AAACE: Its Legacy and Future Direction:

In a 1982 issue of "Lifelong Learning: The Adult Years," Howard Y. McClusky, the first president (1951-52) of the Adult Education Association, reflected on the early condition of adult education in the United States. He observed that it was "largely an ad hoc scattered, amorphous, and segmented phenomenon. There was no dominant and pervasive ideological theme to give it substantive identity and no networks or institutional structures to guide its implementation and development." This condition laid the groundwork for what ultimately became the definitive role for AAACE and its antecedent organizations -- its role as the "umbrella" organization. Membership would provide the means for agencies, institutions, and individuals to develop a primary identification with the field. The umbrella organization has taken many forms and structures over the years starting with the American Association for Adult Education, founded by the Carnegie Corporation in 1926. Change continued with the merger of the Adult Education Association of the USA and the National Association of Public and Continuing Education into the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education in 1982. Since organizations can be thought of as organisms, as living systems existing in a wider environment that they depend upon for the satisfaction of various needs, we would expect such adaptation. In fact, if organisms don't change with the external "open" systems, they become extinct. AAACE is currently in such a process of adaptation and transformation. Predictive of an organization trying to adapt to a turbulent, rapidly changing environment and in a stage of its life cycle, attention has been placed on general issues of survival, on organization-environment relations and on organizational effectiveness. While examination of such issues can become contentious to some and unsettling to many, these discussions and modification have long been a part of the adult education democratization. Curiously, although the context has changed radically, some of the organizational issues have not. We will highlight four that have been pervasive through the years. The Importance of Volunteers In his 1982 article, Dr. McClusky stressed the role of volunteers by stating, "The loyalty, service, and expertise of dedicated volunteers ... will be equally important for the viability of the new AAACE." "From the beginning, a highly significant portion of AEA's work has been contributed as a voluntary service. This may account for AEA's ambitious program ... despite a modest budget with limited staff," he said. In looking back at our writings as presidents, both of us called for -- and put in place -- mechanisms for widespread enthusiastic volunteer participation. However, such efforts typically fell short of their promise. Like many volunteer professional membership associations, AAACE and other such organizations in recent years have noted a significant change in the pattern of volunteer service to shorter term, highly task-specific assignments that enhance career and individual positions. Further, volunteers often lack the resources or other support mechanisms such as graduate student assistance, travel dollars, mailing budgets, or release time that were, at one time, more available from agencies or base institutions. Given the more specialized and limited role of current volunteers, AAACE, like AEA, has had a very ambitious program of membership services and advocacy despite a modest budget with limited staff. Affiliation with a private association management firm was tested for nearly eight years. Such an arrangement decreased operating costs but led to a feeling of elitist and centralized external control -- interestingly, an indictment noted by McCluskey about AEA in years past. Realistic Goals with Sound Fiscal Controls Due to a global, grand agenda serving a large, diverse, decentralized constituency (many of whom do not have organizational underwriting), organizational finances have been a historical concern for adult education associations. …