April 10th, 2006

Dear Colleagues and Members of VASPA,

Your professional association needs your talents, skills and active participation. As you know, VASPA’s mission is to advance the professional growth and expertise of its membership. And we try to accomplish this by ”… providing a collective voice, extensive resources,, and a body of knowledge for the continuous improvement of personnel competencies, laws, policies, and practices through communication, regional, state and national networking and professional development”. I am certain we all appreciate the importance of an active and supportive membership.

VASPA is embarking on a number of new initiatives that could impact our organization for years to come. While they present a big challenge for our small organization, I believe they are doable one —but only; I hasten to add, with your active participation and support. If we are successful, they will significantly enhance our capacity to offer needed services and add new members. Two of the initiatives include:

• Actively participate in AASPA’s Region 6 organization comprised of 7 other state-affiliates in the southeastern region of the nation (you should be receiving a copy of their monthly newsletter)
• In partnership with the Institute of Educational Leadership (IEL), develop and implement an HR Leadership pilot project that, if successful, could expand into a Region 6 and an AASPA Leadership project (please see the IEL website link on our homepage).

Additionally, we have been approached by the VDOE to explore our assuming primary responsibility for The Great Virginia Teach-In on an annual basis now that its federal funding has expired.

With this letter, I invite and encourage you to become more actively involved in the essential responsibilities and activities of VASPA. For example, of the eight (8) Regional Representative positions in the VASPA CORE Leadership Team, seven (7) are currently vacant: Regions 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Several CORE positions are also vacant: Legislative Proactively; Professional Development; Recognitions; Bylaws; and Time &Place. Because so many vital VASPA committee positions are unfilled and inactive, it has been a real challenge to provide basic services for the general membership. Should they continue to remain vacant, basic services will suffer and we will be incapable of undertaking the new initiatives.

So please, right now, accept this call to service by volunteering to fill a vacancy, participating in another association activity, or by submitting an article for our VASPA Views newsletter. If you require additional information, have questions about a vacancy or want to be appointed to a specific position, please contact Dr. Steve Sailer, our executive director, or me, or any other member of the Executive Committee. You will find their contact information on the first page of this letter and on our Web site at www.vaspa.org at “Leadership” under the “About Us” dropdown menu.

Please join the VASPA Leadership Team. We are always looking for talented and committed members.

Sincerely

Eddie P. Antoine, II
President