 What happens if you have a vacant officer position?
If your nominating committee has had no luck finding a candidate to fill a position, if you have started the year with an empty officer position, or if one of your officers resigns from their position mid-year, here is the WSPTA recommended procedure that you should follow. NOTE: You do not have to create a nominating committee to find someone for this empty position! A nominating committee is only formed to find qualified nominees for the election that happens in the Spring for your next school year. Your executive committee can appoint a person to fill the vacant office. The appointed officer acts in an "interim" capacity until you can find a person that wants to step into the position in an official capacity and you can elect them OR until the appointed interim officer can be officially elected into their position at the next membership meeting. An interim officer at a local PTA/PTSA has no limitations on what they can/cannot do. An interim officer assumes all the rights and duties of that position. From the WSPTA Uniform Bylaws: If a vacancy occurs in a local PTA or council office, the executive committee may appoint a member to fill the vacancy until the next membership meeting. At the next membership meeting, nominations shall be made from the floor with the consent of the nominee. The election shall be by ballot vote. A majority vote is necessary to elect. The election may be by voice vote if only one candidate is nominated for an office. The newly elected officer shall immediately assume the duties of the office. To learn more about nominating committee, elections, and officer resignations or removals see:
If you are still have questions or are in need of guidance, please reach out to Council - we are here to help!  A big part of PTA is Advocacy. Getting information out to voters is one way Council supports this advocacy work. In the upcoming November 2nd Election, three (3) Northshore School District School Board seats are up for election. To increase access to candidates for voters, Council held an in-person forum on October 5th, 2021. A recording of this forum can be found below. Before watching the forum, please read this message from Council: With events of this type, there were bound to be unexpected challenges and technical issues. And, unfortunately, our forum did not escape the gremlins. Initially, the candidates struggled with the 1 minute time limit on answers and a decision was made to extend their time to answer from 60 seconds to 90 seconds. There were also challenges with recording and especially with sound throughout the event. And, to cap it off, the microphone malfunctioned 10 minutes from the end of our event. When the microphone quit, we made the decision to switch to another video format and allow the candidates to remove their masks for their closing statements to ensure a clearer delivery. Because of these issues, you will notice that our recording is not as smooth as we had hoped. There are a few cuts in recording where we had to edit out some of the more obnoxious technical issues - especially the microphone squeaks and feedback - and our attempts to fix them. Any portion of the video where the candidates were speaking has been kept intact and unaltered. Despite the best efforts of our volunteers, you may also notice a sync issue between the audio and visual at times and most notably around the 1 hour mark. Please be assured that all answers candidates gave can be heard in their entirety. We sincerely appreciate the patience of those who were in person with us and the grace the candidates showed. We especially applaud our team of volunteers for demonstrating the meaning of "PTA Flexible". The School Board Candidate Forum can be viewed by clicking the image below.  Click the image above to watch the recording of the School Board Candidate Forum from October 5th, 2021. Additional Resources for Voters
  Northshore Council PTSA is seeking three (3) volunteers to serve on its 2021-2022 Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee is a special committee that holds the key to a successful PTSA. It is responsible for presenting the best qualified candidates to serve as the elected officers who will lead Northshore Council PTSA in 2021-2022.
Effective candidates for nominating committee: • Are familiar with the needs and goals of Northshore Council PTSA. • Are enthusiastic about Northshore Council PTSA's mission, vision, and goals. • Are willing to work and devote considerable time to furthering the purposes and programs of Northshore Council PTSA. • Possess tact, integrity, discretion, and the ability to hold their own counsel. • Have the courage to express their ideas and defend their convictions • Demonstrate sound judgment and skill in evaluating potential nominees. • Are capable of understanding and maintaining complete confidentiality. • Represent the diversity that is present in the community and student population. • Should be elected on merit and ability – never on popularity. Members of the nominating committee are eligible to become nominees for elected office. No person may serve on this committee for more than two consecutive one-year terms. A candidate for a council nominating committee must be a member of a local PTA/PTSA in the council for at least 15 days preceding their election. If you are interested in serving on Northshore Council PTSA’s 2021-2022 Nominating Committee, please contact Jane Chiodo by Friday, November 5th. Please note: You do not need to be a Northshore Council PTSA Officer to be on the Nominating Committee. We encourage any interested and qualified Northshore PTA/PTSA member to volunteer for this vital role that will help shape the future of Northshore Council PTSA!  Northshore Council PTSA will be holding an in-person School Board Candidate Forum on October 5th from 7 - 8:30PM. This forum will take place at the Kenmore Community Club.
Please note that capacity is limited to 100 people on a first come, first served basis. For those who are unable to attend, a video recording will be posted to our website by Friday, October 8th. Logistics for those planning to attend:
Have a question for the candidates? Email us! This forum will be hosted and moderated by the Northshore Council PTSA. Additional Resources July 15th School Board Primary - Candidate Q&A King County Ballot Information Snohomish County Ballot Information November 2nd, 2021 General Election Dates & Voter Registration Information September 28th - National Voter Registration Day October 13th - Ballots mailed for King County October 14th - Ballots mailed for Snohomish County October 25th - Last day for voters to register or update voter information online November 2nd - Last day for voters to register or update voter information in person November 2nd - Election Day  Voter information and registration can be found at http://vote.wa.gov/.
Start the school year off right by being sure to check these important tasks off your PTA To-Do list!  This is a busy time of year for PTA Leaders with so many things to get done in order to run your PTA, plan programming for students, and provide support to your school community. Here at Council we want to make sure a few key "to-do" items don't get overlooked so we've created the checklist below. We've included links and resources for these items, but remember, Council is always here to help and support our local Northshore PTA Leaders! Visit our Contact Page to connect with a Council officer. 
 The 2021-2022 school year is upon us and the PTA year is about to get into full swing! By now your PTA has held its summer board retreat and has begun planning a membership campaign. So what's next?
Now it's time to plan your first general membership meeting of the year! While some PTAs may be planning for in person meetings, many will plan for their meeting to be held virtually, which may require a little additional preparation. If you are new to hosting virtual meetings, get to know your virtual meeting tool’s online support – there should be tips for setup for all the features, including screen sharing, enabling closed captioning, and login requirements. TIP: Host one or more practice meetings with a few board members ahead of time to get accustomed to the online meeting tools and platform you'll be using. Whether the PTA meets virtually or in person, the same items of business must be done.
Bonus Tip: Plan on having something additional to offer your members once the business is complete. The first meeting is a great opportunity for your principal to give an update on the start of the year – there are lots of things about this school year that are different! Plan ahead with your principal and make sure you know what format for taking questions they are comfortable with. During the meeting, act as the moderator by setting ground rules and expectations for how members will participate and ask their questions. Questions about planning your 1st general membership meeting of the year? Contact Council - We are here to help! Information provided in this blog was originally posted by WSPTA in a 2020 article. Click here to read that article. Calling all party people - Council is searching for a VP of Events!  Do you like to plan parties and organize events (or know someone who does)? Then Council's VP of Events may be the perfect fit for you!
The VP of Events main duty is to plan and coordinate Council's yearly events including the Presidents and Principals Brunch, Council's Reflections Celebration, and the Spring Recognition Event. This position may be held jointly by two (2) people. Those interested must be at least 18 years of age and a current member of at least one local PTA that falls within the Northshore Council PTSA membership area. For more information, please contact Jane Chiodo, Council President.  Save the Date for our School Board Candidate Forum on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021! We are working on finalizing the location and time. At this time we are focusing on planning an in person forum. Details will be posted as soon as they are available. We are also gathering questions from the community to ask during the forum. If you would like to submit a question, please fill out the form below or email your question to advocacy@northshorecouncilptsa.org. This is a great opportunity to get to know the candidates better before the November 2nd General Election. To register to vote, update your voter registration information, or learn more about what's on your ballot, visit Vote.WA.gov.
 Below you will find links to Q&As from each of the eleven (11) Northshore School District School Board Candidates running in the August 2021 Primary Election. To view the responses, click on each candidate's image which will open a PDF of the Q&A. Note: These are best viewed from a desktop type device. A message from our Co-VPs of Advocacy: To reach as many voters as possible and provide them another resource to make informed choices on their ballots, we invited the school board candidates to answer seven questions taken from the most common questions and themes we heard from PTA and community members. We know that candidates are providing information on their own websites and social media, but it can be helpful to have one place where people can access information on all the candidates to compare them more efficiently. We chose questions that cover a variety of interests and concerns from across the district. We emailed each candidate using the email address listed on the King County Elections page. We asked candidates to submit their answers via a Google form by July 12th to allow us time to publish everyone’s responses before the ballots arrive in the mail. This gave candidates one week to respond. We recognize this was a short turn around but we were eager to get information to the voters of our district after having to pivot quickly after canceling our Zoom forums. The candidates’ answers are cut-and-pasted from the Google form so you will see their complete, un-edited answers. If they have any concerns about how their responses are presented, we have asked them to let us know, so that we may address the issue. We really appreciate that all of the candidates took the time to answer our questions. NSD School Board Candidates for Director District No. 1
NSD School Board Candidates for Director District No. 4
NSD School Board Candidates for Director District No. 5
 Voter information and registration can be found at http://vote.wa.gov/.   Council's virtual school board candidate forums that were scheduled to be published later this month have been cancelled. For a statement as to why these forums have been cancelled, please see the video below from Council President, Jane Chiodo. Our hope is to work towards hosting an in-person forum this fall before the general election in November. For a written transcript of the video below, please click here. Northshore Council PTSA Mission Statement Northshore Council PTSA is a welcoming organization that works to support our Local PTAs and serve the children and youth of our community through advocacy, education, mentoring, collaboration, and leadership. Website Links for School Board Candidates Contact Information Taken from King County Elections Page 6/29/2021.
¹No website listed. Link directs you to candidate statement on King County elections page.  Voter information and registration can be found at http://vote.wa.gov/. |
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