The Year in Review.

From all indications, 1998 was a good year for AASA. Fiscally, the association is rock solid. Our carryover funds from the fiscal year were in excess of $1 million. Today the association's fund balance exceeds $3 million. Four years ago it was $250,000 and dropping.

Feedback from the membership says they like the direction the Executive Committee has charted for AASA. They think AASA is a strong, effective advocate for children, public schools and superintendents. Participants at our National Conference on Education and summer meetings overwhelmingly say "well done." Nearly everyone who writes to our publication editors, e-mails our webmaster or stops by to chat after my speeches says he or she is impressed with AASA and the work it does on behalf of school administrators.

Our new technology initiative is collecting positive reviews, as is our new school board publication, Governance & Leadership, our revamped Leadership News, our award-winning magazine The School Administrator, and our constantly expanding AASA Web site. And those who know the political arena marvel at the clout an association of our size commands in the nation's capital.

The Discover Card program, Superintendent of the Year program and our various grants programs continue to add value to our members while also contributing to the association's bottom line. In addition, our work with corporate sponsors continues to pay dividends, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of support for AASA activities and events.

That's not to say we couldn't do better. We know that the next wave of school superintendents will come from the ranks of female administrators. I'm not sure we're doing nearly enough to prepare them for that responsibility or to encourage their acceptance by local school boards. The membership tells us they think AASA needs to improve its professional development offerings and to present them with better ideas about how they can thrive in these turbulent times. We're working on these areas in the coming year.

Membership Issues

During the past year, the Executive Committee and staff addressed an area of continued concern--our dwindling membership base. What we learned about our members and nonmembers will have a profound impact on the way the association does its business for FY '99.

For example, we learned through surveys of members and nonmembers some critical facts. First of all, there are fewer superintendents today than before. District consolidation remains a reality. Every district lost eliminates a potential member.

Second, the state-based administrator associations already have our members as their members, plus those administrators we want as our members. More than 90 percent of AASA's members belong to their state associations. Said differently, nearly every one of our active members has joined AASA after joining their state association. That suggests AASA is offering these administrators some added value over and above what their state associations provide. It also suggests that if AASA's share of the membership market is going to grow, we'll need to make the added-value argument even more persuasive.

Related to our membership approach is our new relationship with the state associations. Because our members are their members and our potential members are their members, we realize that it is in AASA's best interests to collaborate with likeminded state associations to jointly ballyhoo what they do best and what AASA adds in value. We want our superintendents to join their state associations and, depending on their local situation, give serious consideration to joining the national association. Without question, AASA adds value to the state's membership. Our job in the coming year is to demonstrate that fact.

Our concern about membership dovetails other issues we faced during the past year. That is, our current members want AASA out in front on issues related to children, public schools and the superintendency in general.

Furthermore, our members want us to provide state-of-the-art training for those employed to lead districts undergoing rapid change. Our members also want AASA to be a strong voice in the policy debates around the future role of public schools.

For AASA to deliver on these expectations, we must demonstrate some clout when we sit in the U.S. Secretary of Education's suite, the Green Room of the White House or a Capitol Hill office. As you know, the size and perceived importance of our membership matters to those who sit with us in the policy debates about issues affecting public schools. Consequently, we want to be the association that speaks on behalf of every school superintendent in the nation, regardless of his or her district's size, location or dues-paying capability.

This past year we took a major step to posture ourselves as the superintendents' association. We began by greatly increasing our outreach to the nation's superintendents, members and nonmembers alike. We doubled the frequency of our newsletter Leadership News, revised its format, increased its content and added every superintendent in the country to its mailing list. We continued to mail three issues of the monthly magazine, The School Administrator, to all superintendents. We also began a new publication for school board presidents and superintendents, Governance & Leadership, and distributed it to them nationwide.

Advocacy Efforts

I increased my writing and speaking activities, placing AASA's views in front of national television and radio audiences; before newspaper and magazine readers; and at gatherings of informed educators, business people and the public at large. What the combined set of activities says to the nation's superintendents is that their association has strong views on matters affecting them and we want people to know it.

At the same time, on behalf of all superintendents, we became much more aggressive in our advocacy positions at the national level. We delivered our positions through a combination of legislative work on Capitol Hill, personal appearances before key groups and in my own writings in AASA publications as well as other media outlets. For example, we opposed the Clinton Administration's plans to create a national test unless it could satisfy reasonable criteria for successful application; we defended the public schools from the onslaught of new federal regulations that would severely limit their ability to remove children with disabilities from the classroom; we signed onto the constitutional amendment to provide children with greater legal rights; and we began championing federal legislation that would direct more dollars into rural, small schools. On top of it all, we successfully lobbied the Congress to appropriate more funds for public schools than it intended.

Professional Development

We also invited the nonmember superintendents to our conferences. At the annual Rural, Small Schools Conference we introduced participants to what superintendents are doing to ensure the survival of their communities and schools. Participants at the annual Suburban Schools Conference heard bluntspeaking authorities talk about changing demographics in suburbia and the impact on schools. And the 20 percent of the participants at The National Conference on Education [Copyright] who were nonmembers joined the regular members in a conference that showcased a wide range of new ideas and strategies.

In sum, during the year we went the extra mile to expose all superintendents and their district colleagues to national events and local trends affecting their districts. We represented all superintendents in our advocacy work. And when I write and talk about the needs of public education, I'm clearly speaking on behalf of all superintendents in the nation.

As we focus on superintendents, we are mindful that half of our members carry a different title. These members are trainers of superintendents, educational professionals who serve the profession and many aspiring superintendents. As we look toward the future, we intend to increase our focus on these latter individuals. This association is the only one at the national level that speaks on behalf of system leaders. That's a heavy responsibility, but a wonderful opportunity.

Poised for Change

Last year, the Executive Committee put into place a Strategic Vision Team. This team, half senior AASA staff and half AASA officers, is looking at the future of public education in this country and identifying the implications for the association. Two internal teams are backing up this planning initiative. One is looking at what AASA's competition is doing. The other is thinking about the changes we would have to make internally if we were to expand our membership, change our mission or expand our revenue base. These efforts will culminate in presentations to the Executive Committee at its annual planning meeting in June.

All of which suggests more changes at AASA. We're prepared for them. The association has a solid, mutually supportive management team in place. And the remaining staff constitutes a good mix of seasoned veterans and eager newcomers. Under the guidance of the AASA Executive Committee, this team of professionals is prepared to embrace additional change and accept new challenges. In fact, the team is looking forward to it.