PSEA works best when all members are active in the Association. With that goal in mind, PSEA’s Board of Directors approved a plan at its November meeting that outlines ideas for how to encourage more minority members to actively participate.

The plan has four main objectives:

• Seek to engage minority members by encouraging involvement in local, PSEA, and NEA activities.

• Show statewide commitment to racial and social justice in education.

• Use communications materials to show commitment to diversity.

• Encourage members to self-identify minority designation.

This plan is required by NEA Bylaw 3.1(g), which was adopted by the NEA Representative Assembly shortly after NEA’s merger with the American Teacher Association in 1966. A major goal is to encourage states to send delegates to the NEA-RA who reflect the percentage of minorities in the general population of each state. PSEA is proud to have achieved this goal in 2018 and is working diligently to do so again in 2019.

A new feature for 2019 is a plan to encourage members to self-identify their minority designation, using a new handout, “Why I Identify.”

Another important component of the program is PSEA’s Minority Leadership Conference and Summer Leadership Conference. Minority members are eligible for scholarships to attend the Summer Leadership Conference and the NEA Representative Assembly.

The 3.1(g) plan is updated every year. PSEA Treasurer Jeff Ney worked with a task force of members to draft the plan, and the Minority Affairs Committee works all year to help implement it. For information on NEA’s and PSEA’s diversity outreach efforts and conferences, see the “Why I Identify” handout, and to update your minority status, visit www.psea.org/minorityinvolvement.