Hand in Hand

When someone says ‘hand in hand’, what do you think of? Spaghetti and Meatballs? Peanut Butter and Jelly? Salt and Pepper? Milk and Cookies? So many words have other words associated with them.

But what about PTA? When I relate the expression ‘hand in hand’ to PTA, Advocacy and Membership are the first pair of words that come to mind. Our mission statement is very clear:

PTA is a powerful voice for all children, a relevant resource for families and communities, and a strong advocate for the education and wellbeing of every child.

Over the past few months we have turned up the volume of our voice in both Washington D.C. and Albany. View our Advocacy 2017 video here.

We have spoken with our legislators about many important issues including:

• Career and Technical Education
• Heroin/Prescription Opioids
• Restrict and Ban Marketing of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) to Children
• Support of $2 Billion Investment in Children

When we speak as representatives of PTA, we are influential because we speak with the voices of hundreds of thousands of our members behind us. It is evident that the connection between Advocacy and Membership is very significant.

You chose to participate in NYS PTA’s Virtual Lobby Day/Week this year and you made a difference. More than 8,000 email messages were sent to legislators at the state and federal levels, and they heard our voice.

The work is not done. The work is never done. Issues that affect each of our communities need to be addressed, and your school’s PTA or Council of PTAs needs to be a voice in how that happens.

Speaking to your principal, school board or superintendent on behalf of the members of your PTA community will make a big difference. The larger your membership number, the louder your voice will be. Your collective voice will help create the best outcomes for all our children.

NYS PTA recently launched our +ONE campaign as an easy way to help membership grow. Click here to read about the campaign. And click here if you’d like to gift a membership.

We have enjoyed some very significant gains because of our collective advocacy efforts. Tremendous potential exists for further progress. Please embrace and promote NYS PTA’s +ONE campaign.

Consider adding Advocacy and Membership to your list of commonly-paired sets of words, as there is no doubt that there is power in numbers. Do what you can to stimulate your unit’s membership effort and enable it to become another tributary that feeds our mighty river of advocacy.

-Gracemarie

Gracemarie Rozea, President
Leading the Way
president@nyspta.org