 Please join us at our next Northshore Council PTSA General Membership meeting on Monday, November 18th at the Northshore School District Administration Building. There will be a meet and greet at 6:30 p.m. and the meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. We will be electing a Nominating Committee, hear from district and community leaders, and there will be a special presentation from Council E-Prep Chair Robin McKenzie about emergency preparedness. Beginning at 8:00 p.m., we will also be offering some awesome training opportunities for our Northshore PTAs, including: ✔️ Lining Up Your Leaders: How to Have a Successful Nominating Committee and Election ✔️ How to Use WSPTA Positions for Local Advocacy ✔️ Keep Your A$$ets Out of Trouble: Managing a Non-Profit ✔️ Emergency Preparedness: What Your PTA Needs to Know The training is open to officers, board members, committee chairs and interested PTA/PTSA members. We really hope that each Northshore PTA will send at least one representative to the meeting. But ALL are welcome. We'd love to have more PTA voices from across our district in attendance! We look forward to seeing you there!!! Questions? Contact Grace Jurado & Stacey Meyer.
 Northshore Council PTSA held its first general meeting of the 2019-2020 on Monday, September 16, 2019 at the NSD Administration Building. Co-Presidents Grace Jurado and Stacey Meyer called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and took a few moments to introduce this year's Council board members before diving into the agenda. Council business included a review of the minutes from the May meeting, updating Council's Standing Rules for 2019-2020 (link available soon!) and a review of the end-of-year financial report for 2018-2019 as well as financial reports from July and August. Vice-President Jane Chiodo encouraged local PTAs to apply for an Educational Speaker and Event Grant (the first application deadline is coming up on October 11th!). Cindy Jensen, our Council Reflections Chair, then spoke briefly about the Reflections program and the value of sharing this opportunity in our local PTAs that encourages students to express themselves creatively through this national arts recognition program. Co-VP of Advocacy, Nancy Chamberlain, took some time to promote the upcoming WSPTA Legislative Assembly, taking place October 26-27 at Bellevue College. Then the floor was opened for nominations for the Council Treasurer position, but there were no takers. We are grateful to Tricia Woods for continuing to serve in the role as we work to find a new Treasurer (contact Grace Jurado and Stacey Meyer if you are interested in learning more). We also heard from district leaders, including School Board Director Jackie McGourty and NSD Partnerships Coordinator Natalie Campbell, each of whom shared information, updates and answered questions about recent projects and current initiatives. The last part of the meeting was focused on outreach and advocacy. Kelly Hennessey is the Coordinator of Threads & Treads, a clothing resource for Northshore families that is operated by Canyon Park Middle School PTSA. She came forward to share information about the work they are doing to serve the community and asked for the support of Northshore PTAs as they work to expand their outreach to include Saturday hours. An exciting moment came as Northshore Schools Foundation (NSDF) Executive Director Carmin Dalziel committed the foundation's financial support to help ensure those Saturday hours through the end of the school year! Thank you NSDF!!! Finally, the membership of Northshore Council PTSA voted to adopt a Furniture Tip-Over Prevention Resolution. The idea to make this a PTA resolution came from Moorlands PTA member (and librarian) Crystal Ellis. Crystal lost her two-year old son to a tragic accident involving an unsafe dresser. She has turned her grief into action, founding Parents Against Tip-Overs and advocating with members of Congress for legislation that would lead to safer furniture. Northshore Council PTSA will now submit the Furniture Tip-Over Prevention Resolution for adoption at the National PTA Convention in 2020. The meeting closed with some fun door prize drawings followed by Fall Training classes on a variety of topics, including Treasurer Basics, How to Be a Membership Chair, Volunteers: Find Them and Keep Them, as well as Secretary: More than Just Minutes. Council meetings are a great way to network with other PTA leaders and learn about what is happening in the district and PTA. We hope you'll join us at our next general membership meeting on Monday, November 18th!
 The Washington State PTA Standards of Affiliation Agreement Checklist 2019-2020 is now available! If you are looking for it from the home page, navigation is as follows: This checklist is a tool to help your PTA keep up with its legal requirements, both as a non-profit and as a PTA. The requirements come from the IRS, the State of Washington, your insurance company, and WSPTA. What your PTA needs to do:
New this year on the Standards of Affiliation Checklist is to update IRS Form 8822-B. The IRS added this requirement in 2018 for security reasons. Form 8822-B should be filed when the PTA’s mailing address changes or the identity of the “responsible party” as listed on the IRS Form 990 changes. The "responsible party" for a PTA should be a principal officer (usually the president or treasurer). There is no penalty for late filing, but it is important that records with the IRS are up to date. Do it as soon as you can! Because this form requires that the responsible party include his/her Social Security Number, the suggested best practice is that the outgoing responsible party should make sure that this form is filled out by an incoming responsible party during transition, to ensure their personal information is not left on this account. This video from WSPTA offers a great overview of SOA and what it means for your PTA: In addition, WSPTA offers a number of tools to help support your PTA in completing the SOA checklist, including: Remember that sharing the progress of your SOA with your members also lets others know about how your PTA operates and shows the work that goes on, often behind the scenes, to keep your PTA legal, safe and operating within the very best practices of our state. Questions? Council is here to help!
 The first Northshore Council PTSA General Membership meeting for 2019-2020 is on Monday, September 16th at the Northshore School District Administration Building. There will be a meet and greet at 6:30 and the meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. We'll discuss and vote on standing rules, goals, a budget, and a resolution on furniture tip-over accident prevention (see below for more details). Note: this meeting isn't just for presidents-- ALL are welcome. We'd love to have more PTA voices from across our district in attendance! Each PTA may send up to 4 voting representatives-- but we encourage ALL who are interested to attend. Immediately after the meeting, beginning at 8:00 p.m., we will be offering training for PTA officers, board members, committee chairs and interested members. Many thanks to all who offered feedback regarding which classes should be offered! As a result of your input, classes will include:
Furniture Tip-over Prevention Resolution Northshore Council PTSA membership will be considering the adoption of a Furniture Tip-Over Resolution at the membership meeting on Monday, September 16 at 7pm. The idea to make this a PTA resolution comes from Moorlands PTA member (and librarian) Crystal Ellis. Crystal lost her two-year old son to a tragic accident involving an unsafe dresser. She has turned her grief into action, founding Parents Against Tip-Overs and advocating with members of Congress for legislation that would lead to safer furniture. Furniture tip-overs are killing children in the U.S. at the rate of one child every 11 days. One child visits the ER every 37 minutes for a tip-over related injury. Currently, there is proposed national legislation that will work to stop the problem with newly manufactured clothing storage units. It is called the STURDY Act. It has been proposed in both the House and the Senate. There is also a State law recently passed in New York that requires public facilities that are responsible for the care of children, such as foster care facilities, daycares, and schools, that requires them to anchor any heavy furniture and televisions, to prevent the deaths and injuries of children from furniture tip-over incidents. PTA can help solve the furniture tip-over problem by speaking out and supporting first, the STURDY Act, secondly the creation of State by State legislation to require anchoring of furniture in public facilities to protect children in their care and, finally, educating local leaders to share information with their schools and communities about anchoring the furniture in their own homes. The proposed resolution is available for download below. 
If Northshore Council PTSA members adopt this resolution, it will officially be submitted by Northshore Council for consideration by National PTA at the National PTA Convention in 2020. If you would like to learn more about this resolution or have questions, Crystal Ellis will be available at the meet & greet before the meeting, from 6:30 - 7:00pm. We hope you join us for a great evening of networking and learning! Questions? Contact Council co-Presidents Grace Jurado & Stacey Meyer.
 Training is vital for your entire board. Please join us for the Region 6 Fall Conference-- it is a FREE training and leadership development opportunity for all PTA leaders.
Morning session:
Register online: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/region-6-fall-conference-with-pta-and-the-law-tickets-68040291343 Come learn, network with your fellow PTA leaders, and meet part of your PTA support team!  Our final Council Membership Meeting of the year took place on May 6, 2019 at Woodinville High School! It was a lively meeting full of great energy and information. After co-Presidents Carrie McKenzie and Grace Jurado called the meeting to order, we welcomed incoming Washington State PTA President, Janice Kutzera, who, with humor and grace, led the ceremonial installation of our incoming 2019-20 Northshore Council Officers. Northshore Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid took some time to address 'suburban legends, ' including questions about implementation of the new 7-period day in the high schools (starting Fall 2019) and study hall, start times, NSD's commitment to mental health supports in our schools, 5th grade camp, the district budget outlook and more. Fun fact: Dr. Reid was this year's recipient of Washington State PTA's Outstanding Educator Award, which was presented to her at the WSPTA Convention in April! Council business included Treasurer Tricia Woods's review of recent budget reports as well as a vote to approve the proposed 2019-20 Council budget. Financial Review Committee member Nancy Chamberlain reported the results of the completed mid-year financial review. Then our VP of Communications Robin Zaback, encouraged local leaders to take our Council Survey-- please let us know how we are doing by taking the survey before Friday, May 17th! She also reported on the upcoming membership database change to memberplanet, encouraging PTAs to be sure to enter their incoming officers into PT Avenue in order to help facilitate the transition. If you want to share your feedback regarding National PTA's proposed dues increase, be sure to respond to WSPTA's survey before May 15th. School Board Director Jackie McGourty shared some updates regarding the recently completed NSD audit, end-of-year district events, as well as a few legislative updates. This led into a brief legislative update from a PTA perspective from Council's co-VP of Advocacy, Nancy Chamberlain. The Art Docent program is celebrating 50 years in Northshore and NSD Partnerships Coordinator Natalie Campbell shared some of the exciting updates they are making to the program. You can learn more about the changes on the Art Docent Program 50th Anniversary Update page on the NSD website. New materials are password protected, but interested leaders and art docents can email partnerships@nsd.org to request access. Natalie also shared some exciting upcoming district events including:
Northshore Schools Foundation Director Carmen Dalziel encouraged us to spread the word about their upcoming Family Fun Day on June 8th-- a free, family friendly event with activities, music and more! She was also excited to announce that they are also currently reviewing grants submitted in their Spring Classroom Grant cycle-- be on the lookout for announcements of grant recipients soon! To cap off the final meeting of the year, Council First VP Cindy Jensen and co-President Carrie McKenzie presented this year's Golden Acorn awards to Robin Zaback and Robin McKenzie. Both of this year’s awardees raised the bar for their positions. Their engagement and impact can be seen and felt across the entire district and beyond, and still they are extremely active in their local units. They are an inspiration to all of us! Congratulations to Robin and Robin!!! ;)  Northshore Council's 2019 Golden Acorn recipients Robin McKenzie (left) and Robin Zaback (right). After the meeting adjourned, local leaders broke up into groups to attend spring training classes, including:
Many thanks to all who attended our final Council meeting of 2018-19. And thank you to our instructors as well as to the local leaders who took the time to join us for Spring training! We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting in the Fall!
 Mark your calendars for our final Northshore Council PTSA General Membership Meeting of 2018-19! It will be on Monday, May 6th at the Woodinville High School Library. We'll be hosting a meet and greet starting at 6:30pm and the meeting will begin at 7pm. In addition to all of the normal updates and information sharing, we'll be voting on a new budget, awarding our Golden Acorn, and there will be some Spring training opportunities! Training will begin at 8pm. Classes options will include:
Each PTA may send up to 4 voting representatives-- but we encourage ALL who are interested to attend. We hope you join us! Questions? Contact Carrie McKenzie & Grace Jurado.
 The Region 6 Winter Conference has been rescheduled to take place on Saturday, February 2, 2019 at Dearborn Park International Elementary School (2820 South Orcas Street, Seattle, WA 98108). The event is 10:00am - 3:30pm and includes classes (including PTA & the Law), roundtable discussions, and more! This FREE training and leadership development event is for all PTA leaders! Come learn, network with your fellow PTA leaders, and meet part of your PTA support team. Learn more and register online...
UPDATE: 1/4/2019 This event has been postponed. Be on the lookout for a new date and information coming soon!  The Washington State PTA Region 6 Winter Conference will be held on Saturday, January 5, 2019 at Dearborn Park International Elementary School (2820 South Orcas Street, Seattle, WA 98108). The event is 9:00am - 3:30pm and includes classes, roundtable discussions, and lunch.
Class offerings include:
Learn more and register online: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/region-6-winter-conference-with-pta-and-the-law-tickets-53542911289 This is an approved WSPTA training event and classes taken do count toward the 2018-19 training requirement for elected officers.  Feeling overwhelmed keeping up with membership? Need a little help with PT Avenue? There is a wealth of resources on the Washington State PTA website available to you and your team!
Visit Leadership Guides (use the login and password info sent via WSPTA's Leadership News) and then scroll down to the "Membership Database" section to find training guides, specific information on how to enter members in the database, manage reports and so much more! There is even a video to help you learn how to import data. Remember that you can ask for help entering data into the database. Make it a team effort. Membership is everyone’s responsibility! Questions? Council's Membership Chairs are here to support you as well and they are only an email away: Mary Khouzam and Sherry Rudolph. |
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