges and to finding solutions that will reflect the needs of the membership.
Towards that end, the NASW Board is setting up a new ad hoc advisory committee to look at those issues and propose paths forward. We sought equal representation from four communities within NASW: PIOs, staff journalists, freelancers, and people who fall into the large "other" category that the previous ad hoc committee's report identified. The members of the new ad hoc committee are:
- Merry Buckley
- Siri Carpenter (co-chair)
- Jenny Cutraro
- Tim De Chant
- Bryn Nelson
- Jill Sakai (co-chair)
- Emily WIllingham
- Alex Witze
We anticipate that the committee will spend at least several months doing its work. We welcome input from NASW members at any time during this process. If you would like to communicate with the committee, please email adhoc2017@nasw.org.
In addition, the Board is establishing a new permanent committee, the Governance Committee. This committee will examine and advise on our constitution and bylaws. The committee will be headed by Alex Witze, Jill Adams and Nsikan Akpan. We will send out more information about it soon and put out a call for volunteers.
Thank you for being part of NASW. Together we can build a stronger organization and community.
— Jill Sakai and Siri Carpenter
