The National Assembly (NA) for PTAs was a great idea for its time. All PTA members automatically were members of the NA, which was a forum for PTAs to discuss issues related to motions coming before the House of Delegates and decide which to support or oppose. But, as the years passed, leadership determined that there was a better way to accomplish PTAs’ goals.
All NA decisions needed to go to the House of Delegates. The PTAs were spending time and energy trying to make change, but when their motions went to the House, there was no guarantee they would be heard.
PTAs became frustrated with the time they may have spent working on motions that went nowhere. The executive staff of the NA met with the APTA Board of Directors to determine what PTAs would need to make them more effective. They devised a different model in which they could discuss issues, but not in a formal setting like the NA, and then move those results directly to leadership. APTA agreed to the new model.
The outcome was the PTA Caucus, which succeeded the NA in 2005. The caucus was intended to better represent the PTAs’ interests, needs, and issues in APTA governance. It was structured to comprise a PTA representative to be selected from every chapter, with those representatives in turn choosing 5 delegates to attend the House of Delegates.