National PTA President's Letter
October, 2003

I want to personally thank our PTA Leaders for all of their hard work so far this year!

I know you and your PTA have been hard at work ensuring a successful back to school for the children and parents in your community.

Now that everyone is settled into the routine of the school year, it's a good time for us to look at our accomplishments and plans for the rest of the year. National PTA has been hard at work making your job as a PTA leader easier.

Increasing membership.
Membership declines have been high on everyone's priority list, and National PTA is keenly aware of the struggles you face to maintain let alone increase membership. With this in mind, National PTA created a tool to make it easier for potential members to find you. In September, we launched a look-up feature on the PTA website that allows anyone to find the closest PTA in their area and receive information on how to join that PTA. Visitors to www.pta.org/aboutpta/bemember/lookup/index.asp simply input their city and state. Where PTAs are available, a list will appear with a link stating, "I want to join this PTA" next to each entry. If there are no local PTAs in their area, they will be informed of this and will be given a Web link with information to create a new local PTA or to join the National PTA Unit.

Raising awareness about PTA.
National PTA was selected by the Ad Council for a multi-million dollar advertising campaign on television and radio and in print. These ads, which will be available to public service directors across the country at TV and radio stations in November, will equal $100 million of advertising provided to National PTA during the next three years. Keep an eye out for these ads, which feature celebrities including basketball star Charles Barkley and star of "ER," Anthony Edwards. I have seen the first cut and they were fantastic! I know they will generate a lot of enthusiasm for our organization.

Advocating for increased education funding.
National PTA joined the "Five Cents Makes Sense for Education" campaign this year to urge Congress to increase education funding from two cents to five cents of every federal dollar spent. The success of this campaign will make your job much easier-no more fundraising to meet the basic needs of your school!

Bringing attention to the need for after-school programs.
October 6-10, National PTA hosted Doors Open After School week to raise awareness of the importance of after-school programs. This is truly a beginning to a much bigger initiative. Next year, National PTA will convene a meeting of national stakeholders to develop a plan to increase the number of and participation in after-school programs. National PTA will also work to provide tools and resources about after-school providers, best practices, funding resources (including information about which programs are most fundable), cost effectiveness, and insurance to help communities form the partnerships needed to establish after-school programs.

These are just a few of the many recent accomplishments by National PTA volunteers and staff. I could write pages about our resources and programs!

As you think back on everything National PTA is doing to help all PTAs accomplish their goals this school year, please consider making a financial gift to National PTA to support these efforts. In the coming weeks, you will receive a letter from me with this same request.

Together, we stand stronger than when we do standing alone. Making a donation to National PTA enhances our power of association and unified voice for every child. I hope you'll see your way to include National PTA on your list of year-end charities. If you would like to make a donation now, just click here https://www.pta.org/ssl/contribution.asp.

Thank you for your hard work, dedication, and support!

  Linda Hodge
  President, National PTA