UPDATE II: ATEK's Official Statement Regarding Conflict of Interest Explanation of Disciplinary Procedures History of Removal of officers and members
Don't like something ATEK did recently? Think ATEK needs to improve something? Have some ideas about how to improve the organization?
Ultimately, ATEK answers to its general members, not to anybody else (as noisy as they may be). Every ATEK communication should include that fact, until the people who don't listen stop screeching that ATEK is claiming to represent them. ATEK is a communication network of (number of associate members), and represents (number of general members) English teachers in Korea.
If you're not a general member, ATEK doesn't represent you. It also doesn't answer to you, no matter how important you think you are, or how smart you are, or how loud you are.
If you ARE a general member, here's how to get involved, because if ATEK's general members get involved, and start exerting their will, that's a powerful thing... and if ATEK's general members can't be bothered, then maybe it is time for the organization to disband, and for its officers to find other venues to contribute to Korean society and the English teacher community. They're out there.
Fact: ATEK's bylaws, as they are written now, say that a General Member petition must be heard by the National Council, if only 2% of ATEK's general members submit it. If 4% are on board, you can demand a national vote/referendum. Given ATEK's current number of General Members, that's about six people, so if you're a general member, you DO have the power. Tons of it.
Here's the section of ATEK's bylaws (their constitution) that gives you the power:
ARTICLE 14 Part 6
6 General Members may by way of submitting a petition to the National Council call for a referendum or general vote. Petitions must comply with the following requirements:
(a) The petition must be supported by a minimum of 4% of the total of all General Members of the Association.
(b) The petition must be an electronic petition in the form of an email.
(c) The email must contain the names and email addresses of the petitioning General Members.
(d)The email must be sent by a General Member to the National Membership Officer. The name and email details of the petitioning General Members must match the details on the National Membership list held by the National Membership Officer.
In article 7 of the bylaws, only 2% of ATEK's general members (about 3 people) need to submit the petition, for it to be required to go to the floor of the national council, at their next meeting, and voted on by them.
The general members hold the power in ATEK, and you need to know that. And you need to use it.
Heres' how:
1. Get together a few ATEK members who want to shake some things up.
2. Go to the website (atek.or.kr)
3. Find the sidebar that says "GM Resources" - ATEK's new Webmaster has been moving things around (looks great so far), so it might move to the left or right side, etc..
4. Find the button that says "NC Petition Form" click it.
5. Follow the instructions. Write out your petition. Be clear and specific. If you want multiple things to happen, maybe even submit multiple submissions.
6. Upload it, as per the directions. If you have trouble uploading it, email it to president@atek.or.kr, media@atek.or.kr webmaster@atek.or.kr members@atek.or.kr and ethics@atek.or.kr ... that should make sure it reaches the eyeballs that need to see it. If I missed anyone important, sorry.
And if you want to get something going, send me an e-mail (roboseyo, gmail) or contact me on facebook, and I'll put you in touch with others who are interested in moving and shaking as well.
Demand new membership bylaws, or meeting minutes to be posted on the website, or for the membership list to have personal information about teachers removed, or for bureaucracy to be streamlined, or for the NGO goal to be put off until the organization's figured out how to function smoothly. Call for ATEK's Ombudsperson to conduct an investigation into the things reported by 3WM if you're not satisfied with the investigation Tom Rainey-Smith did. Demand that one be released to the public, or at least to General Members. Demand that the former officers involved in saying mean things about the organization be banned from membership for life. Or that they be made into the new ethics committee. Or anything else I recommended in my last post. Whatever.
Go for it! You have the power! You really, really do.
Comments will be open on this post, to have a discussion about what you'd like to see from an organization purporting to represent English teachers. I'd like the comments here to be a place where people can discuss that.... so please place your comments allocating blame for the meltdown, and making, or challenging allegations, elsewhere. He-said, she-said is playing out in other places so it's kind of unnecessary to re-state it all here.
If you wish to direct my readers to those discussions, you may put links in the comments to my site: I won't delete any links (once I find them: sometimes blogger's spam filter blocks things).
And don't worry: I'll read your comment: I keep tabs on those places, too. You can even go on there and call me a poopypants for deleting your comments, or suppressing that kind of discussion at my site.
In other "good for English teachers" news, some of the people who've been waiting for ATEK to pull its act together, got tired of waiting, and are expanding the services that can be found on the AFEK website. There is now an open discussion forum there, in which anybody can participate. If the forum there turns out to be anywhere near as useful as the F-visa only discussion forums on that site, it'll be an awesome resource once it's up and running. http://www.afek.info/
Comments open. Moderation on. Please observe the terms of engagement.
