In 1985, when the membership voted to become a membership organization, the Committee became The Association for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups, International (although incorporation as AASWG took several more years) (Ramey, 1998b).
The people who came together to begin AASWG, with their "wonderful spirit of inclusion, validation and humanity that is imbedded in group work ideology" (Papell, 1997, 10) determined that group work should survive.