As I write my first column as NCFR President, I’ve been reflecting on my 30 years of NCFR membership and all that I have learned while serving on the NCFR Board of Directors. I joined NCFR in 1994 while I was a graduate student at the University of Maryland, College Park. Since that time, I have served in a variety of roles in the organization, including my most recent  service as Secretary-Treasurer of the NCFR Board of Directors from 2017-2020 and then again as president-elect of the Board for two years beginning in 2021. (Presidents of NCFR spend two years “in training” before taking the helm. My presidency runs from 2023 to 2025.) During my time on the Board, I’ve thought a lot about NCFR’s Global Ends. No, really. I have. The Global Ends are akin to our mission for the organization and help guide the work of NCFR staff and the Board of Directors’ planning from year to year. We have three Global Ends:

Global Ends Policy #1: NCFR will provide opportunities for professional development and knowledge development in the areas of family research, theory, education, policy, and practice.

Global Ends Policy #2: NCFR will support the dissemination and application of research- and theory-based information about the well-being of families.  

Global Ends Policy #3: NCFR will represent the scholars and professionals in Family Science by establishing standards for research, education, and practice and
by advocating for the development and advancement of the discipline and the professions of Family Science.

The first Global Ends policy is inward facing and focuses on members’ professional development (PD). This policy, for example, guides our annual conference offerings among other PD opportunities, such as our webinar series. The second Global Ends policy is outward facing and directs NCFR to share our collective knowledge about families broadly. As you know, NCFR publishes three premier scholarly journals — Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Family Theory & Review, and Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Science — as well as the NCFR Report member magazine and NCFR Research and Policy Briefs. The third Global Ends policy focuses on advancing and championing Family Science as a discipline and profession. (If you haven’t checked out the resources available to advance Family Science on your campus, please check them out.)

In other words, these Global Ends guide what NCFR does.

As the Directors of NCFR, the Board holds the fiduciary responsibility to steward the organization and ensure its stability and sustainability. As a member-driven organization organization, the Board is held accountable by its members. It is a good practice — and vital to the health of the organization — to revisit the Global Ends periodically to ensure NCFR’s current work and future planning align with its member-driven mission and the broader context in which we exist. The NCFR Global Ends have been in place since 1999 with regular review and updating. Since that time, much about the academy and its interlinked systems have changed, resulting in tectonic shifts. At the current juncture, for example, we are studying the changing academic landscape, particularly with regard to the growth of contingent faculty and the decline of tenured and tenure-track faculty across the United States and what that means for NCFR. We are also considering the digital revolution in academic publishing, how journals are responding to open access, and how these shifts are and will continue to impact NCFR’s journals and our budget. Given such shifts, I have asked the Board of Directors to engage in strategic planning, where we will be examining the Global Ends and considering if the Ends are reflective of the work we should be doing now and into the future as the premiere Family Science organization.

Strategic planning is a lot of work, and critical to strategic planning is member engagement. When I ran for the presidency of NCFR, I pledged to work to advance a more inclusive, member-driven organization. In operationalizing this commitment, the board is working with the staff to institute new channels of communication between the board and NCFR members. For example, we recently created a new “board liaison to the Sections” to foster better communication with section leadership. We are also planning numerous listening sessions and other forms of member engagement to ensure that all NCFR members are being heard. We must ensure that we are fashioning an organization that serves your professional needs and interests and earns and inspires your long-term commitment to NCFR.

I have always said, NCFR is what we make of it. To that end (no Global End pun intended), please do not be a stranger. Reach out to me via email, contact me through the NCFR member directory, or connect with me via social media. You can find me on X (@BethanyLetiecq), Facebook (bethany.letiecq), and Linkedin. I look forward to hearing from you and I know the entire board looks forward to working together with you, in partnership, to plan for our collective future.