The final East Tennessee regional meeting was held at the First Baptist Church in Chattanooga on Wednesday, October 23rd. Thirty-two members were in attendance.
TRTA Membership Chair, Libby Burney shares how she recruits new members in Knox County.
Chattanooga-Hamilton Co. RTA members Rick Rushworth and Teresa Kelly perform a skit about recruiting new members as Ron Moss, TRTA board member listens.
Pres Emert listens to the "table talk" activity during the Membership session.
The Kingsport Regional was held at the Kingsport Schools Office in Kingsport on Monday, October 21st, with 29 members in attendance.
TEA Government Relations Specialist Antoinette Lee discussed the upcoming Legislative session and the possibility of a new Voucher bill being filed.
Chapter members who attended the Kingsport Regional worked in groups to develop plans to recruit, engage, and retain members.
A great crowd of 54 was in attendance in Trenton!
TRTA Legislative Chair Ted Williams from Tipton Co RTA
TEA Government Relations Lobbyist Drew Sutton
TRTA Membership Chair Libby Burney From Knox Co RTA
Mike Barker - TCRS rep and TRTA member from Gibson Co RTA
TRTA President Dewayne Emert and Past Pres William Murray are drawing for door prizes!
Twenty-eight members were in attendance in Memphis!
TEA Government Relations Specialist Jake Sweeney
TRTA President Dewayne Emert from Knox County RTA
Linda Jones - Franklin Co. School Board Member
Cleijo Walker - Franklin Co. School Board Chair
Freida Bennett - Franklin Co. RTA Member
TRTA held one of eight statewide regional meetings on Tuesday, October 22, at the Alex Haley Lodge in Clinton, Tennessee. Over 50 TRTA retired members attended the information session and took part in membership activities and a legislative update. TRTA President Dewayne Emert led the meeting. The Clinton High School Culinary Arts class provided the refreshments. The Haley lodge contained many antique artifacts from Africa.
TRTA conducted their second Middle Tennessee regional information session on Tuesday, October 15th, in the Hickman Building at Columbia State Community College. Pres. Elect Elouise Jones (a Maury Co. member) secured the meeting site. TEA Government Relations Specialist Drew Sutton provided a full update about the possibility of the Voucher Bill being filed again in January during the 2025 Legislative Assembly. Over 50 TRTA members were in attendance!
TRTA held a regional information session in Clarksville on Wednesday, October 16th at the First Missionary Baptist Church. Almost 50 members were present. Retired TRTA Executive Director Ron Pendergrass is a member of this church. Excellent food was shared by the CMCRTA chapter. TEA UniServ Director Antoinette Lee provided information about how vouchers were defeated last year. Members shared ideas on how to better communicate with their members and increase their chapter memership.
During the 2024 eight fall regional meetings across the state, TRTA leadership asked over 300 members representing their local chapters how they communicated with their local members.
The findings were that all chapters communicate regularly at their General Meetings. Emails and text messaging also ranked very high as methods of communicating. Around 50% of the chapters statewide utilize newsletters, Facebook, and phone trees to communicate.
It appears we have some work to do statewide in placing information in local newspapers, appearing on small market radio stations as guests or promoting meetings, using ZOOM, writing press releases/op ed articles in newspapers, and appearing on TV or using cable TV messaging.
We want to thank each chapter for your participation – keep up the great work! At your next meeting, we encourage you to discuss how your chapter might improve on how you communicate with members and your local community.
Dr. Duran Williams
TRTA Executive Director
To see a detailed chart of the regional responses, click the download below.
Ways TRTA Chapters Communicate (xlsx)
DownloadCopyright © 2020 Tennessee Retired Teachers Association - All Rights Reserved.
Updated July 6, 2021
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