August, 2018

Welcome Back Smith Families!

We are excited to be celebrating the 30^th Anniversary of Smith and the Smith PTSA this year!  The past few weeks, your PTSA Board has been bustling about getting ready for Back to Business night and lining up volunteers to head up key PTSA sponsored programs that benefit our kids all year. 

If you have not yet renewed your annual membership for this year, please join today.  Not only does your membership help make the programs we sponsor and support possible, it also gets you access to the online directory, discounts from companies like Great Wolf Lodge and FedEx, and of course a PTSA Fast Pass at Back to Business Night!

Our mission is to support and work alongside our Parents, Teachers and Students toward the common goal of enriching, enhancing and supporting the education process at our school. But we can’t do it alone.

Our board is a healthy mix of volunteers who work full time, as well as those who do not work outside the home.  Volunteering on the board gives you incredible visibility to what’s going on at school, expands your community and connection with school staff, and gives you the opportunity to positively impact PTSA run programs and events for our students!  We need your help to fill a few key positions.  Time commitment varies by position (typically 4-10 hours per month), with flexibility to your schedule.  I can say from my personal experience of joining the board last year having never even attended a General Membership meeting prior to that, no prior experience is necessary and the other board members will be there to support you!  If you are passionate about partnering with the school and other volunteers to create the best experience for our kids, you are a good fit for the board!  Please contact me directly at president@smithptsa.org if you are interested or have any questions about any position.   

Open Elected Positions:

• Co-President (primarily plan/run meetings, coordinate w/ board and school administration)
• Co-VP Fundraising (primarily plan/run our October Dolphin Dash and Dolphin Bash)  
• VP Expenditures (school grant allocations) (this position has an interim appointment pending election in the fall)

Open Member-at-Large Positions: (equally as important as the elected ones!)

• Membership Chair (membership drives and PTSA database updates)
• Committee Liaison (primary contact person and resource for our Committee Chairs)

Other Volunteer Opportunities:

We, and especially your kids, will love to welcome any volunteer time you can offer to the Smith activities and programs.  We can only run successful events with YOUR help and donations…remember, many local employers donate money for every hour that you volunteer [Link].  Please register your interest through your membership registration, stop by the volunteer table at B2B or email Jeanette our Volunteer Coordinator at volunteers@smithptsa.org to let us know how you’d like to get involved!

This year, the PTSA has planned some incredible events, programs, and family activities for example:

• Dolphin Dash and Dolphin Bash
• Winter Wonderland
• International Night
• Nature Vision
• Explore Art and the Art Walk
• Emergency Preparedness Kits for each classroom (find out more HERE), and you can see an example kit at B2B!

All of our programs are funded through the support of you, our community- please help us continue to fund and expand our programs in coming years through Ongoing Fundraising Programs like Box Tops for Education and Amazon Smile, and sponsoring your student in October’s Dolphin Dash through your tax deductible donations (don’t forget to ask your company to match (find out how HERE!)

On behalf of the board, thank you for your continued support- we look forward to seeing you at Curriculum Nights, at our first General Membership Meeting in September, and in the halls this fall.  Don’t forget to check out smithptsa.org and https://www.facebook.com/smithptsa/ for news and information all year!

Sincerely,