Instructions for PTA Representative

Instructions for PTA Representatives

First, you choose your honorees. We ask that each PTA chapter honor no more than 3 individuals. Often PTAs nominate a PTA volunteer, a teacher and a community or staff member, but each chapter is free to choose honorees according to its own criteria. Please respond to CCPTA with the name of your school and the list of your honorees as soon as you have them, so CCPTA can ensure that no honorees are omitted from the Founders Day program.

In order to have your honorees included in the Founders Day program, you need to submit the names of your honorees, along with a short write-up that explains the reason you have chosen the person to be honored:

• Send write-ups in any MS program, as a text file, or simply pasted into an e-mail.
• All write-ups should be in third-person format (do not have honorees write their own; someone
   should "interview" the honorees.
• No write-ups should be longer than around 375 words
• E-mail your write-ups to Cyndy Allen, callen1@nycap.rr.com and make sure "Founders Day" is
   in the Subject Line. All e-mails will be confirmed. If you didn't get confirmation, it wasn't received.
   For further info about write ups, e-mail callen1@nycap.rr.com
• Please try to collect all the write-ups for your school and submit them at once. Also, in order
   to submit write-ups on time, please make sure someone takes responsibility for the write-up
   for each honoree.

You need to order pins and certificates for each honoree from the NYS PTA. You do this by completing the appropriate Award Form (Distinguished Service Form and Honorary Life Form) and mailing it to the NYS PTA office (New York State PTA, One Wembley Court, Albany, NY 12205; phone: 1-877-569-7782, Email: website@nyspta.org,) along with a two-signature check to the PTA Scholarship Fund you choose (instructions for this are included on the form). This must be done at least several weeks in advance of Founders Day in order to ensure the pins and certificates are ready in time, especially since the NYS PTA office is flooded with these requests in January. At the Founders Day Dinner, an ACCPTA representative will collect all the pins and certificates to be handed out as each honoree is announced. NOTE: Your PTA Unit must be in good standing in order to get pins and certificates from the NYS PTA for Founders Day. This means that you must have paid for at least some memberships this year. Also, if your scholarship check doesn't have two signatures, the NYS PTA office will return it via U.S. mail and will not complete your request for awards until you send a check with two signatures.

Important: There are two levels of awards for Founders Day: Honorary Life Membership and Distinguished Service. Distinguished Service is generally reserved for honorees who have already been awarded Honorary Life Membership and have continued to provide distinguished service as volunteers. Make sure you know when you choose honorees whether they have ever been honored before, so you know which award they should receive. If you have chosen someone for a Distinguished Service Award, you must submit a write-up to the NYS PTA office along with the Distinguished Service Award form. Also, please make it clear with your program write-up which award each honoree is receiving.

Along with choosing the honorees and submitting write-ups, each PTA unit is responsible for collecting dinner reservations for all those who will be attending the dinner from that school. We ask that a representative from each PTA collect all the dinner payments and choices and submit the list of attendees and dinner choices with one check made payable to the ACCPTA. If your unit allows payment by check, have each attendee write a check to your PTA, then write one check to us for all the dinners for your school. Also, be aware that each PTA unit normally pays for each of its own honorees to attend the dinner along with a guest.

Most of the PTAs also order corsages or boutonnieres for the honorees to wear at the dinner. If you would like to do this, make sure someone from your unit takes responsibility for ordering and pickup up the flowers and making sure they get to the Marriott for the dinner.

Make up a flyer to send home to all faculty, staff and parents as an invitation to invite them to Founders Day.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact co-president Esther Thornton via email or by calling 436-2191 (daytime) or 489-6828 (evening). If you find your PTA unit needs help with any of the Founders Day tasks, please don't hesitate to ask. We want this to be a good experience for everyone, although there is some work involved.

PDF FILE - SCHOOL RESERVATION FORM