Checking in! How are you doing? (And important info about elections and deadlines)

An update for you.

View this email in your browser

From the Desk of John Martin, District 10 Director

Hello everybody,

I hope you are doing as well as can be in this unprecedented time in our nation’s history. PTA should not be foremost in your mind – at best we should be third, after the health and welfare of your family and yourself. But as a PTA officer, you do have an obligation to support PTA and maintain your PTA through its transition period.

Meanwhile, PTA is moving forward, and questions have come up regarding a number of topics. Georgia PTA sent those out in an email last night, so I hope this isn’t your first time seeing this guidance. If it is, go to https://www.georgiapta.org/ and sign up for their newsletter.

On our Facebook page, we are posting resources and information from various sources to help all families. If you think we are missing something, send it to me. National PTA has a COVID-19 resource page as well. If you use these resources, let us know, we can post your story anonymously if you want.

Report Deadlines – Extended – May 1

State deadlines for reports/awards have been moved to May 1. If you have already submitted you can submit a revised report. For example, if you have been actively supporting your community through the last few weeks, you can add that information. Send a copy to state and another to your Council.

Elections

No one can hold elections right now, that’s just a reality. Some of you may have March listed in your bylaws, and the earliest we will go back is April 27, so even if your bylaws say April, that may not be feasible. We just don’t have an end date. For elections you must meet in person, you must invite your whole membership, and you must have a quorum. Right now, that is NOT advisable, and may even be against local/city/state ordinance. For elections and general meetings, the bylaws clearly state that “voting by proxy, absentee ballot, telephone, fax, email, and text messaging” is prohibited.

What does that mean for you? If you are a current PTA officer, you will be an officer of your PTA until you can hold a meeting, in person, to elect your replacement. Basically, sometime after this crisis is over, you can convene a special called general meeting if you need to, providing at least three (3) days notice to your membership. You must have a quorum at that meeting. You can hold elections from the floor if you did not have a nominating committee in place. If you have any questions or need help, or even someone to run/observe your election, contact me.

Census

I got my Census form in the mail – and it links to an online form, Make sure you go online and get counted! Our state representation in Congress as well as federal tax dollar allocations are based on these numbers. Everyone counts, even non-citizen residents. More info here.

In these times, I want you to think about what you are thankful for. I am thankful for all of you, many of whom, like me, are hunkered down working from home, while taking class attendance in the morning and finding that all the students are tardy and wearing pajamas to school.

I am thankful for the teachers and administration and support staff who are keeping things going through digital lessons, and the institutions that have moved services online, or the nonprofits that are the safety net for the needy amongst us.

And I am very grateful for all the essential people who went to work today, to provide us with food, deliveries, healthcare, security, government services, and so much more than we realize.

Please stay safe and stay strong, and if you can’t do that, please do not hesitate to reach out to those of us who can help you. We are all in this together.

Thank you!

John