Advocacy has been the cornerstone of PTA since our founding in 1897 and remains the primary focus today. Many major landmark policies for children such as child labor laws, the Juvenile Justice System and hot school lunches, are examples of PTA advocates pushing for reform. Of course changes don’t take place overnight. Advocacy is often a gradual process. It requires patience and year-to-year efforts. Most of all it requires advocacy remain a primary focus not only at the National and State level but also the local unit level. It is the job of the unit legislative chair to both inform and encourage advocacy by all our members.
When you appoint a legislative chair for your unit make sure they contact the state PTA office to give them their contact information (office@mopta.org). This will ensure your legislative chair is added to the list to receive emails and other resources from MOPTA.
Encourage your members to sign up for Missouri PTA legislative alerts at this link: http://mopta.org/jcdc-take-action/
Encourage your members to sign up for National PTA legislative alerts at this link: http://cqrcengage.com/npta2/app/register?1&m=15903
Encourage your members to attend our Council’s annual advocacy events. We will host our annual legislative focus council meeting in November and our annual school board candidates’ forum in March. Your attendance at these events (and all council meetings) matter, so make plans now to attend and recruit additional members to join you. Remember that you can bring an unlimited number of members to any council meeting, however, only 5 may vote if a vote on council issues occurs during our business meeting.
Springfield Council of PTAs 