Beginnings
NAMLE was officially founded as AMLA (the Alliance for a Media Literate America) on June 23, 2001, with 200 members at the National Media Education Conference in Austin, Texas. During the three-day conference, the first membership meeting was held, at which all 200 founding members read aloud the Founding Declaration. A member handbook was distributed, and ten caucuses were formed around special interests including Higher Education, People of Color, Public Health, Faith-Based, Social Activism, and more. By December 2001, the AMLA had been joined by more than 300 Founding Members.
Since 2001, the organization has grown to more than 400 members, held three highly successful National Media Education Conferences, 2003 in Baltimore, 2005 in San Francisco and 2007 in St. Louis. The organization has forged alliances with numerous national education, youth, health, advocacy, and media organizations, and received a major grant from the U.S. Department of Education to demonstrate the effectiveness of media literacy in media arts education.
Annual elections continue to expand the leadership in the still-growing field of media literacy, as well as bring fresh ideas, skills, and energy to the board of directors.
ROOTS of NAMLE
Formerly known as the Partnership for Media Education (PME) and the Alliance for a Media Literate America, NAMLE was conceived and established in 1997 by four leaders in the US media literacy movement who formed a public/private collaboration in order to stimulate professional development in the then-fledgling media literacy field.
Not yet a membership organization, the PME's primary goal was to organize and host an annual national conference at which educators and practitioners could come together to learn the principles of media education in a venue that both exemplified and modeled the best practices in the field - in essence, a national forum for diverse views, visions and voices.
These founders included Renee Hobbs, then of the Media Literacy Project at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., Elizabeth Thoman, founder and president of the Center for Media Literacy in Los Angeles, CA; Nancy Chase Garcia, then at the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention of the US Department of Health and Human Services and now at Garcia Consulting in Olympia, Wash.; and Lisa Reisberg, then the Director of Public Education, American Academy of Pediatrics, Chicago.
1998: Building on Success
Following the first successful conference in Colorado Springs, CO, attended by over 450 media literacy leaders from 41 states and 6 countries, three new members were recruited for the Board in order to build a base of support and organize a conference for 1999: Lynda Bergsma, Director, Rural Health Office at the University of Arizona, Frank Baker, Director of Distance Learning, South Carolina Educational Television, and Linda Brown, then at the Ross School in East Hampton, NY. Lisa Reisberg withdrew from the board due to time and schedule conflicts.
The organization was also formally incorporated, adopted governing by-laws (providing for up to 15 members on the Board of Directors) and received its 501-c-3 tax exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service.
At the conclusion of the conference in Colorado Springs there had been an open meeting to explore the future of the PME and the prospect of becoming the field's first national membership organization. Sixty people attended, and many offered to help plan another conference. As a result, the PME's board grew and changed, and hosted the next conference in St. Paul, Minn. At St. Paul, another breakfast drew over 60 people full of enthusiasm and ideas for turning the PME into a national membership organization.
1999: Expansion Explored
In 1999, following a second acclaimed conference in St. Paul, MN, the PME doubled the Board again, nominating and electing six new members reflecting the widening commitment of national and regional education, health, and community-based organizations to the movement. In the ensuing year, additional Board members were recruited as positions became vacant due to time constraints or changes in employment.
In October 1999, the expanded board of 12 met for its first annual Board Retreat in El Paso, Texas, where they adopted a mission statement, elected officers, assigned committee chairs and agreed on initial actions toward the twin goals of continuing to host national conferences to promote professional development and working toward "giving birth" to a national professional membership association.
2000: Time out for Toronto
In light of the international media education conference planned for May 2000 by media literacy colleagues in Canada, the PME decided not to sponsor a 2000 conference in the USA but to collaborate with the international event by hosting US-focused sessions at the Toronto gathering. Four sessions were held, attracting many of the 300 US registrants at the conference.
Meeting monthly via conference call, communicating regularly by e-mail and meeting periodically throughout the year, the board continued to build an infrastructure to launch a full-fledged national organization. In April 2000, at a weekend planning session in Austin, Texas, they decided to announce a "founding conference" for the new organization to be held June 23-26, 2001 in Austin, Texas. They also adopted funding guidelines to govern the fundraising activities that would be required to support both the founding conference and the establishment of a national office, initial staff and founding membership campaign.
2001: Move to Membership
In July 2000, at a Board Retreat at the Sundance Institute, the Partnership adopted a new name, the Alliance for a Media Literate America (AMLA), and brainstormed a ten-year growth plan to implement a national professional membership organization and establish a national office in Washington, DC to serve members and promote professional development in media literacy education in the United States. The remainder of 2000-2001 was devoted to preparing not only to host the 2001 NMEC, but also to give birth to the first national membership organization dedicated to media literacy, the AMLA.