The 30-day comment period runs through Sept. 17, 2021
The Native American Journalists Association is requesting that members provide input on critical membership policy language.
The membership policy is available for a 30-day comment period to review, and for NAJA membership to provide comments, edits and/or suggestions.
The 30-day comment period ends Sept. 17, 2021. Comments should be sent to Governance Committee Chair Tripp Crouse by email at: tripp@naja.com.
At the end of the 30-day comment period, the final document will be made available prior to the 2021 NAJA Elections. Members will vote on the proposed language via ballot question during the virtual election Sept. 27 – Oct. 8, 2021.
Background:
In 2020, the NAJA Board of Directors began researching and identifying aspects of its membership policy that limited the scope of its membership to the United States and Canada.
In line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights for Indigenous Peoples and other global efforts, NAJA aims to represent Indigenous journalists around the globe — and seeks membership policy language that is inclusive and representative of the diversity within Indigenous journalism.
In 2021, the NAJA Governance Committee began compiling and updating language from existing board and membership guidelines to create an initial first draft of the membership policy.
NAJA held a virtual Q&A on March 18 to discuss membership questions and recruited volunteers to serve on a membership working group to discuss and edit the language of the policy.
Through conversations with the working group and the Governance Committee, a final working draft was presented to the NAJA board as a whole on July 21, where the board approved the language to go before a legal review, a 30-day comment period from membership, and finally a vote by membership on whether to approve the membership policy.
The most recent version of the draft was re-linked on this page Aug. 27.