ALTE Full Members take a full, active part in the life of the association and have at least one of their tests audited through the Quality Management System resulting in a Q-Mark.

In order to be a Full Member, organisations must:

• be a legal entity (legally registered in a country)
• have read and agreed with the ALTE constitution
• have an interest and active involvement in language testing
• subscribe to ALTE's Principles of Good Practice
• be accepted by the ALTE Board of Trustees as a candidate for full membership
• produce tests of the language(s) of the country or region that they are registered in. (See Note 1) (They may also produce tests of other languages)
• have been an ALTE Associate Member (or Institutional Affiliate) for at least one year and have taken part in ALTE events and activities - including the Orientation to ALTE Audit System session
• have the Q-Mark for at least one of their tests (see Note 2)
• have at least 500 test takers per year (but see Note 3)
• agree to continue attending ALTE events and activities and taking part in the life of the association

Notes

1. The language of the country/region where they are sited is usually a language that has some sort of official recognition as such. This may be a spoken or signed language. The Board of Trustees will work with the organisation in question to determine if the language fulfils this criterion. 

2. Or was a member of ALTE EEIG before the introduction of the Q-Mark in 2008 and is working towards fulfilling the requirements of the quality audit; ALTE Framework will only display tests that have the Q-Mark. Members that have had a resolved audit for a test in the language of their country/region may also request quality audits for any tests they create of other languages.

3. In recognition of ALTE’s support for lesser-used or minoritised languages and cases where there will never be as many as 500 candidates a year, the Board of Trustees will consider including members who provide such tests for full membership, if a successful audit is achieved.

Printre beneficiile statutului de membru cu drepturi depline se numără:

• Utilizarea logo-ului ALTE
• Certificate de membru printate sau digitale
• Apariția pe site-ul ALTE
• Participarea la managementul calității și la sistemul de audit ALTE (contra unor taxe suplimentare)
• Ca urmare a trecerii auditului, folosirea Q-Mark, care arată recunoașterrea calității testelor de limbi
• Oportunitata de a găzdui o conferință, fapt ce permite promovarea instituției și a testelor de limbi
• Oportunitatea de a apela la serviciile Unității de Validare ALTE (în schimbul unor taxe suplimentare)
• Oportunitatea de a colabora la diverse proiecte
• Accesul la diverse secțiuni ale site-ului ALTE, precum forumul de discuții
• Invitația de a participa la conferințele bianuale ALTE și la alte evenimente organizate pentru membri
• Reducerea taxelor de participare la anumite evenimente ALTE și la seminare de pregătire (cursuri)
• Oportunitatea de a primi, prin email și prin poștă, comunicări ALTE
• Oportunitatea de a expune materiale la evenimentele ALTE
• Oportunitatea de a lucra în grupurile speciale de interes ALTE
• Oportunități de a construi o rețea de conexiuni internaționale prin rețeaua ALTE, inclusiv prin cele ale instituțiilor europene
• Oportunități de a fi membru în Comitetul Executiv și în Comitetul Permanent, ca urmare a unui proces de alegeri
• Invitația de a participa la Întâlnirea Generală Anuală ALTE
• Dreptul de a vota, de exemplu la alegerile pentru comitete, sau de a vota în Întâlnirea Anuală Generală

Procedure to become ALTE Full Member

There are 5 main steps to become an ALTE Full Member:

1) Become an ALTE Associate Member

The standard procedure for an organisation to join ALTE requires becoming an ALTE Associate Member (previously an 'Institutional Affiliate') in the first instance. Please visit the page on becoming an ALTE Associate Member for more information about this step, including the application form. 

Organisations should be an Associate Member for a period of one year before applying for full membership.

2) Regularly attend ALTE events

Before an ALTE Associate Member can submit their application to undergo an ALTE audit and become an ALTE Full Member, they need to attend at least two ALTE events (conferences, SIG meetings, courses), and at least one of them needs to be one of the biannual ALTE meeting and conference.

Attending ALTE events and actively participating in the life of the Association is an important part of being an ALTE Associate Member and this will be taken into account by the Board of Trustees when reviewing the applications to become ALTE Full Member. Furthermore, it is not possible to start the procedure to apply for ALTE full membership, as per point 3 below, until at least one of the representatives of the organisation has attended the Orientation to ALTE Audit System session – failure to attend the ‘Orientation to the ALTE Audit System’ session will delay the process of applying for the ALTE audit, which is a pre-requisite to become an ALTE Full Member.

3) Apply for ALTE Full Member status (to be approved by the Board of Trustees)

Before any organisation can apply for ALTE Full Membership status, the Board of Trustees will check that the organisation fulfils the requirements listed above. Please check that your organisation fulfils these criteria, and then request the ALTE Full Membership application form from the ALTE Secretariat.

Complete the application form, and write a formal letter of intent addressed to the ALTE Secretary-General. The letter should be signed by the legal representative of the organisation (the person with legal authority to enter into contracts). More details of what to include in the letter will be found in the ALTE Full Membership application form. 

The above documents shall be reviewed by the ALTE Board of Trustees, either during one of the bi-annual Board meetings or by email. The Board of Trustees will decide if the organisation is suitable to join the Association as ALTE Full Member and undergo an ALTE audit.

If the application is approved by the Board of Trustees, the organisation becomes a candidate for full membership, but is not yet a Full Member. It can start preparing the documentation in order to undergo the quality (Q-Mark) audit, assisted by the ALTE Secretariat. In the next section, there is some general information about the ALTE audit system and some links to related documents to help with the organisation and familiarisation with the ALTE audit system.

4) Apply and undergo an ALTE audit (of at least one of the organisation’s examinations)

A crucial part of the application to become an ALTE Full Member is to undergo an ALTE audit for at least one of the organisation's exams. See the information about the Q-Mark. Detailed information on the ALTE auditing process and its different stages is available in the ALTE Procedures for Auditing. 

The ALTE Quality Assurance checklists (available in Resurse) may also be helpful as they cover aspects of exams audited - test construction; test administration; marking, grading and results; test analysis and post-examination review. The checklists can be used as a self-assessment tool and it is recommended that they are completed by all organisations who consider applying for ALTE audits (the information about this part of the process can also be found in Section 5 of the PFA document mentioned above).

5) Become an ALTE Full Member

Odată procesul de audit ALTE încheiat cu rezultatul ‘Resolved’, organizația va trebui să îndeplinească toate procedurile legale și să semneze Acordul de Membru, pentru a deveni oficial membru cu drepturi depline ALTE. Secretariatul ALTE va oferi anticipat informații detaliate despre toate condițiile legale și despre documentele necesare. 

După semnarea Acordului de Membru, noului membru cu drepturi depline ALTE i se alocă o marcă de calitate unică (Q–mark) și un logo. Aceasta este indicatorul de calitate pe care organizațiile membre îl pot folosi pentru a demonstra că examenele lor au trecut auditul ALTE. Pentru detalii complete referitoare la modul în care Q–mark se poate folosi, consultați Ghidul Q-Mark.

Organizația va fi invitată să pregătească o scurtă prezentare despre instituția sa pentru următoarea întâlnire și conferință ALTE. Aceasta îi va ajuta pe ceilalți membri ALTE să înțeleagă mai bine cum funcționează noua organizație și cu ce tip de examene de limbi lucrează. Organizația va trebui să realizeze, de asemenea, o scurtă descriere a instituției, care va fi inclusă pe site-ul ALTE.

Taxa anuală pentru poziția de membru cu drepturi depline ALTE este de €2,250. Taxa anuală ALTE se plătește în luna ianuarie a fiecărui an, după ce se primește o factură de la Secretariatul ALTE.

Dacă aveți orice întrebări cu privire la această procedură sau la oricare dintre pașii prezentați mai sus, vă rugăm să contactați Secretariatul ALTE (secretariat@alte.org).

Note: transfer of membership is usually not permitted - however see the Rules on Transfer of Membership.