Duval County Council of PTAs / PTSAs

Turn in your postcards by DEC 8th to eligible for the $100 gift card!!!
All units particpating in this drive will earn the “I Have A Voice” Award and be eligible for a raffle drawing of another $100 gift card giveaway in Feb (after our second letter writing campaign)
Contact Vickie to get cards to your unit.

Goals:
• Adequate funding for Public School Education (Pre-K – 12)
• STOP Unfunded Mandates
• Eliminate or Lower Class Size Amendment penalties

Organizational Considerations: (Who we are, what we have) We are parents; we are voters; we are the guardians, the caretakers, the protectors, the champions, the voices for over 123,000 children in our District.

Tactics: Postcard Campaign. We are expressing our valid and rational desires for public education in this state in a positive and polite manner, pleasantly and persistently. We want to make an impression and be memorable, so each of our elected officials realizes education funding is important and important to many of their constituents.

Here are a few fun ideas to get your local unit parents and teachers MOTIVATED to participate in this campaign:

Sand pails (from the Dollar Store) filled with donut holes. “Our Education Bucket has holes in it! Please help!” Make a cute display and offer cider or coffee/tea and donut holes during a postcard writing hour in the lounge, the cafeteria or the school courtyard.

You and a few of your friends (aka other passionate parents) take clipboards and ask parents sitting in the car-rider line to fill out a postcard while they wait in line. Better yet, ask them to turn off their engines and HELP YOU get a dozen postcards signed. Have some “talking points” printed and taped to the clipboards.
If your school PTA uses social media or email newsletters, or constant contact, send them an invite to participate in the postcard writing campaign. Make it at a variety of times to accommodate all schedules.

Give away a candy cane to each writer.
Ask the homeroom parents to collect postcards from the other parents in the class. (A little competition is always good: you can offer a reward to the homeroom parent who collects the most postcards or the class with the most parent participation wins a gift card for the teacher.

Have a “Support Your Child and Their Teacher” campaign. The teacher who has the most parents write postcards wins a (lunch certificate, hot chocolate mix and mug, movie tickets, a school spirit tee shirt etc.). Remember though, this is not to be a burden on the teachers; this is a PTA event, although many teachers are very willing to support and encourage our efforts.

Place a group of clocks on a table and make a poster to the effect of: “Do you know what time it is? Time to let Tallahassee know Education is important!”

Dress like elves, and be Santa’s helpers, checking to see who’s naughty and nice, nice equals those who send holiday wishes. Or: Don’t be a Grinch, write your postcards!

For High Schools, combine our postcard campaign with a voter registration drive.

Have a “Take 5!” Take 5 minutes and write as many cards as you can in 5 minutes.

Convey your gratitude for those who have helped your children along the way, whether it is a neighbor, scout leader, Sunday school teacher, and/or coach and ask them to write one postcard as well.