The following Delegate Assembly resolution was acted on by the NCTM Board of Directors during its meeting in July:
* Resolution O.NR.06.01
Be it resolved that the Delegate Assembly recommends to the NCTM Board of Directors that any policy or requirement entailing the sharing of Affiliate membership lists and information be amended to provide alternative criteria. (Southern Regional Caucus)
Action: The rationale provided with the resolution cited the following concerns: Affiliate bylaws prohibit sharing of membership information, ineligibility of Affiliates for the Leadership Circle program and state-level Learn<->Reflect strands, and privacy issues.
First, and most important, NCTM uses the membership lists only to validate the percentage of an Affiliate’s members who belong to NCTM. The Council does not send materials to these individuals, nor does it sell the list of names to any other organization or company. In order to properly count members, the Council asks for only the name and mailing address of Affiliate members. The sharing of this information does not violate federal privacy requirements. Such is not the case with e-mail addresses or phone numbers, which is why the Council does not ask for that information.
In its deliberations on this resolution, the Board reaffirmed that the purpose of its special programs is to reach out and serve areas that have a large number of NCTM individual members. The Learn<->Reflect strands are offered in locales that will attract at least 1,000 attendees. It is then vital that the Council publicize its presence to its members in those states, provinces, or regions. NCTM has a large number of individual members who do not belong to any Affiliate. Publicizing the Affiliate meeting to these individuals will increase the likelihood that they will join both organizations. The list is used to minimize mailing costs. The Leadership Circle is designed to involve Affiliates with a large percentage of NCTM individual members. These Affiliates have demonstrated a strong commitment to joint membership. This commitment is good for both organizations.
The resolution asks the Council to provide an alternative for those Affiliates that feel they cannot share the mailing addresses of their members with the Council but wish to qualify for these programs. The NCTM Board has decided to offer the following alternative. An Affiliate can provide NCTM with a list of the last name and ZIP code of each of its members. Although this may result in an inaccurate determination of the percentage of Affiliate members belonging to NCTM, the Council will be able to approximate the percentage. The Council believes this should alleviate any Affiliate concern that a person’s mailing information will be shared and misused, or that an individual could possibly receive any marketing mail or materials from sharing these data.
