It’s PTA election season, but what does your PTA do when your nominating committee can’t find someone to run for an office? Here are three steps to take. Start with your bylaws. Your PTA bylaws spell out how electing officers takes place. They spell out how long a term is and how many terms a … Continue reading 3 Steps to Take If Your PTA Can’t Fill an Officer Position
5 Nominating Committee Problems (and How to Fix Them)
The nominating committee is an essential part of a successful PTA. The committee’s charge is to slate one person for each officer position at least 30 days before the election. However, nominating committees often run into problems in completing this seemingly simple task. Here are five problems that nominating committees most commonly have and how … Continue reading 5 Nominating Committee Problems (and How to Fix Them)
Show Your PTA Volunteers Some Love This Valentine’s Day
PTA runs on volunteers, from the person helping out at the book fair all the way up to the National PTA President. One way to build your PTA’s volunteer base and strengthen your PTA as a whole is to support your volunteers. Here are some ways you and your PTA can make sure your volunteers … Continue reading Show Your PTA Volunteers Some Love This Valentine’s Day
Building a PTA Meeting Agenda
Do your PTA meetings seem to run on forever? Does it feel like nothing ever gets decided? Do you actually have a published agenda for your meeting? Building an effective agenda for your PTA meeting is probably the most important thing you can do to improve your meetings, and in doing so, you’ll also improve … Continue reading Building a PTA Meeting Agenda
5 Steps to PTA Financial Success
You may think of your role with your PTA as “just a volunteer job,” but in reality, you are helping to run a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. That’s why both the state and federal governments have specific legal requirements for your PTA, most of which focus on financial issues. Here are five steps to PTA financial … Continue reading 5 Steps to PTA Financial Success
Help, I’m the New PTA President!
So the previous PTA president just dropped off a box of stuff and sped off down the street (and was that a cackle you heard?). The person from the nominating committee had said it was an easy job, just run the PTA meetings, but there’s so much stuff in the box and nothing about running … Continue reading Help, I’m the New PTA President!
The Secret to PTA Leadership Success
What if there was a tool to avoid the most common problems PTAs run into—a tool that made your PTA meetings run smoother, made board conflict less likely, and helped avoid legal issues with the IRS and the state of Illinois? What if learning to use this tool effectively only took a few hours of … Continue reading The Secret to PTA Leadership Success
10 Steps to a Smooth PTA Transition
With the school year coming to a close, it’s time for current PTA officers and board members to wrap things up and hand them over to the incoming PTA leadership team. For incoming officers and board members, it’s time to what you need to do and what you need to know to be successful in … Continue reading 10 Steps to a Smooth PTA Transition
6 Keys to Running a Successful PTA Election
In January, we discussed the five keys to running a successful nominating committee. Now, as your school year nears the end, here are six keys to running a successful PTA election. Your election must be held at a general membership meeting. Much of the day-to-day running of a PTA can be handled by your PTA … Continue reading 6 Keys to Running a Successful PTA Election
Get Some Extra Credit from Texas PTA
While we generally focus on resources from National PTA and Illinois PTA here on One Voice Illinois (it is the Illinois PTA blog, after all), we have occasionally highlighted resources from other state PTAs. While other states might have laws or requirements that are different from those here in Illinois, many PTA resources on leadership, … Continue reading Get Some Extra Credit from Texas PTA
5 Keys to Running a Successful Nominating Committee
Many PTAs elect their nominating committee at their January general membership meeting. Electing the nominating committee is one of items that must be done at a general membership meeting (along with accepting the audit report, adopting and amending the budget, adopting the bylaws, and electing officers). If you’ve just been elected to your PTA’s nominating … Continue reading 5 Keys to Running a Successful Nominating Committee
Tweaking Your PTA’s Course in the New Year
New Year’s is a time of fresh starts for a lot of people, but for PTAs, it’s the middle of the year. Your PTA doesn’t need a fresh start, but perhaps you could use a few minor “course corrections.” Here are three such changes your PTA should be considering now. Membership Your PTA got off … Continue reading Tweaking Your PTA’s Course in the New Year
6 Steps to Rebuild Your PTA’s Leadership
When schools closed in the spring of 2020 to fight the spread of COVID-19, many PTAs ran into difficulties. Closed schools meant shifting to virtual PTA meetings, and PTAs with spring officer elections often struggled with running virtual elections. When school started back up in the fall of 2020, many schools were still online-only or … Continue reading 6 Steps to Rebuild Your PTA’s Leadership
PTA Secretary: Beyond the Minutes
When you are elected PTA secretary, you know your primary job is to keep the minutes at PTA meetings. But the role of the secretary goes beyond the minutes. About Those Minutes The PTA secretary keeps the minutes not only for the general membership meetings, but also for the meetings of the executive committee (officers) … Continue reading PTA Secretary: Beyond the Minutes
What the Heck Does a PTA Vice President Do?
Vice presidents don’t get a lot of respect (see US Vice President John Nance Garner’s infamous quote that the position was “not worth a bucket of warm spit”). If you are a newly-elected PTA vice president, you may be wondering what exactly it is you’re supposed to do. The answer depends on your PTA president. … Continue reading What the Heck Does a PTA Vice President Do?
What Have I Done? Surviving Your First Few Months as PTA President
Last year’s PTA president said it was an easy job, just run a few meetings, so you said yes and got elected. But now they’ve dropped off this big box of PTA files and sped away like they had robbed a bank, and maybe you’re beginning to wonder what you’ve gotten yourself in for. Don’t … Continue reading What Have I Done? Surviving Your First Few Months as PTA President
5 PTA Leader New Year’s Resolutions
New Year’s resolutions have been made for millennia. The start of a new calendar year is the opportunity to start new habits and new projects. Here are five New Year’s resolutions for PTA leaders. Advocate. PTA advocacy has made a difference in the lives of children for over 120 years in Illinois. A more equitable … Continue reading 5 PTA Leader New Year’s Resolutions
10 Secrets to Getting and Keeping Volunteers
Your PTA needs volunteers to be successful, and as we begin to have more in-person events, your PTA’s need for volunteers is likely growing over what you’ve gotten by with during the pandemic. If your PTA is struggling to find volunteers, here are ten secrets to getting and keeping them. Toot your PTA’s horn. Make … Continue reading 10 Secrets to Getting and Keeping Volunteers
8 Steps to a Successful PTA Year
The start of the school year is always a busy time, and even more so if you are a PTA leader. In addition to all the usual back-to-school activities, you’re also juggling all your new PTA duties and learning to work with your PTA team. Here are 8 steps to get your PTA year off … Continue reading 8 Steps to a Successful PTA Year
Planning for Your PTA Year
Once again, PTA leaders planning for the coming year are faced with a lot of uncertainty. From the growing prevalence of the delta variant to breakthrough infections in vaccinated people and shifting recommendations on mask wearing, it is difficult to know how your coming school year will play out. Much of what Illinois PTA shared with … Continue reading Planning for Your PTA Year
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