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
Get Ready for Teacher Appreciation Week
Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up May 6-10, and National PTA has resources you can share with your members and use as a PTA to send the message that “Teachers Are Shining Stars!” National PTA’s Thank a Teacher toolkit has everything you need as a PTA to celebrate your school’s teachers. In the toolkit, you’ll … Continue reading Get Ready for Teacher Appreciation Week
Accommodating Special Needs at Your PTA Events
We’ve often said that one of the best things about being a PTA versus other parent organizations is that you are never alone in this. Not only do you have resources from Illinois PTA and National PTA, but other state PTAs as well. Late last year, we published an article on ways your PTA could … Continue reading Accommodating Special Needs at Your PTA Events
March is National Reading Month
March is National Reading Month in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday on March 2nd. Reading is the foundation of student success, and developing a love of reading can unlock a world of adventures to last a lifetime. Your PTA can help families support children’s literacy and love of reading by hosting a Family Reading Experience … Continue reading March is National Reading Month
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)
National PTA Standards for Family-School Partnerships Video Series
National PTA’s Standards for Family-School Partnerships are the basis for effective family engagement. And effective family engagement is critical to student success, as a recent study demonstrated that schools with better family engagement practices had students that did better after returning to school from remote learning during the pandemic. National PTA has recently released a … Continue reading National PTA Standards for Family-School Partnerships Video Series
Busting 5 PTA Membership Myths
Membership is one of the basic parts of PTA, but there are a lot of myths and misunderstandings about it. Here are five common PTA membership myths busted. Myth #1: Membership campaigns are only at the start of the school year. Busted: Sure, most of your members will join PTA at the start of the … Continue reading Busting 5 PTA Membership Myths
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
Time for Take Your Family to School Week
National PTA’s Take Your Family to School Week is February 11-17, 2024. The week celebrates the founding of PTA on February 17, 1987 and is designed to engage families in their children’s schools and build partnerships with teachers and administrators. The time to start planning how your PTA will celebrate Take Your Family to School … Continue reading Time for Take Your Family to School Week
Learning New Ways to PTA
National PTA has been using PTA as a verb for a couple of years now, emphasizing the idea that PTA is taking action for your child’s and every child’s success. National PTA has also been sharing reports on how grant recipients and other PTAs have been implementing the PTA mission through programs and other activities. … Continue reading Learning New Ways to PTA
Have Fun, Grow Membership, and Win Prizes with Membership Mania
As a PTA leader, you’ve probably often heard that you should integrate membership into everything your PTA does, but perhaps you’re not sure what that means exactly. Is it having a PTA membership table out at every event? Is it always having a join our PTA link in every e-mail? All of this and more? … Continue reading Have Fun, Grow Membership, and Win Prizes with Membership Mania
Embracing Inclusivity and Diversification: 7 Ways to Foster a Welcoming Holiday Season
The holiday season is a time for joy, unity, and celebration. As PTA members, we have the opportunity to make this festive season contain monumental joy by promoting inclusivity and diversification within our events, and creating opportunities for representation. Let's explore ways to embrace the richness of our differences and create a holiday season that … Continue reading Embracing Inclusivity and Diversification: 7 Ways to Foster a Welcoming Holiday Season
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
It’s Tax Time (for Many PTAs)
I know, you thought tax time was in April. But for PTAs (and other 501(c)(3) organizations), tax time depends on when their fiscal year ends. For many PTAs, that’s June 30th. And yes, your PTA is a non-profit organization, but you still need to file a form with the IRS. Your tax form is due … Continue reading It’s Tax Time (for Many PTAs)
Creating Your PTA Value Message
If you are looking to grow your PTA membership, you might have already heard that the number one reason people haven’t joined PTA is because they were never asked to join. And while, “Would you like to join our PTA?” will get some people to join, it’s not always enough. Fortunately, National PTA has created … Continue reading Creating Your PTA Value Message
School of Excellence Recognizes 9 PTAs for 2022-2024
National PTA’s School of Excellence program is designed to build strong partnerships between families and schools and create meaningful family engagement. This year, National PTA has recognized nine Illinois PTAs as Schools of Excellence for the 2022-2024 period, with Twin Echo Elementary PTA in Collinsville earning the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Family-School Partnership Award of Merit … Continue reading School of Excellence Recognizes 9 PTAs for 2022-2024
Get Ready for PTA Grant Season
One of the great benefits of being a PTA is that National PTA offers a huge number of grants on a variety of topics. Last fall, 18 local PTAs in Illinois received $1,000 grants supporting programs in STEM, tobacco prevention, reading and literacy, arts education, internet safety, and digital device use. An additional 8 local … Continue reading Get Ready for PTA Grant Season
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
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