April - May 2010
The end of the school year means many different things to different people. For our children, it’s time to ditch the school bus for afternoon bike rides. For parents, it’s time to keep our kids focused until that last school bell rings. And for teachers, it’s time to reflect on and be proud of the great strides the kids have made in the classroom during this year.
For the last several months – while parents have been packing lunches, helping with homework, attending PTA meetings, volunteering in the classroom and attending conferences – our teachers have been pouring every ounce of their energy into educating our children and building their confidence with passion, enthusiasm and heart. As the school year winds down, it’s the perfect time to honor these dedicated folks with PTA’s Teacher Appreciation Week.
I encourage your PTA to participate this year (May 2-9) and show our teachers just how much we appreciate their tremendous efforts. Our website has tons of activity ideas, downloads and other resources to get you started – use it! And let our teachers know what they mean to us.
Of course, just because the school year is winding down doesn’t mean our efforts are. In just a few short months, on June 10-13, we’ll travel to beautiful, charming Memphis for our 2010 National PTA Convention and Exhibition. There, we’ll have more than 50 workshops, 200 exhibits, hundreds of resources and countless opportunities for you to voice your opinions among a mobilized group of advocates. Each year, it promises to be a powerful event, and this year, we’re kicking things up a notch by incorporating our Emerging Minority Leaders Conference, PTA MORE (Men Organized to Raise Engagement) initiative, and Youth Summit, along with our partnership with PIRC (Parental Information and Resource Centers).. It will be an event like no other.
Whether or not you will be attending the National Convention, I encourage you to use your summer as an opportunity for recharging and continuing your valuable PTA efforts. Because, before we know it, back-to-school season will be upon us! I have no doubts that you will have successful summer leadership conferences and help carry your local PTA members through these next few months with conviction, grace and dedication.
So, thank you for all that you do and may your summer be one of stamina, solidarity, sunshine and success!
PTA: More Than Ready for the Future!
As we enter a brand new decade this year, I can’t help but think about how we have the awesome responsibility of setting the tone for PTA® the next 10 years – and what good shape we’re in to do it. With more than 5 million motivated members, savvy leaders such as yourself, and an abundance of free resources for parents and teachers, we have the ability to make 2010 and beyond some of the best years the PTA has ever experienced.
For this reason, I encourage you to approach the events and celebrations this year with revitalized gusto. With Take Your Family to School Week approaching (February 7-13), we have a great opportunity to ramp up involvement, recruit new members and re-engage families in our communities. As always, our Take Your Family to School Week pays tribute to PTA’s Founding Mothers, providing veteran members, new members and non-members with a passionate reminder of the principles that launched our association. What perfect timing for an inspiring look to the past to help guide us through our future!
Of course, this isn’t the only thing we’re honoring this year. This year we’re also celebrating the 40th anniversary of the merger between the National Congress of Parents and Teachers and the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers—today’s National PTA. We’re also excited about the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the PTA Reflections program, dedicated to allowing children to express themselves through the arts. Thanks to these efforts, diversity in both membership and academic endeavors, have enriched the lives of countless children across the country – something we must continue to develop as an association. In March, which we claim “National PTA Legislative Month,” we’ll take stock of these and other advocacy efforts to ensure our association is doing absolutely everything possible to take action on behalf of our children’s education, health, and well being.
So, as we move forward this year, let’s use our impressive legacy to re-inspire ourselves and push through the next decade with passion, integrity, ambition and clarity. I could not be prouder of your efforts up to this point, and I thank you for all that you’ve done and will continue to do as a leader in PTA. Here’s to another successful decade!
Charles J. “Chuck” Saylors
National PTA President
PTA.org/chucksaylors
Here we are once again. Another year has come and gone - and quickly, at that. But what a year it was for PTA! We had some lofty goals and introduced new inclusion initiatives, and you all responded to these efforts with impressive zest.
First off, I'm happy to report that we made great strides with our Male Involvement Alliance MORE: Men Organized to Raise Engagement. Getting men more involved in PTA was - and will continue to be - a high priority for the association. In 2009, we set the bar high by working with the National Fatherhood Initiative to launch the "Get in the PTA" campaign in schools, implementing Real Men Cook and Real Men Read programs in Texas, welcoming more than 200 new male PTA leaders to WATCH D.O.G.S, and co-sponsoring the Million Father March on the first day of school. We all know how vital it is to get men more engaged and, as a father of four myself (one in elementary and one in middle school), I'm just thrilled to see that we're on the right track toward making that happen.
We also put the spotlight on diversity this year with our fourth annual Emerging Minority Leaders Conference and the official launch of our Urban Family Engagement Initiative. When leaders like you came together to collaborate, network, learn and share, the result was a powerful foundation that we must continue to build on in the years to come.
So, we'll continue to ramp up these inclusion efforts in 2010, but that's not all we've got planned for the year. We'll have the National PTA Reflections Exhibit at the U.S. Department of Education, the always-important Take Your Family to School Week demonstrating our National Standards for Family-School Partnerships in action, the National PTA Legislative Conference in DC and our 114th annual National PTA Convention and Exhibition in Memphis, which will also feature the 2010 EMLC, Male Engagement Summit, Youth Summit and a celebration of the 40th Anniversary when the National Congress of Parents and Teachers merged with the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers, forming today's PTA.
With all of these exciting initiatives on the horizon, 2010 is shaping up to be another incredible year for PTA. Let's make sure of it, together. Your participation is what makes all the difference and I'm looking forward to working with each of you to continue this momentum in making inclusion and academic success a reality for all of our children.
Happy holidays, from our family to yours.
Charles J. “Chuck” Saylors
National PTA President
Support: The Stuff We're Made Of
We often point to all the tangible benefits of membership as reasons to join, and stay with, PTA®. There certainly are quite a few of them: from 501(c)3 status to insurance to the huge number of online and print resources available―free―for parents and leaders and anyone else who wants to support the education and health of children. But training, tax exemptions, and Take Your Family to School Week Awards have never been the real reason why people joined PTA. We join because we want to be part of a community, one that accomplishes so much on behalf of our kids.
Everywhere you look these days, you can see a need for stronger communities. We have an economy that is
forcing millions of capable workers without jobs to rely on their families, friends, and neighbors just to survive.
We have profoundly heartbreaking surges in youth violence that beg someone, anyone, to intervene. We have
schools graduating fewer students and dropping more critical classroom and technical learning opportunities.
After 113 years of bringing together families, schools, and communities, it's clear that the PTA family has never
been needed more in America than right now.
The PTA family works on behalf of every child in our country. You can see it when we go to Capitol Hill to help
pass better child nutrition laws and when we go to the White House to work on volunteer initiatives that encourage more people serve their school communities. But we work on a local level, too. In states and
counties across the land, PTA is the one promoting parent involvement, helping school boards and parents
come together, and the only ones with staff motivated not by profit, but by a mission to help your children
achieve. We are more than a magazine, more than a chat room―we are literally in your hometown whenever
you need us. The PTA family is a genuine network of support, made up of real people you've seen with your
own eyes and who have helped you with their own hands. Support. That's what family is for, and what makes
our communities healthy.
The solution to so many of our problems can be found by people simply engaging one another: not just online, but in homes, schools, cities, and statehouses. That's how we can help our children, and where we'll find the
incredible strength we'll need to be successful in our mission. I am proud of your efforts and look forward to
engaging everyone in our PTA family. Thank you!
Charles J. “Chuck” Saylors
National PTA President
America’s PTA
If you were unable to join me at the national convention in Fort Lauderdale this past June, let me say once again how incredibly grateful I am that you have entrusted me to be the first ever male National President of PTA. But I owe you even more thanks for your decision to be involved in this association at this time in our history.
We have reached a defining moment, and members committed to our mission have work to do. When faced with the question of whether you, personally, were committed to helping PTA reach out to all communities, you have stood up and said, “Yes!” When given a choice between supporting your child and supporting all children—even knowing the challenges involved—the decision was clear. Because it’s not really one or the other: by working on behalf of America’s students, you truly are helping your student, your family, and your school.
These can’t just be words, however. We are asking you to follow through in action as well. There is no question that PTA must work harder on its growth and its diversity. The only question is: what will you do to help PTA expand into the communities where it is most needed? We need more men to be involved in PTA, and in children’s lives. Will you help PTA raise its male membership from 10% to 20% over the next two years? We need better representation in PTA from the very youth we have chosen to serve. Will you help PTSAs get more students to join us? We need to improve our service to the families who have members serving in our military. Will you help the families in your community when their loved one gets deployed overseas?
Now is the time for serious people to get engaged. At a time when we need to ask everyone in our schools and communities—especially those who have never been asked before—to become part of the PTA family, we need serious people. Serious people who will embrace new ideas, new methods, and a new look. Serious people who will make PTA the family experience it needs to be: a place where all families are welcome. Please join me as we make our PTA, America’s PTA.
Charles J. “Chuck” Saylors
PTA National President