The leadership of your PTA shares a few, very specific responsibilities. They include the following:
- Duty of Care. Each board member has a legal responsibility to participate actively in making decisions on behalf of your PTA and to exercise his or her best judgment while doing so. It requires good organizational skills and developing your leadership skills.
- Duty of Loyalty. Each board member must put the interests of the organization before their personal and professional interests when acting on behalf of the organization in a decision-making capacity. Your PTA’s needs come first.
- That doesn’t mean becoming a “yes” man or woman to the PTA. It means understanding the overall vision and goals of the organization, jumping on the bandwagon, and doing your part to make it happen. While you are a PTA officer you need to find time to make PTA a priority in your life.
- A man was walking down a deserted beach at sunset. As he walked along, began to see another man in the distance. As he grew nearer, he noticed that the local native kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water. Time and again, he kept hurling things out into the ocean. As the man approached, he noticed that the man was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time, was throwing them back into the water. The man was puzzled. He approached the man and said, “Good evening, friend. I was wondering what you are doing.” “I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it is low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don’t throw them back into the sea, they’ll die up here from lack of oxygen.” “I understand,” the man said, “but there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. You can’t possibly get to all of them. There are simply too many. And don’t you realize this is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast? Can’t you see that you can’t possibly make a difference?” The local native smiled, bent down and picked up yet another starfish, and as he threw it back into the ocean, he replied, “Made a difference to THAT one!” (Jack Canfield and Mark V. Hansen) “Remember: One hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be a different place because I was important in the life of a child.”
- Duty of Obedience. Board members bear the legal responsibility of ensuring that your PTA complies with the applicable federal, state, and local laws and adheres to its mission and purposes.
- PTA’s mission is to make every child’s potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children.
- The purposes of the PTA are:
- To promote the welfare of children and youth in the home, school community, and place of worship.
- To raise the standards of home life.
- To secure adequate laws for the care and protection of children and youth.
- To bring into closer relation the home and the school, that parents and teachers may cooperate intelligently in the education of children and youth.
- To develop between educator and the general public such united efforts as will secure for all children and youth the highest advantages in physical, mental, social, and spiritual education.
- Focus on and evaluate your goals. Your board should have overall goals for the year that are in line with PTA’s mission, including membership goals. Regularly assess progress toward those goals.
- Set the tone. Maintain a positive working relationship among your PTA board members and a welcoming environment for the rest of the membership. For more info, see “Leading the PTA Way.”
- Know and follow your organization’s bylaws, as well as applicable state and federal laws. These are the rules your PTA will follow.
- Know your finances. As a first step, you’ll need to approve and oversee your budget.
- Plan for rotation and transition. Your PTA board will grow stronger when you consistently recruit new members and leaders. Know when your term ends, and plan for a smooth transition by saving reports, files and notes for your successors.
Did You Know there is power in PTA?
- Your PTA is an independent nonprofit association. That means your members get to make the decisions—members approve your bylaws, elect your officers, and inform your budget and plans. While you may partner with or focus your efforts on a school, your school principal is not in charge, though you should follow school policies for community collaborations. If you are struggling with effective collaboration, use the PTA line of communication to find support.
Local – Council – Region – State – National.
- Your PTA is an advocacy organization—not a booster organization. Like any nonprofit, you will raise money for your cause. But your PTA should focus most of its time implementing PTA’s mission through family programs and child advocacy opportunities.
- Your PTA supports your state and National PTA—and vice versa. Your PTA and thousands of other PTAs exist to achieve the PTA mission. With your support, National PTA’s social and policy impact has been felt in schools, in school districts, in state assemblies and on Capitol Hill since 1897. PTA is more relevant today than ever before as we push forward the mission of Every child. One voice.