By Christine Gendron, Executive Director of TNOYS
My favorite part of my job at TNOYS is working directly with our member organizations. True to our name, TNOYS genuinely operates as a network of organizations serving Texas youth and families. This means that members drive major organizational decisions, through representation on the TNOYS Board of Directors, opportunities to inform and approve TNOYS’ legislative agenda, and opportunities to participate in the development and implementation of TNOYS projects and initiatives. We could not do the work that we do without your collective voices, your insight and ideas, and your hard work and contributions.
For these reasons we are excited to roll out some new opportunities for our membership to be even more involved in TNOYS. This June, during our annual conference, TNOYS will announce a new Membership Council. While the TNOYS Board of Directors will continue to include both member and community representatives who will govern the organization, the TNOYS Membership Council will be exclusively for members and will develop and approve the TNOYS legislative agenda and advise TNOYS on its priorities and programming. Every member organization will have the opportunity to delegate a staff member to serve as a representative on the Membership Council. Formal invitations will go out later this month.
Those of you who are our members and receive our member bulletins know that earlier this year TNOYS rolled out a number of advisory groups. These advisory groups provide additional avenues for our members to serve as advisors for our public policy work, our training and consultation offerings, and our other programs. Advisory groups are also opportunities for staff at TNOYS member organizations to build their thought leadership and drum up support for their own projects and initiatives.
There are currently advisory groups in place to address strengthening prevention and early intervention services, residential child care/foster care services, and services for homeless youth and young adults. We plan to roll out two more advisory groups, focused on trauma informed care and youth engagement, later this year.
We greatly appreciate your participation in TNOYS and all that you do day-in and day-out for Texas’ youth and families. We hope you will take advantage of some of these new opportunities to get even more involved!