About PASWE

PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION (PASWE)

CONSTITUTION AND BYLAWS

History

The Pennsylvania Association of Social Work Education (PASWE) was originally formed in 1973 (as PA Association of Undergraduate Social Work Education PAUSWE; by-laws amended 2018) as the result of discussions among emerging social work programs across the state interested in advancing social work education. The purpose focused on providing opportunities for networking among the programs statewide to identify shared concerns and develop strategies to address those concerns via an annual forum, regional forums, and a listserv. 

PASWE is a state-wide consortium of nearly 50 programs and over 500 social work faculty, adjuncts, administrators, field directors, and staff interested in keeping abreast of the latest social policy issues and social work practice skills related to educating students who receive Associate, BSW, MSW, DSW, and PhD degrees. All are welcome to become a part of this organization whose purpose is to improve the strength, influence, visibility and reputation of social work education. 

Article I: Purpose

PASWE will provide a network of social work programs statewide for the purpose of identifying shared concerns and developing strategies to address those concerns. PASWE hosts educational, social, and informational sessions through various means including on-line and in-person seminars and workshops. PASWE members work collaboratively and are represented by consortium leadership who advocate to the NASW-PA on educational, faculty, and student needs and concerns.

Article II: Objectives

The goals of PASWE include:

  1. To strengthen state-wide relationships between social work faculty, field directors, staff and students in collegial educational programs.
  2. To be a voice of influence for social work education and students to NASW-PA.
  3. To promote student research knowledge and participation, promote student leadership opportunities and to create a forum for sharing student research.
  4. To mentor and increase junior faculty members research and leadership roles within Pennsylvania & NASW-PA.
  5. To utilize the knowledge and experience of senior faculty members.
  6. To address and advocate for social work education needs as a strong unified voice.

Article III: Membership

Membership in PASWE is open to all social work faculty, administrators, staff, field directors, and students, committed to achieving the objectives. PASWE shall hold at least one membership meeting annually that may be held in conjunction with the annual PASWE-NASW conference. Annual dues for members may be set by the Leadership Committee according to the needs of the organization and approved by the membership. The fiscal year shall commence with the annual conference and end with the annual meeting of the subsequent year.

Article IV: PASWE Executive Committee

The Executive Committee will include the officers. The membership shall elect the organization’s officers which will include: President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. The term of office shall be three years, and officers can be elected for up to two terms. In the event of a vacancy, the members of the Leadership Committee shall appoint a member to complete the unexpired term. The Executive Committee should meet at least four times a year, create an annual report, meeting agendas and minutes to document the goals, tasks, and accomplishments of the committee. Duties of each member of will include active participation in the Executive Committee and active participation in one other Committee meeting. Active participation includes missing no more than two consecutive meetings and offering a meaningful contribution to the group. Executive members can be removed for any reason by a simple majority vote of responding members Executive Committee members.

Article V: PASWE Leadership

The Leadership shall provide leadership and conduct the business of the PASWE. The Leadership shall have at least six members and may consist of former and current elected executive officers, division chairs, university representatives, committee chairs, practitioner/NASW representative(s), and social work students. Committees should meet at least four times a year, create agenda and minutes to document the goals, tasks, and accomplishments of the committee. Duties of each member of Leadership will include active participation in Leadership meetings and one Committee meeting. Active participation includes missing no more than two consecutive meetings and offering a meaningful contribution to the group. Members can be removed for any reason by a simple majority vote of responding members of the Leadership membership. There are no term limits for the Leadership members.

Article VI: PASWE Committees

Standing and ad hoc Committees can be created or dissolved in order to carry out the work of the organization. Committees include NASW Conference, social media/marketing, faculty recruitment, student recruitment, and community college committees. Each committee will elect two co-chairs by nomination and election should be completed by the Committee membership annually. Committees should meet at least four times a year, create an annual report, meeting agendas and minutes to document the goals, tasks, and accomplishments of the committee. Duties of each Committee member will include active participation in meetings. Active participation includes missing no more than two consecutive meetings and offering a meaningful contribution to the group.  Members can be removed for any reason by a simple majority vote of responding Committee membership. There are no term limits for the Committee members but chairs can be elected annually.

Conference committee

The Conference committee is responsible to organize one conference per year (see Article IX) including collaborating with NASW, selecting a time and location for the PASWE membership meeting, create a one (1) page advertisement about PASWE, recruiting student and faculty participation, managing the student research poster competition, identifying, recruiting and selecting PASWE recommended workshops and PASWE keynote speaker. The purpose of this committee is to be a voice of influence for social work education and students to NASW-PA, to promote student research participation, and to create leadership roles within NASW-PA.

Social Media/Marketing committee

TheSocial Media/Marketing committee is responsible to increase the visibility of PASWE via social media, videos, and blog posts. The committee should communicate and educate regarding the purpose and events of PASWE. The purpose of this committee is to strengthen relationships among PASWE and NASW membership and to address and advocate for social work education needs as a strong unified voice.

Faculty recruitment committee

The Faculty recruitment committee is responsible to increase faculty participation in PASWE including membership, leadership positions, university representatives and attendance and participation at the PASWE Conference. The committee should increase faculty participation in PASWE events and the social work profession via NASW events and membership. This committee should assess why faculty attend, from which universities, workshop interest, location accessibility and social activity interest. The purpose of this committee is to strengthen relationships among PASWE members, to mentor junior faculty and to utilize the knowledge and experience of senior faculty.

Student recruitment committee

The Studentrecruitment committee is responsible to increase student attendance at PASWE events and the social work profession via NASW events and membership. The committee should increase student volunteering and participation at the PASWE Conference including the research poster competition and to collaborate with other groups interested in resolving barriers to attendance such as financially supporting students. This committee should assess why students attend, from which universities, workshop interest, location accessibility and social activity interest. This committee can collaborate with PASWE faculty, social work programs and NASW to organize fundraisers and solicit donations in order to facilitate student attendance at PASWE, NASW or other beneficial events. The purpose of this committee is to promote student research knowledge and participation, and to strengthen the relationship that students have with PASWE, NASW, and the social work profession.

Community college committee

The Community college recruitment committee is responsible to support community college social work or human service programs to facilitate a seamless transfer to four year BSW programs. This may include facilitating effective communications surrounding articulation agreements between schools. This committee will also recruit additional community colleges to participate in PASWE in order to benefit students as a result of effective communication, and improved articulation agreements. Community colleges, similar to other universities, can be organized by Divisions (Article VII). The purpose of this committee is to strengthen the relationship between community colleges and four year universities, to ease barriers that students face when transferring schools, to increase acceptance of community college courses, to address and advocate for social work education needs as a strong unified voice.

Article VII: Divisions

To facilitate the work of PASWE, nine (9) divisions which align with NASW divisions, will include Eastern, Central, Brandywine, North Central, Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and West Chester. Each division will elect a division chair who is responsible to recruit students and members, organize and facilitate events appropriate for that division. Division chairs will support and collaborate with PASWE leadership and NASW. Duties of division chairswill include active participation which includes missing no more than two consecutive meetings and offering a meaningful contribution to the group. Chairs can be removed for any reason by a simple majority vote of responding members of the divisionmembership. The term of office shall be three years, and officers can be elected for up to two terms.

Article VIII: Elections

Elections for any elected position will be elected by a majority of PASWE membership. All Executive, Leadership, Committee, and Division leaders are expected to participate activity and offer a meaningful and substantial service obligation to PASWE. Leaders can be removed for any reason by a simple majority vote of responding members of that group.

Article IX: Conference

PASWE shall hold at least one annual conference in collaboration with the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), Pennsylvania Chapter or another group. The conference may consist of a PASWE faculty keynote speaker, workshops focused on social work education or student issues, annual membership meeting and a meal with a panel discussion/speaker. All PASWE leaders are expected to attend the annual meeting which typically occurs at the NASW-PASWE Fall Conference. All PASWE membership is invited to participate.

Article X: Parliamentary Authority

The rule’s contained in Robert’s Rules of Order shall govern PASWE in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with the bylaws and any special rules of order PASWE may adopt.

Article XI: Amendments

Amendments to these bylaws may be made by a simple majority vote of responding members and should occur annually. This Constitution & bylaws replaces and supersedes any prior constitutions or bylaws of the PASWE.

Article XII: Evaluation

PASWE will periodically undertake self-evaluation.