Want To Help PS8?
Sign Up Now As A Nominee For The 2008/9 PTA Executive Board
The time has come for us to elect the PTA Executive Board that will serve the PS8 community from July 1st 2008 to June 30th 2009. Elections will take place at the May 29th PTA General Meeting.
There has never been a better time to support the school by becoming a member of the PTA Executive Board. PS8 needs our help now more than ever; next year we have the double-whammy of no Magnet Grant and the prospects of DoE budget-cuts. (That's why developing the PTA's preliminary budget for 2008/9 has involved examining a PS8 wish-list of over $300,000 worth of programs, investments and initiatives -- more than we have ever raised or spent.)
Understanding the PTA organization in general and the Executive Board in particular is useful for anyone interested in supporting PS8. To help with this, today we posted on the website a new PS8 PTA Guidebook. It explains in straightforward term s the basics of our PTA organization. (The more detailed PTA Bylaws have also been posted.) The PTA Guidebook will be especially valuable to those of you wondering whether serving on the Executive Board is a good opportunity to engage with the school and collaborate with its leaders. (The answer, by the way, is yes, yes, yes.)
The board comprises six positions: President, Vice-President, Corresponding Secretary, Recording Secretary, Treasurer and an Assistant Treasurer. That said, you can nominate yourself either as an individual or, for the President, Vice-President, Corresponding and Recording Secretary positions, you can partner up with another parent and nominate yourself as a team-of-two. This is an excellent option for anyone wanting to get involved but concerned about the time commitment. The partner-with-a-friend option helps busy parents manage the workload using a bit of common-sense divide-and-conquer. By the way, it's not right to assume that the existing board members will simply run again. Current Co-President Lisa Edstrom, for example, will stand down having reached the two-year-term limit. So, there's every reason to step forward.
The process of developing the PTA Guidebook also highlighted an opportunity to more crisply define the role of the PTA. Simply stated, the current board's view is that the PTA organization exists to help parents help our school. The Guidebook expands on this thought, which is captured in a new logo designed by PS8 Dad Eric Janssen, who also designed the school logo. (For more on the practical reasons why the PTA needs its own logo, see the associated article on this website.)
Parents Chris Givler (chris.givler@gmail.com), Barbara Lesesne (barbandelijah@earthlink.net) and Olivia Hicks (ohicks@1481@aol.com) volunteered to help encourage nominees to step forward and to run the election process itself. Please contact them if you have any questions or need assistance finding a running-mate.
So, now all you need to do is jot your name on the sign-up forms that will be posted in the Parent Room today!
Tim Eldridge
On behalf of the 2007/8 PTA Executive Board: Co-Presidents Joanne Singleton & Lisa Edstrom, Co-Recording Secretary Cynthia Arato, Treasurer Amy Linden and Assistant Treasurer Elisabeth Delfs.
Posted on: April 29, 2008
