The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is the largest professional social work organization in the United States. Created in 1955 with the merger of six professional membership organizations, NASW is dedicated “to promote the quality and effectiveness of social work by setting standards; conducting study and research; improving professional education, publication and interpretation to the community.”[1]
NASW has its roots in past attempts by social workers to organize on a national level. The National Conference of Charities and Correction, founded in 1874, provided the first opportunity for social agency employees to meet together on a national basis to discuss their common interests. Its lax membership requirements, however, dissatisfied many professional social workers, who turned to local organizations or clubs in the early 1900's. The Boston Monday Club was a pioneer among these early associations and was soon imitated in New York, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, and San Francisco. There was no formal communication between these clubs, but they did provide a pattern for the organization of local chapters of the American Association of Social Workers (AASW), the first national social workers organization, created in Milwaukee in 1921.
The AASW grew and became the major professional membership association until 1955. Between 1921 and 1955 several other organizations developed which reflected the problems, needs, and experiences of social workers in specialized fields. After several years of study by the Temporary Inter-Association Council, these specialized groups (the American Association of Medical Social Workers, the National Association of School Social Workers, the American Association of Group Workers, the Association for the Study of Community Organization, the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers, and the Social Work Research Group) merged in 1955 to form the National Association of Social Workers.[2]
Today NASW has over 60,000 members in 972 local chapters. Members include professionals with undergraduate and graduate degrees in social work or doctorates in related fields, those engaged in social work but with degrees in other areas, foreign members of professional organizations affiliated with the International Federation of Social Workers, and students involved in undergraduate social work majors. A delegate assembly composed of regional and chapter representatives is the governing body of the organization whose powers are exercised by a board of directors. The Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter, chartered in 1955, was one of the earliest chapters.
Branch organizations of the chapter were formed on a geographic basis within Southeastern Wisconsin. Both the membership and the concerns of a branch encompass all the areas of social work practiced by the chapter as a whole. A branch may be organized by ten or more chapter members from an identifiable geographic area too far from chapter head-quarters (in this case Milwaukee) to allow for regular active participation in chapter activities. The chapter also established several sections to afford members the opportunity to participate in activities for the advancement of a specific aspect of social work (group work, medical school work, and psychiatric social work). Sections differ from branches in that they draw membership from all parts of the chapter district and concentrate on only one phase of social work.
