CIBI Membership Policies and Process
CIBI Membership Policies

CIBI membership is open to organizations, individuals and families who are committed to providing or supporting independent Afrikan-centered education. There are four corresponding types of CIBI membership (a) Full, (b) Part-Time, (c) Individual, and (d) Family.

Institutional Membership

Organizations participate in CIBI within one of two categories of Institutional membership: "Full" or "Associate."

Full Institutional Membership

Full Institutional membership is not be confused with accreditation by CIBI. Accreditation, as it is envisioned within CIBI, will require Full Institutional membership status and a site visit by a CIBI accrediting team. Our goal is for all of CIBI's Full Institutional members to be actively applying our Standards for Evaluating Afrikan-Centered Educational Institutions throughout their operations and engaging in an ongoing process of self-evaluation and action planning based upon those standards. In order to become a Full Institutional member of CIBI, an organization must:

1) Operate a full-time Afrikan centered educational institution, i.e., a school.
2) File an application [.doc or .pdf] and complete a self-evaluation using the CIBI Standards for Evaluating Afrikan-Centered Educational Institutions [Download CIBI Standards here: .doc or .pdf]. For full-time institutions, applications will be due two months after submission of the membership payment. The self-evaluation is due one year after submission of the membership payment.

In order to maintain Full Institutional membership status within CIBI, an organization must:
1) Operate a full-time Afrikan centered educational institution, i.e., a school.
2) If accepted for institutional membership prior to the 1997-98 CIBI fiscal year, complete a self-evaluation using the CIBI Standards for Evaluating Afrikan-Centered Educational Institutions and subsequently file with the Ndundu a satisfactory report and action plan based on the self-evaluation within the three-year period that begins with the 1997-98 CIBI fiscal year and ends with the 1999-2000 CIBI fiscal year.
3) Complete a self-evaluation using the CIBI Standards for Evaluating Afrikan-Centered Educational Institutions within five years of submitting its initial self-evaluation report and action plan and then at five year intervals thereafter.
4) Pay annual dues at the Full Institutional member rate of $65 for one year, $110 for two years, $140 for three years, and provide the CIBI Executive Office with a listing of those families names and mailing addresses enrolled in the school so as to develop a closer communicative and supportive bond.
5) Annually update its membership application [Download update application: .doc or .pdf]. Full institutional members can securely pay their dues online through the "payments" button below.


Part-Time Institutional Membership

Part-Time Institutional Membership is a status determined at the discretion of the Ndundu. Initial applications for Part-Time Institutional Membership by full-time educational institutions (i.e., schools) are not accepted. It is reserved for:
a) Full-time educational institutions holding Full Institutional membership status who, after completing the self-evaluation and action planning process, do not meet such criteria for Full Institutional membership as determined by the Ndundu; or
b) Other full-time organizations who are approved for Associate Member status by the Ndundu; or
c) Organizations that do not operate full-time educational institutions, but support CIBI's position on Afrikan-centered education and apply those aspects of the CIBI Standards for Evaluating Afrikan-Centered Educational Institutions [.doc or .pdf] that are applicable to the operations of their organizations; or
d) Home schools which meet criterion (c) above, and for all part-time institutions, applications will be due two months after submission of the membership payment. The self-evaluation is due one year after submission of the membership payment.

In order to maintain Part-Time Institutional membership status, an organization must pay annual dues at the Part-Time Institutional members' flat rate of $40 and annually submit an Institutional Membership Update Form [Download update application: .doc or .pdf], or pay in increments of two years ($70) or three years ($90). The Part-Time Institutional membership application can be downloaded here [.doc or .pdf]. Part-Time members can securely pay their dues online by clicking on the "payments" button below.


Individual Membership

Individual membership is open to persons who believe in CIBI's mission and support its goals. To become an Individual member a person must submit a membership application [.doc or .pdf] along with an annual dues payment of $25, or pay in increments of two years ($40), three years ($55), or lifetime ($250). Individual membership is renewed annually--or in two or three year intervals--through the payment of dues. This renewal process does not apply to lifetime members. Securely pay your individual dues online by clicking the "payments" button below.


Family Membership

Family members join CIBI through the Full Institutional Members with which they are affiliated. There is no direct application process for Family membership. Families become Family members when any Full Institutional member includes them on its list of enrolled families.

Payment of Membership Dues

a. Full Institutional Members

1) The deadline for payment of annual dues shall be 1 October. There will be a one-month grace period.
2) A $25 late fee will be assessed at the end of the grace period (1 November); the late fee will increase to $50 after 31 December.

b. Associate Institutional Members

1) The deadline for payment of annual dues shall be 1 October. There will be a one-month grace period.
2) A $25 late fee will be assessed at the end of the grace period (1 November); the late fee will increase to $50 after 31 December.

c. Individual Members

1) Individual memberships shall expire 12 months from the date the dues payment is received, except in the case of lifetime members.

d. Family Members

Annual "Family" membership dues are paid through the "Full" Institutional member with which the family is affiliated.

Processing Dues Payments

a) All membership applications and dues payments shall be sent to the Executive Office (as of 22 April 1995).
b) The Executive Office will forward dues payments to the Secretary/Treasurer.
c) The Executive Office will forward invoices and applications to the Membership Office.
d) The Membership Office will send an acknowledgement to new members that will include:
1) A welcome letter from the Executive Office.
2) A handbook and a current issue of Fundisha! Teach!
e) The Secretary/Treasurer will record and deposit payments.

Full-institutional Membership Process: Standards for Evaluating Afrikan-Centered Educational Institutions*
From the time of the forced removal of Afrikan women, men and children from the continent and the imposition of alien institutions, we have been engaged in a war. Today, our children suffer from the continuing and after effects of European schooling. Such schooling requires the subjection of our children to values, beliefs and laws that dictate the subjugation of Afrikan people. These untenable circumstances require the Afrikan person to deny her/his humanity and her/his connection to her/his people, her/his culture and her/history. This painful process of de-Afrikanization has left Afrikan children worldwide behaving and thinking in ways unsuitable to the well-being and unity of our people.

Whatever the conditions of war, Afrikan people have always resisted European domination and in so doing have humanized the world. Resistance has been the basis of the reconstruction of Afrikan-based institutions. Independent Afrikan-centered institutional development has been and continues to be a way to facilitate the transmission of values and beliefs instrumental to the re-Afrikanization process. The Council of Independent Black Institutions (CIBI) is an organization built upon institutions that have grown out of the resistance movement. Our mission to re-Afrikanize follows the ancestral calling.

These Standards for Evaluating Afrikan-centered Educational Institutions were developed collectively by the Ndundu (leadership council) of CIBI. The women and men who serve on this body are stalwarts in the development of independent Afrikan-centered institutions. They are the founders and directors of institutions that have operated 20 or more years. Their experiences span the 25 years of CIBI's grass roots work. Moreover, the intergenerational transmission of their values and accumulated knowledge has raised a new generation of leadership dedicated to the same mission. Thus, the longevity of these existing institutions has enabled the emergence of ideas that effectively connect theory with the practical reality of sustaining these endeavors. This represents a tradition that is grounded in revolutionary activism and is sprung from ideas of those Afrikan women, men and children who came before us.

Our rationale for developing these Standards for Evaluating Afrikan-centered Educational Institutions stems from the many requests we have received over the years from our individual and institutional members as well as other parties who were interested in a way of defining and developing more consistency in the activities of Afrikan-centered schools. What is it to be or become Afrikan-centered? This critical question underlies CIBI's decision to aim for a consensus that enables our educational institutions to continue to grow and transform. At the same time these evaluation criteria will enable CIBI to provide accreditation standards for CIBI schools and schools that wish to join CIBI. In this way, our alliance among Afrikan-centered schools on a national and international scale will continue to be built.

Beyond the purpose of accreditation, these standards have many other uses.
  • They serve as a guide for those who are planning and building new Afrikan-centered educational institutions.

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  • They can enable Afrikan-centered institutions and individuals to evaluate the work that is undertaken to facilitate the re-Afrikanization process.

  • They can be used by parents considering a school for their children as the bases for evaluating the work of the institutions they wish to become involved with as well as the expectations that Afrikan-centered institutions may have of parents.

  • They can be used by institutions, i.e. the parents, pupils and staff, as a model for assessing where they are in their development and where they would like to go.

  • They can be used by persons working to create liberated zones (perhaps in public schools, universities, churches or community based service organizations) for support and guidance as well as to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their work.

CIBI has maintained a long-standing tradition that recognizes the process of continual change that we undergo organizationally as a developing entity. The true test of the institutions we build is their ability to continue beyond the generation of their founders. Our work is guided by the intent to build institutions that will preserve our culture and sustain our endeavors over multiple generations. We must always remember that we, ourselves, are the reflection of those who preceded us in the pursuance of Afrikan liberation and nation building. It is as such that we continue to grow. CIBI is because we are, have been and will be. These standards are available to those who are interested in obtaining full institutional member status with CIBI and can be downloaded here [.doc or .pdf].

*Note:The original version of the standards was produced during the weekend of July 13-15, 1995. The viability of the standards for use in institutional evaluations was field-tested at the New World Learning Center, San Antonio, Texas, November 9-11, 1995.

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