Basic Tools for PTA Presidents found in the Utah PTA Handbook

The first source for information you should go to is your Utah PTA Handbook. Every president receives a handbook. If you did not attend convention, your Region Director should have picked yours up. It starts with some general information, followed by the President’s tools. The President’s tools include a president’s checklist, time-line, how to do calendaring, organize your board, make agendas, how to use your bylaws, finances, needs assessments, and much, much more. The next section is instructions on how to fill out your reports online. You turn in three reports a year—Nov. 1, Feb. 1, and May 1. You will be asked some questions and will need to turn in the volunteer hours from your school—so keep track of them. Don’t wait until the report is due to go online and look at the information you will be asked to provide for the report. In addition, there are 8 other sections that have information that you will need to pass on and share with your board members. Remember, you are the only one who receives this handbook. Additional handbooks can be purchased from the Utah PTA Office, or you can copy the information and pass it on. 1. Nominations and Elections—You need include elections for a nominating committee in a board meeting before Dec. 31st—this is very important. The committee is vital for getting someone to replace you or other officers when your terms are over. This section will guide you through that election and has all the information you need to give to the committee after they are elected. 2. Bylaws. It is very important that you read and be familiar with your bylaws. There is an index of the bylaws on page 136-137. You don’t have to read the whole bylaws section, just the local bylaws if you are a local president, or the council bylaws if you are a council president. One of the first things you need to do is get the bylaws from your predecessor and see when they need to be renewed. They need to be renewed every three years—not every year, so you might not have to do anything with them. However, if you do need to renew them, it is a pretty simple process and the forms and instructions are in the bylaws section. If you do not have current bylaws, you will not be in good standing and your Reflections entries will not be able to go to state—and you will have a lot of very disappointed parents and students on your hands. This also affects awards applications, arts grant applications, and Battle of the Bands. So make this a priority. 3. Financial. This section is written for you as well as your treasurer. There is a separate, very detailed handbook for treasurers. This section has a timeline, frequently asked questions, forms, and other information. On page 177-179 you will find the Ethics/ Conflict of Interest Policy that you need to have signed by any of your board members who will be handling money. 4. Legislative. Do you realize that you can make a big difference for your school as the president, but you can make a difference for your community and the state by getting involved in the legislative process. You can even change things in your community, like where crossing guards or traffic lights are located, or many other things. We encourage you to join the Member-to-member email network and receive alerts and updates on bills that are crucial to the education, health, and well-being of children. By sending an email or making a phone call to your Senator or Representative, you really can change the outcome of legislation and make a huge difference. Send an email to [email protected] and ask to be added to the member-to-member network and start making a difference today! Is there someone on your board who is assigned to attend the school board meetings and report back to the board? If not, make one. This is important. There are many groups in Utah that may not want the same things for your schools as you do. Do you want these groups to be the only ones that make their wishes known at school board meetings? If no one is there from your school, how will you even know what is going on so you can speak up for your children? This is another place to make a difference. There are a few more important things about legislation. Go to your caucus meeting next March and get elected or help to elect someone to represent your precinct who will vote for candidates who support public education. We made a difference at the last caucus meetings, do it again. And last, please plan to attend the Utah PTA Advocacy conference in October and the Utah PTA Day at the capitol in February. Both are very interesting, enlightening conferences. There should be money in your budget to send your Legislative VP, yourself, and others if possible to both of these conferences. Also, many of your board members should attend the Utah PTA Convention in May. Also remember that PTA members cannot represent PTA and campaign for or endorse candidates. You can do it as an individual but leave PTA out of it. 5. Public Relations and Membership. There is some important information and guidelines for your PR and Membership people, but it is really written for you. They have their own handbooks. In order to be a school in good standing and participate in Reflections and other programs, you need to have all the membership dues you have collected turned into the Utah PTA office by December 1st. 6. The programs section has information about Battle of the Bands for secondary schools, Hope for Tomorrow, Military Families, Take your Family to School Week, and Battle of the Bands. Read about them! 7. The Reflections section is very important for your Reflections Chairman. There is also separate Reflections Handbook available at the Utah PTA Office. Also, check the Reflections page of the Utah PTA Website, www.utahpta.org 8. Awards and Grants. Look at the great things your school is doing. It is wonderful to recognize and publicize the successes you are having by submitting awards nominations. Have an awards person on your board that can take care of this for you. The nominations are submitted to your council (if you have one) and the winners at council go on to Region. Region winners compete at state and the state winners are recognized at the Utah PTA Convention. Look at the awards and start thinking about a person or a program you can nominate and watch the deadlines. The deadline to turn in awards to Council is January 15. If you do not have a council, the deadline for Region is February 1. Apply for the Utah PTA Arts grant and you might receive up to $500 for your school, but you need to have the same amount in matching funds from your PTA or another source. The deadline is February 1st. Let your Board Members know about the LEAP Awards, there are 3 levels. National PTA offers a $1,000 matching Arts Grant, due March 15.