Good morning, all, Here is my draft of a response to COABE for your review. Upon re-reading the missive from Sharon and Tom, I realized that they seem to be operating with the misunderstanding (cloaked as a sense of entitlement) that a member organization's liaison is somehow automatically a member of the NCL Board. So I've tried to address that in this draft. I look forward to your thoughts and edits. Deborah Deborah Kennedy Associate Vice President, Adult English Language Education Director, English for Heritage Language Speakers Program Center for Applied Linguistics 202/355-1572 www.cal.org www.ehlsprogram.org ________________________________ From: president@coabe.org <president@coabe.org> Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2016 7:26 AM To: Silja Kallenbach; Deborah Kennedy; Jeff Carter; Heather Ritchie; VALUE Office; Michele Diecuch Subject: COABE and NCL Dear NCL Board Members, We are writing on behalf of the COABE Executive Committee regarding a shared concern, coupled with a sincere desire to work together with all of the organizations that are members of the Coalition. As a long standing dues paying member of NCL, we have participated in meetings for as far back as we can remember. Many (if not all) years, it is our understanding that someone from our board served on the NCL board. With this in mind, and understanding that neither Jeff Fantine nor Jackie Taylor, who were previous COABE liaisons to NCL were no longer on our board, we had reached out to NCL through Jeff Carter in June letting him know that our new executive director as of July 1st, Sharon Bonney, would be willing to serve in that role on behalf of COABE. We then in a number of subsequent emails were given information that left us unsure of NCL's organizational structure and how COABE fit into that which subsequently led us to request on several occasions a copy of your by-laws, NCL Board Minutes, information on the elections and the actual board roster. Peter Waite had indicated to us prior that he and ProLiteracy were providing much needed organizational support to NCL due to the volunteer nature of your board and a "lack of capacity". Thus on a conference call this past March with Peter and the two of us, we again sought clarification of COABE's role in NCL and made the requests for information once again. He then did send us a list of recently elected board members, which is how we knew to contact you. This came as a surprise as we had been led to believe on numerous occasions that elections had not been held. We also found it odd that as a member, we were not informed in any way about the election. As per your By-laws, board members are voted upon at the October meeting, which we attended, but were told then that the slate of board members was not known at that time. A month ago the NCL membership chair reached out to us regarding payment of annual dues. We then raised with her the same questions and concerns as noted previously and we were given a very different response - that there was an active board that met regularly to conduct NCL business. With all of this in mind, we are reaching out to you to try to seek clarification on the structure of NCL, COABE's role in it, and how we can work collaboratively. As an active and interested dues paying member, we would like some assurances that we will be involved in the important work of NCL and sincerely want to do our part to move the collective goals forward. We do want to work well with NCL and request a meeting with the executive committee to discuss this matter at your earliest convenience. Sincerely, Tom Nash, Board President and Sharon Bonney Executive Director Thomas Nash President, COABE PO Box 620 Syracuse, NY 13206 Phone: 888-44-COABE (888-442-6223) Fax: 866-941-5129 Email: president@coabe.org<mailto:president@coabe.org> Website: www.coabe.org<http://www.coabe.org>