Check out the 2009 Board and Membership Meeting Photo Gallery

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"The single most important and valuable thing we do is exchanges,” Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale (at right) told Alliance members at the 2009 Alliance Membership Dinner last Wednesday evening. This event capped the first day of the 2009 Alliance Board and Membership Meeting, held in Washington, DC, October 21- 22, with a record attendance of 110 representatives from Alliance member organizations.

In addition to McHale’s address, highlights of the meeting included remarks from Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO), a former exchange student who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee; the presentation of the Alliance Award to Sharon Waxman, a member of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy’s staff and an instrumental supporter of exchanges; the launch of the new Alliance website; election of new officers and board members; and significant modifications to the Alliance by-laws to allow the organization to better meet the challenges of the future.

These changes to the Alliance by-laws and governance, literally the meeting’s first order of business, set a tone that permeated the entire two-day event: building on the Alliance’s past success to position the organization for the future. Another significant change, this one technological, was also unveiled during the meeting: the Alliance’s newly redesigned website. With its contemporary design and expanded features, the new website aims to better serve Alliance members while reaching out to a broader and more diverse audience.

By-laws and governance changes

Since its founding in 1992, the Alliance has been governed by a “board of the whole”—each member organization has had one seat on the board of directors. This governance structure worked well in the Alliance’s early days when its membership was smaller. As the organization has grown, a board of the whole has proved to be unwieldy. Thus, as its last act of governance, the Alliance board of the whole voted that the by-laws be amended to empower a 15-member Board of Directors, elected by the full membership, to govern the Alliance. In this act, the Alliance membership acknowledged the need for an expanding organization to have a focused and flexible leadership group at its helm. Norm Peterson, the Alliance’s founding Executive Director, offered the motion to approve the by-laws change. Now serving as Vice Provost for International Education at Montana State University and representing the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) at the meeting, Peterson noted his pride in the Alliance’s accomplishments and encouraged the membership to endorse an updated governance structure.

The Alliance membership elected Christine Schulze, Executive Director of Concordia Language Villages, to serve as Chair of the Board. Christine, who has served two years as Vice Chair, replaces Elizabeth Chazottes of the Association for International Practical Training (AIPT), whose very distinguished four-year service as Chair was recognized at the meeting.

Lynn Shotwell, Executive Director of the American Council on International Personnel (ACIP), takes over as Vice Chair. Steve Trooboff, President and CEO of the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), was re-elected as Treasurer.

New Board members include: Robert Coonrod, Chief Operating Officer of Meridian International Center; Ed Gragert, Executive Director of i-EARN; Christine La Monica-Lunn, Executive Director of InterExchange; Jane Anderson, Executive Director of the Fulbright Association; and Sandy Mitchell, Executive Director of YMCA International.

Outgoing Executive Committee members are: William Gertz, President and CEO, American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS); Mary Kirk, Vice President, Institute of International Education (IIE); Rob Fenstermacher, Executive Director, CDS International; and Joyce Warner, Vice President, International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX).

Following these final acts of governance, the Alliance membership used the rest of the meeting to work on policy issues. The members broke into four task forces (State Department Appropriations, High School Exchange, Au Pair, and Work-based Exchanges) to discuss in depth the Alliance’s goals for 2010 with regard to these specific program areas. While the Alliance has always maintained member task forces, the new task forces will be more member-driven, deepening member engagement in the Alliance agenda and increasing our advocacy capacity.

Engaging policy issues

Following the task force meetings, Alliance members gathered for dinner to hear Under Secretary McHale, who continued the theme of praising past accomplishments while setting an eye on future goals. Following her praise for Alliance members’ “extraordinary work on behalf of all the exchange participants,” McHale noted she was not content with the status quo: she said that even though the Obama Administration was off to a “fast start” with regard to public diplomacy, she is looking to “continue to use our exchange programs as powerful, peaceful, and wide-ranging levers to support our long-term foreign policy goals” and to “scale up” many of the exchange programs on which Alliance members work. [Read McHale’s full remarks.]

Remarks by Under Secretary McHale, award presented to Sharon Waxman

In addition to McHale’s remarks, the Membership Dinner featured the presentation of the Alliance Award to Sharon Waxman (at right, with Alliance Executive Director Michael McCarry), a former staff member for Sen. Edward Kennedy who played a crucial role in the creation of the Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program in 2002. Alliance Executive Director Michael McCarry relayed the story of the unprecedented speed at which YES was created. He attributed this to two factors: having a “master legislator” in Sen. Kennedy leading the way, and having a “fabulous staff member” in Waxman working closely with the Alliance to make it all happen. Waxman reminisced that though she has moved on to the Department of State following Sen. Kennedy’s passing, her work with him on the creation of YES and the promotion of exchanges remain some of her most enduring memories of the Senate.

Remarks by Rep. Carnahan

The Alliance membership reconvened on the morning of October 22 to hear reports from the various task forces that met the day before on their proposed strategic goals for 2010. Members also welcomed representatives from the Departments of State and Homeland Security for an in-depth discussion of the development and implementation of SEVIS II. [Detailed summaries of all task force meetings and the SEVIS II discussion will be distributed shortly.]

The 2009 Membership and Board Meeting was capped with a luncheon address from Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO) (at right), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Vice Chair of the Congressional German Study Group, and a supporter of international exchange since his days as a college exchange student in London (a program organized by an Alliance member, the American Institute for Foreign Study, or AIFS).

Carnahan reiterated both his professional and personal support for exchanges. He talked of how he had recently met with American participants of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program in Berlin and was thoroughly impressed with their global knowledge and competency. He also relayed how his son, Austin, has worked for several summers as a camp counselor in Missouri and has interacted with many international camp counselors who have come to the United States as Exchange Visitor Program participants. “I know this has encouraged his interest in studying abroad,” Carnahan said.

Carnahan concluded his remarks by noting that exchanges are “smart” for the United States and that he wishes to ensure that “we build on what we know works—exchanges.”