The mission of the Utah PTA Individual Development Commission is:
- To assist parents, teachers and PTA leaders in building future leaders, through art and music education, character development and programs that build self-esteem for all children.
- To take positive action to further the purpose of PTA in promoting the welfare of children and youth at home and at school.
- To promote programs which benefit and strengthen arts and cultural education through parental involvement.
What is Your Job?
Oversee the Reflections program
- Develop a committee
- Determine how to promote it
- Delegate assignments
Coordinate character development programs
- Use the Utah PTA and National PTA resources
- Improve the programs you already are doing
- Put together a team
Create an Arts Grant Committee
- Get the Art Grants forms and instructions from the Utah PTA Handbook
Work with your local PTA/PTSA board
- Schedule events and get volunteers
- Set a budget
- Work on needs assessments for your school
Attend all board meetings
- Report on needs and status of events
Create a procedure book. Include:
- A copy of your local PTA Bylaws
- A copy of your current membership sent to Utah PTA
- A place for your budget and receipts
- A contact section for:
- Awards Recognition sources
- Committee members
- Board members
How to Get Started
- Gather materials; for example, the Utah PTA President Handbook, Utah PTA Arts Education and Supplies Grant, Individual Development Handbook, the Reflections Handbook, the Arts Grant Awards Section from the Utah PTA President Handbook and records (procedure book) from the prior Individual Development Commissioner.
- Become familiar with National PTA resources at pta.org
- Attend leadership training at the annual Utah PTA Leadership Convention. Reflection e-learning courses are also valuable help with training. They can be found at pta.org
- Organize your commission or committee. (You don’t need to work alone. Working with friends and neighbors makes your work easier and more fun.) Discuss with your commission members the information for this handbook and especially the steps on this page.
- Develop a survey/needs assessment to determine the needs of your PTA membership, parents, teachers and students (this could be part of your school’s annual PTA Needs Assessment).
- From the survey/needs assessment data, identify subjects that are high-ranking concerns to your PTA boards, parents, teachers, and students.
- Choose two or three areas of focus for your Individual Development Commission.
- Based on these areas of focus, clearly define reasonable goals and objectives you would like to establish for your commission.
- Include school administrators in your planning (they can help you check for school policies or laws governing each area of focus on the local, district and state level).
- Decide what programs and activities, in addition to Reflections, that will help meet your goals and objectives.
- Develop an action plan for your programs and activities and make sure to delegate, delegate, and delegate!
- Budget for these activities and submit your budget to the budget committee for inclusion in the overall budget.
- Keep records of the programs and activities so that you can evaluate their effectiveness and move forward with the goals and objectives. Update or create the procedure book. These records will be valuable to the Individual Development Commissioner who follows you.
- Express gratitude frequently to those who assist you!