Do me a favor, please. When you see these out-going PTA Board members, be sure to tell them THANK YOU for all their hard work this year. And, lucky for you, a lot of them are sticking around for next year!
Brittany Willis - VP Membership - she was the bomb dot com for all things membership and hospitality this year; she led us to 100% PTA membership and earned our unit several awards along the way, the biggest one being the Outstanding Membership Award for Divison III (601 - 900 students) from Alabama PTA; she created the Golden Grandparent Club; she had her hands on almost every decoration and balloon arch you saw at the school this year; she revamped our HCES PTA website (praise be!); she designed our Fall spirit wear and handled our store; and she never told me no when I asked if she could create a flyer or a graphic or a signup for something that didn't quite belong to anyone else on the board. Brittany will take on the new VP Marketing position in just a few days.
Danielle Morgan - VP Fundraising - she single-handedly brought back the Silent Auction this year and raised more funds than we dreamed possible with it; she worked every day of every Book Fair; she took on Mistletoe Market and handled it like a pro; and she blew our fundraising goals out of the water, which gave us a huge cushion at the end of the year. Danielle will be returning in this position and is already hard at work getting ready for next year's fundraising events.
Katie Martin - VP Student Programs - she created an Events Committee this year and led them in planning, decorating for, and pulling off our Back to School Carnival, Trunk or Treat, Winter Wonderland parent/child dance, Family Lawn Games during Reading Night, 5th Grade Sock Hop, 5th Grade Legacy Project, and 5th Grade Bridging Ceremony; she planned our inaugural Spirit Nights at HCMS sporting events to help foster Hampton Cove school spirit; and I'm sure she created more flyers and graphics than she'd care to remember. Katie will begin her role as HCES PTA President in a few days.
Ember Hancock - Secretary - her reminders to turn in agenda items in advance of our Board meetings was the 3-day warning we all needed every month; she kept notes during every Board meeting and made sure to not miss a single thing for our recorded minutes (honestly, this may be the hardest job on the board...listening to all the talk and distilling it down to the important parts); and her weekly reminder to me was the sole reason the Hawk Talk was updated on the PTA website at all this year. We're lucky to have Ember back next year in this same position.
Kavitha Hichkad - Treasurer - she has kept us on financial track since she took on this role two years ago; she answered every dumb question I asked about net operating revenue/net other revenue/net revenue/liabilities and whether or not we were still on track for the year; she signed every check and made sure we didn't spend more than our budget allowed; she kept every everything for our internal audit each year (clearly, I was not a finance or accounting major); she tracked every penny we spent and gave the Board a financial update each month; and she prepared/submitted our tax returns each year. We'd have been sunk without her. Kavitha will be returning to the board again next year as the PTA Financial Secretary.
Susie Recella - Financial Secretary - she volunteered to help us verify our deposits during a book fair last year when she could tell we were drowning in cash and a typo, and never looked back; she recreated our cash box and daily deposit forms to make more sense for our fried brains after a day of negotiating with littles for the books/toys they want vs what they can pay for; she made every funds deposit for us and gave the important things to Kavitha (I'm still a little fuzzy about what gets passed between them, which speaks volumes about the both of them); she figured out how to use our Stripe reader and MemberHub Pay this year; and she dealt with fraudulent checks from scam companies to make sure we didn't fall for anything dumb. Susie may finally be retiring, but I'll see what I can rope her in to next year.
Jenn Moss - Community Partners chair - she took on this role with very little training and is making it into something even better than before; she coordinates with HCMS and GSES to ensure we meet all our contractual responsibilities to our community partners; she dealt with Friday night texts from me about who I'm spotlighting that week; she creates social media posts for our community partners; she counted out all the flyers for the Wednesday folders so I didn't have to; and, most importantly, she is the face of HCES PTA to our community partners for anything and everything you can imagine. Jenn will be returning to the board next year in this same role and I couldn't be happier about it.
Caroline Mauldin and Teri Lynch - Book Fair chairs - they were our book fair gurus this past year and made sure everything ran like a well-oiled machine; they set up, worked, and broke down each fair; they made sure I knew what to share and when to share it in advance of each fair; and, in their "free time" they've been the leaders in making sure our plants and landscaping along the front of the school look their best (which is absolutely NOT a part of their book fair role and makes me appreciate them even more.)
Amy Holland - Room Parent Coordinator - she made sure that important PTA and school news was sent out through the room parent channels that she created and fostered all year and she probably made more SignUp Geniuses this year than she will ever want to again. Basically, if you read about it in an email, she was the person making sure it got from us to you. On top of all that, she was a part of the Events Committee and involved in everything fun happening at the school. Amy will be moving into her new role as VP Membership in a few days.
Leslie Townsend - Reflections chair - she took on each and every part of our Reflections program (the deadlines, the submissions, finding and scheduling the judges, the delivery and retrieval of the pieces, the awards, the everything) and did so in such a way that I didn't even have to think about it, all while playing a huge part in the Events Committee during the year. If there was ever a need, she filled it. Leslie will begin her new role as VP Student Programs in a few days which means the fun for our students and families will pick up right where it left off.
Barbie Sumner - Hospitality chair - she helped behind the scenes with every inviting thing we did at the school this year, including the Golden Grandparents welcome during the VIP Lunch, and she planned our Teacher Appreciation Week activities (I think those were the best planned days for that week yet). I think she may have been Brittany's secret weapon this year for all things hospitality.
Kaki Morrow and Katie Venckus - Spirit Wear chairs - they stepped in mid-year and created our Spring spirit wear in a matter of weeks. They are basically the definition of "leap before looking" and I couldn't have appreciated it more.
