Membership Development
AONTAS Membership
AONTAS currently has over 550 members across the country, including, Vocational Education Committees (V.E.C.s), Third Level Providers, community groups, women's and men's groups, family support agencies, second level schools, training organisations, tutors, learners and interested individuals. This broad range of membership reflects the variety of education and training opportunities that exist for adult learners as well as the multiplicity of subjects and specialities on offer.
Membership development involves facilitating members to actively contribute to the organisation and assisting them to fully gain the maximum benefit from their subscription
In keeping with the AONTAS strategic Plan membership development work is based on the following four areas:
Policy - All interaction and work with members will feed directly into policy work. Specific projects will be carried out to assist members to contribute and take ownership of the policy work of the organisation. The projects include: Learner Networks, Member meetings and the community education platform.
Promotion - Work with members will provide information for media and promotional work that will aid raising the profile of adult and community, the achievements of learners and AONTAS.
Practice - Various areas of best practice will be gathered from the membership and the sharing of such information will be made possible through the AONTAS magazine, website and ebulletin.
Partnership - We will continually strive to work with our members, other NGOs and statutory bodies with the aim to improve the adult and community education service in Ireland.
If you have any comments or questions regarding membership please contact Niamh O'Reilly noreilly@aontas.com
AONTAS AGM 2010
AONTAS STRATEGIC PLAN CONSULTATION PROCESS 2010
AONTAS is currently engaging in a consultation process to develop its next Strategic plan which will guide the work of the organisation for three years from 2011 until 2013. In order to develop an effective consultation process a full analysis of the AONTAS membership was carried out in order to ascertain the type of consultation process that would suit each part of the membership.
- Review of the AONTAS membership
- Membership analysis of attendance at the regional meetings, learner networks and the Adult Learners Festival
- Membership representation on the AONTAS Executive Committee
- AONTAS Steering group representation by member organisations
- Influence - interest matrix
As a high proportion of AONTAS members are very engaged in our work this can be built upon in order to facilitate effective consultation. There is a need for specific targeting of members regionally, and increasing the involvement of specific cohorts of members will ensure that all voices are included in the consultation process.
Forms of Consultation
As the rationale for the form of consultation is based on an analysis of previous consultation events, the stake the membership category has in the strategic plan and the assistance some groups require to engage in a consultation process (their capacity), the following process is being carried out:
- Questionnaires to all members via mailout and online through surveymonkey
- Focus groups with members with a high interest in the work of the organisation
- One-to-one meetings with representatives from key organisations
- Regional seminars in counties where AONTAS presence has been low in recent years
- Telephone surveys for members whose main focus is not adult education
- Integration of consultation into community education network meetings
- Regional visits to community education organisations
- National Adult Learner Forum event to ensure learner engagement in the process
- Follow up with Adult Learners' Festival event participants - questionnaire/phone surveys
- Steering group meeting dedicated to the consultation
- AONTAS Executive Committee focussed meetings
Summary of the Consultation Process
An Evolving Consultation Document
The consultation began at the Annual General Meeting of membership held on May 19th 2010. The discussion groups at this meeting were informed by a scoping document disseminated to members prior to the meeting. The scoping document which you can find online for your information is based on the work AONTAS has done and the feedback it has received over the period of the current Strategic plan 2007-2010. The Appendix attached to the scoping document outlines the outcomes of the current plan.
The outcomes of the discussions at the Annual General Meeting shaped the strategic plan questionnaire. The three themes of voice, visibility and value emerged and were identified as key areas for AONTAS to concentrate on over the course of 2011-2013. The questionnaire was disseminated to all members during July with the aim of creating an opportunity for members to respond to this newly shaped document. Over 50 responses were received and all inputs have been collated and analysed, this will reshape the consultation document which will be used as a basis for telephone surveys, one-to-one interviews, focus groups and membership meetings. A draft of the AONTAS Strategic Plan will be available for members at the General Meeting on Wednesday 17th November 2010.
