AATF MEMBERSHIP DRIVE 2011
The AATF is continuing to sponsor a membership recruitment campaign. Membership in your professional association is the business of each member. Just as we seek to promote the study of French among our students and our administrators, we must also promote membership in the AATF to all our colleagues, in particular our younger colleagues. We ask you to reinforce the benefits of belonging to a professional association to your colleagues.
How It Works
We are offering a special pay-two-get-one-free incentive to current members to recruit new members. We ask each AATF member to use this flyer to convince another French teacher to join. If the current member can get two new members to join, his or her 2011 membership will be free. Chapter officers are not eligible to take advantage of this offer. The requirements are:
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the two new members’ forms with payment must be mailed together to National Headquarters with the sponsoring AATF member’s name prominently indicated;
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the current member’s pre-printed renewal invoice should, if possible, accompany the two new forms;
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if the current member has already paid dues for 2011, the free membership will be applied to the next calendar year; no refunds will be made.
If you are a teacher trainer, we ask you to encourage your students who are planning a career in teaching French to join as student members. Membership forms are available on the AATF Web site, or we will send membership forms to anyone who requests them.
If you have access to state or local mailing lists of French teachers or members of other language organizations, please think to forward those lists to us, and we will verify whether or not they are already members of the AATF and, if not, do a special mailing to them. The lists must be current and must contain specifically French teachers.
Why the AATF?
We are the only national professional association devoted exclusively to the concerns of French teachers at all levels. The AATF is continually working to promote new French programs, help members save threatened programs, strengthen the teaching of French at all levels, and collaborate with other professional and governmental organizations to ensure the presence of French in our schools and universities. General language associations must give equal weight to all languages; that is their mission. Only the AATF speaks for French.
What the AATF Can Do For You
There is not enough room to enumerate the projects in which our 73 local chapters are involved, but nationally, we
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organize a convention devoted solely to French, often in a Francophone country (Montreal, July 6-9, 2011),
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present sessions at other conferences,
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distribute 12 publications per year,
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sponsor 13 Commissions,
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create promotional and pedagogical materials to help teachers in their efforts to improve teaching and recruit students,
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maintain an on-line store for memberships payments and purchase of materials,
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offer scholarships to several Francophone countries and $5000-$10,000 in small grants each year,
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run the Grand Concours which in 2010 enrolled over 100,000 students, Grades 1-12,
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sponsors the Société honoraire de français,
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maintain an award-winning Web site with extensive information on the promotion of French and the use of technology
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maintain two advocacy sites, the Advocacy Depot and the French Language Advocacy Wiki,
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maintain an AATF Facebook page and Twitter account,
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launched a major national PR campaign in collaboration with the French Embassy, The World Speaks French,
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maintain ongoing relationships with French, Quebec, Canadian, and Belgian government representatives,
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maintain ongoing relationships with national, regional, and state language associations.
Most of these services are open exclusively to members or at a reduced cost.
Local Recruitment Works
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Invite a non-member colleague to your activities; share how the AATF supports your efforts;
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Invite a non-member colleague to accompany you to a chapter function as your guest;
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Share a copy of the most recent AATF National Bulletin or French Review with a colleague;
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Share copies of the AATF promotional flyers, Parlez-vous... posters, and other materials with a non-member colleague;
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Attend functions organized by the AATF at state, regional, and local meetings, and bring a non-member colleague;
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Show a non-member colleague the AATF Web site and the many helpful things that can be found there.
All our activities are self-supporting or supported by members' dues payments. The more members we have, the more services we can provide. Although accurate figures are hard to come by, we estimate that there are at least 30,000 people in the U.S. who are involved in teaching French. Let's each work to ensure that as many of them as possible become AATF members.
Created: October 16, 2001
Last update: April 15, 2011