I understand that there is a lot of concern about the changes to local unit bylaws made necessary by the changes to the Alaska PTA Bylaws made at convention. The following letter was sent out in the Local unit mailing, I am repeating it here hoping to reach more with the information.

"Dear Local Unit Leaders,

As many of you know, the delegates of the Alaska PTA Convention this year approved a dues increase. That vote now makes it necessary for you to amend your bylaws to reflect this change. Please be sure that the membership understands that the change has been made to the state portion of the dues, and what you are dealing with now is an adjustment to your dues figure to address that change.

Here are 2 options included for your consideration. This was requested by the delegates to make the process easier at the local unit level. The requirements for amending the bylaws of your Local Unit are in those Local Unit bylaws. In the bylaws you will find the notice requirement for notifying your membership of the meeting at which you will be voting on this item.

Article VI, Membership & Dues

Option 1
This is the way it reads now, this would make a change anytime that any of the dues amounts change:

Section 7. The annual dues for membership in this PTA shall be $__________ per annum which includes the national portion of $1.75 and state portion of $4.00 per annum.

Option 2
This would make a change to your bylaws only when the local unit amount changes:

Section 7. The annual dues for membership in this PTA shall be $__________ per annum in addition to the national portion of (1.75) and state portion of ($4.00) per annum. (The total due per member is $_________.)


Please note: there are no plans at this time to request another increase in the dues amount by Alaska PTA or National PTA.

If you have questions Please contact the Alaska PTA Bylaws Committee

Suellen Appellof cariade@mtaonline.net
Dawn Wenger wenger@ptialaska.net
Ken Macgregor kamacgregor@att.net

or the Alaska PTA office 907-279-9345"

Well, the Alaska PTA Convention is now over! We made it through some heated debate, had training and workshops and some dynamic speakers made us stop and think. For those who couldn't make it there will be a Convention Recap section on the web site by the end of May. This is a busy time for all of us so close to the end of the school year, so please be patient.

For those who have not heard, the dues increase was amended (changed to $4.00) and passed. There will be information in the Local unit Mailing on how to proceed with amending your bylaws to incorporate this change. Look for that mailing to reach you by the end of next week. We understand the difficulty for some units in dealing with this and are working on ways to make the change easier for Local Units.