106th Annual Convention Wrap Up

Our theme was "Painting Every Child’s Future with the Colors of Success".

The convention was held at the Clarion Hotel, Bristol, CT., April 28-29, 2006. This years convention was a packed 2 days with workshops, speakers, an evening Gala and the Reflections ceremony, too.

The workshops offered were varied subject matters. There were nutritional issues, school safety, inhalant abuse to special education topics including PPTs, parents rights and good record keeping to working with your special education director and superintendent.

There were many leadership and membership based workshops, e.g. benefits of PTA membership, accounting dos and don’ts, Don’t be Afraid to be an officer and overviews of Bylaws. We were even able to have a legislative hot topics workshop.

The convention committee was able to offer many incredible leaders to present at our workshops. We had the honorable Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Commissioner of Education Betty Sternberg; the current National PTA past president –Linda Hodge and another past president – Ginny Markel.

Other presenters were Lucy Nolan, Executive Director of End Hunger, Inc., Cassandra Duggan, a certified Holistic Health counselor, John Boiano from Pulse Integration, Carol Dorin, Plymouth Special Education Director, Michael Ziebka, CPA, Amy Hanomien-Fontana, CT Poison Control Center in UCONN; Michael Frechette, Middletown public schools superintendent and Denise Fucito – President of Real Answers.

And of course our wonderful board of directors who helped workshops including Wilton and Trumbull councils and Staples High School’s Reflections chairs and especially the greatest office staff.

During our Friday General Session we were able to debate proposed bylaw changes and gave many membership awards including 13 “One Voice for Every Child” awards, our highest membership award. There were also resolutions brought forward this year to be adopted by the general membership.

During the Gala on Friday evening we were able to give over 15 Spirit of PTA and many Honorary Life awards too. The CT Nutmeg Statewide PTA presented their scholarships and book stipends.

Saturday, we had a very important and informative speaker, Bob Posillie, Director of Technology for Middletown public schools, who spoke on internet safety for our children. The Mayor and Superintendent of Bristol also said a few words of welcome to our membership.

Many thanks go to the exhibitors who joined us this year. Not only did we have fundraising events but we had many enrichment program ideas for our members to take back with them.

On Saturday afternoon there was a fantastic ice cream social, donated by Cold Stone in Middletown, for the state and national Reflection winners and their families. The students had a wonderful time and this social was focused on them.

Overall the convention went well and was jam packed with resources, education, leadership, networking and lots of fun. We hope to see you all at next year’s convention at the Clarion Hotel in Bristol, CT on April 27 & 28, 2007. Come and join us in our own Mardi Gras celebration “A Celebration of Literature”.

Submitted By:
Melissa Johnson – VP Convention