ASCD is making progress on several fronts in its drive to become a more fully international organization, says Susan Nicklas, ASCD's director of Field Services. Nicklas co-chairs a team of ASCD staff members who are working to realize a major goal of the Association's strategic plan: "By the year 2001, ASCD will work together with educators and educational organizations worldwide to promote quality education through structures that address both national and international issues."
ASCD has had members from outside the United States for many years. Today, ASCD has nearly 7,600 members in 110 other countries around the world—about 4 percent of the total membership. The Association also has 13 affiliates in other countries, including four in Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, the Northwest Territories, and Ontario), three in the Caribbean region (Trinidad and Tobago, Curacao, and St. Maarten), two in the Pacific Basin (Japan and Singapore), and four in Europe (the Netherlands/Flanders, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain). Of these affiliates, only three include significant numbers of Americans living abroad, Nicklas notes. In fact, 10 of them are composed entirely of natives of those countries.
The Internationalization Team is exploring how to put in place the structures and systems that ASCD needs to serve an international audience, Nicklas says. "We want to change the organization structurally—not just individual events and activities," she says.
The team has undertaken a "structure study" to learn how other international organizations address basic issues such as governance, quality control, internal structure, membership categories, strategic planning, and providing products, programs, and services worldwide. Through conversations with organizations such as Kiwanis International and Rotary International, the team has identified four potential models for restructuring ASCD. After conducting "a pro-and-con analysis" of each model, the team will present its findings to ASCD's Executive Council in March 1995.
In addition, ASCD is exploring the possibility of translating its products into other languages and distributing them more widely. ASCD has already translated its "fact sheet" about the Association into Spanish. (The translation is being reviewed for quality by affiliates in Puerto Rico, Spain, and New Mexico.) The Association is also undertaking a two-year pilot project to translate five to ten ASCD books into Spanish. Another pilot project will "test the waters" in disseminating ASCD products through an overseas distribution system. In the past, ASCD has received requests to distribute its products from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Spain.
In keeping with ASCD's international scope, the Association's Executive Council meets once a year in a location outside the United States. Last month the Council convened in Alberta, where they met with Canadian educators, visited the University of Calgary, and toured local schools.
For more information about ASCD's international initiatives, contact Susan Nicklas, Director of Field Services, ASCD, 1250 N. Pitt St., Alexandria, VA 22314; (703) 549-9110, ext. 500.