Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Change in December Regional Meeting

Due to the Festival of Trees we will be moving our regional meeting to the next week. It will be held December 10th from 7pm- 8:30pm. We will be focusing on advocating for our students in our area. We will be putting together a panel to help every parent positively navigate advocating for their child and other children in our community.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Legislative Update

Often, we hear questions about why we should designate a legislative rep for our local unit. What role does such a rep have? A good example came via e-mail today, when I received a request from National PTA asking for our support. A bill (S.678) was introduced to renew the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, which provides grant funds for several programs directed toward at-risk youth (you can search for some such grant opportunities from Idaho Juvenile Justice Commission). With all the focus on other legislative priorities, this important bill has sat in committee since March.

National PTA has asked us to remind our legislators how important this bill is to us. Encourage your unit to contact their member of congress. You can get information, including a summary of the issue, the full text of the bill, and a simple way to contact your leaders, from the PTA Takes Action Center: http://npta.sparklist.com/t/1670133/11121348/1427/0/

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Festival of Trees

We are excited to partner with District 25 and help with the Festival this year. We, the PTA, will be running the gift shop. We are in need of people willing to help us on the gift shop committee, help run the shop during the festival and donate holiday decorations to sell. If any of these things interest you or people in your PTA's, please contact me at region5pta@hotmail.com.

OMDR Your Quick Step Guide

This is from Victoria and is a great resource!
OMDR: Online Membership Data Reporting
  • Particpation in this program became mandatory in 2007-2008.
  • The Local Unit PTA/PTSA must submit its CURRENT board/officer list to the State Office by deadline (Nov 15).
  • The State Office enters the Local Unit President (LUP) data only. OMDR assigns the LUP's Member ID number which is needed to start the unit each year. The LUP shold be going to www.pta.org/omdr and selecting "First Visit" - they will choose their username and password. The LUP will need the Member ID # and the Local Unit Record # to complete this step. You cannot edit any data of the LUP - if you have changes to the LUP, please advise the State Office.
  • The LUP should then selct "Officer Entry" and enter the date for the current year board officers! Use a term date of 7/1/09- 6/30/09.
  • The next step is to update the local unit information through the "local unit update" link and change the membership year to the current year (i.e. 2009-10). Use a "Membership Year Date of 7/1/09 - 10/31/10." *It is recommended that you exit out of OMDR and re-enter your username and password before doing anything else!*
  • The LUP should then select ONE officer to take responsibility for entering and maintaining the local unit membership and officer information in OMDR (this can be the President, Pres Elect, Secretary, Treasurer, or Membership Chair). The LUP should provide the LUR and the Member ID # to the officer that has agreed to be in charge of OMDR. They enter OMDR by going to "First Visit" and selecting their own username and password, similar to the LUP.
  • Usernames and passwords are changed yearly.
  • Each member is assigned a Membership ID number. This remains the same from year to year. Two peple will not share a number. Husband and wife should have two separate cards/two separate members/ two separate numbers. If their address is the same ( and entered the same into OMDR) - they should only get ONE mailing. It will be valuable to you if you enter data in a like manner - for example: 101 Alphabet Drive OR 101 Alphabet Dr. or 101 ALPHABET DRIVE. This entery will result in three different mailings being sent!
  • Same with Term Dates and Membership Year Dates- Term Dates should be noted in your Local Unit Standing Rules. There will be some overlap in Membership Year Dates - but previous year entries will drop off after 10/31/09. Keep an accureate count of your members at your local unit. Download from OMDR to an Excel file versus an upload from Excel to OMDR.
  • Please use the forms provided in the Idaho Resource Manual to accompany any payment to the State Office.. Remember anything pink requires some type of action from you.
  • A membership roster does not have to accompany membership dues payments made. The local unit can email the State Office a downloaded Excel listing (straight from OMDR). Please includ the pink Membership Dues Remittance Form.
  • Payments received will be checked against what has been entered in to OMDR.
  • In an Officer Report - only officers are shown. It is assumed that officers are member ( which they should be!)
  • In a Membership Report - all members are shown - whether or not they are an officer.

To be released soon... OMDR Plus. . A new system similar to what you are doing now but with added features, such as volunteer management, newsletters, calendars unique to your local unit - National PTA has joined up with "Just Between Friends" to create this new and improved OMDR Plus - you'll love it! The information you have in OMDR will automatically be transferred over to OMDR Plus. A go-live date has not been established yet. More information will follow soon!

All payments and forms are sent to the State Office - Idaho PTA - 500 W. Washington - Boise, ID 83702 - 208-344-0851, 208-342-8585 (fax)

idahopta@mindspring.com