Mike Rupp - John Skrabalak
2006 -

Dear Colleagues and Friends in Art Education
This is our first message to you as the new co-presidents of PAEA.  We appreciate all the support we have received and look forward to serving and representing you.  For our first message, we thought it would be both relevant and important that we share with you are co-presidential platform and goals.  This was our charge to the PAEA Board.

IMAGINE
Imagination is what dreams are made of. In your youth, we imagine the places a bike will take us. As teens, we long for a car. As adults, we imagine our futures in terms of home, family, career, and retirement.In short, our ability to imagine is the essence of growth.  What do you imagine for PAEA?We challenge you to imagine and together as a team help PAEA to grow.

PAEA Presidential Goals ForMichael E. Rupp, Sr. and John Skrabalak
We have decided to focus our presidency on four major goals: advocacy, communication, development, and service. We ask you to “IMAGINE”- for imagining is the essence of growth. All that we do, every step we take, we first have to imagine.   So imagine what you want PAEA to be, and work with us as a team to make it happen. Growth is a lifelong process that comes one step at a time. We challenge you to imagine and to take steps to achieve the goals outlined below. Together we can make a difference for Art Education in Pennsylvania and beyond.

Goal#1: Advocacy:

• To increase the number of chapters of the National Art Honor Society,   National Junior Art Honor Society, and the Pennsylvania Art Club
• To exhibit art work created by student artists in PA Chapters of the NAHS/NJAHS/PAC at conferences and other exhibit spaces
• To exhibit art work created by student artists in Pennsylvania at conferences and other exhibit spaces
• To initiate, plan, and facilitate advocacy projects such as the notepaper initiative based on the PAEA slogan—“Art Leaves No Child Behind” tm
• To increase public, administrative and legislative awareness of the need for Visual Arts Education in Pennsylvania and beyond
• To utilize our web site and all PAEA communication tools for advocacy
• To partner with the other arts in fostering awareness of the importance of the arts in education 

Goal#2: Communication:

• To increase awareness of the mission of PAEA by using our web site more effectively as a major means of communication at the state and national level
• To utilize our bi-annual newsletter as a communication tool for our membership and beyond
• To utilize the PAEA journal as a professional publication of literary excellence that fosters research and creativity
• To communicate the importance of the arts by exhibiting student work
• To enhance communication among PAEA board members

Goal#3: Development:

• To promote and facilitate, through regional workshops and the annual conference, professional development for our members
• To advance the mission of PAEA through participation at the annual retreat for board members
• To continue to promote the TARP initiative

Goal#4: Service

• To acknowledge the needs and wellness of our membership and board members with support through endeavors such as card showers, notes of encouragement, and We Care baskets
  
• To identify and respond to unforeseen needs of art educators on a state and national level (for example, “Operation We Care” for art educators who were affected by hurricane Katrina)

Please do not hesitate to contact us with your concerns.  We look forward to meeting all of you on our presidential journey.  Remember “Art Leaves No Child Behind” tm.  Keep doing a great job and tell someone about it…

Best regards,

John Skrabalak and Michael E. Rupp, Sr., Co-Presidents of the Pennsylvania Art Education Association