Report of the Chair

Mary Kay Stranik, NPEN Chair
NPEN Council Meeting, April 6, 2008
Albany, NY

This meeting represents the end of my 3 years as NPEN Chair. It has been an incredible opportunity to work with the devoted and gifted NPEN Council, to meet so many of our members around the country and to see the enormous amount of work being done with parents and their children. We, together, are truly strengthening our society at its core. I hope NPEN has been a resource, support and a network for you as you do your daily work .

The interest in and visibility of NPEN has grown quite remarkably over the 3 years, as has the recognition of the role of parenting education. This growth has also meant that new requests have come to NPEN and we have tried to respond to as many as possible, being careful of our basic work and priorities, as at this point we are still an all volunteer organization. Hopefully, that status will change in our 2008/9 year as we begin to raise money for our organization, beyond membership.

As of our NPEN Council meeting, we had several changes in membership. 2 very dedicated long time members finished their terms: Donna Newton, LA (past chair) and Janet Shepard, KS (Secretary and Membership) Our new leadership team is Anne Robertson, IL, Chair, Betty Cooke, MN, Chair-elect, Drew Betz, WA, Secretary and Pam Langer, CT, Treasurer, and I will continue as Past Chair. See below for changes in committees and their chairs.

In this past year there have been improvements in 2 areas: solidifying some of the fundamentals of our organization and moving forward in our national leadership role. I especially want to acknowledge the work of the Services and Networking committees under the outstanding leadership of Alis Sefick and Jim Rogers.

Improvements in the fundamentals of NPEN

1. Web site location was changed from North Carolina to the University of Illinois, Urbana Champagne (UIUC), through ECAP. This is also the location of our list- serv. Thanks to UNC and Karen duBord for their many years of service and to UIUC and Anne Robertson for assuming the work.
2. The design of the NPEN web site (and of our NPEN materials) was completed and the web site updated with new information, including:
   • Additional information about NPEN Council Members so that they can serve as a resource to you in their areas of expertise
   • Updated and increased parenting education organization links in the state category.
3. We continued to support the lively NPEN list-serv. Topics covered this year include:
   • Notices of conferences, parent trainings and parent educator workshops
   • Marketing tips
   • Books on parenting education with preschoolers and teens
   • Request for nominations for NYSCAP Excellence Awards
   • Links for military parenting and other resources
   • USA Today letter
   • PAT in Iowa
   • NY Times article:  Happiest Toddler
   • Refugee families
   • Request for courses on father/daughter sport participation
   • Trauma and parenting education
   • NEPI 1 st anniversary update
   • Input on an article re: parenting coaches
   • role of the media influencing parents (the nanny shows and talk shows) and children (Kid Nation)
4. NPEN defined new benefits for members and simplified membership processes
   • Opportunity to feature member websites on the NPEN web site and list-serv for one week
   • Listing of events and conferences on listserve and web site. This list is dependent on members giving the information to Alis Sefick
   • Summer book list summarized on list serve by Ruth Freeman, CT

Moving forward in our national leadership role

1. Several NPEN members were Invited to Wheelock College / Families First Parenting Education Summit, Boston, May, 07. There was a loud cry for a national organization to spearhead concerns from the group. NPEN was asked to be the contact organization for 3 of the top concerns from this meeting, evaluation, advocacy and credentialing.
2. NPEN reacted to national media events: the nanny shows, talk shows and Kid’s Nation. Responses were sent to CBS and NBC summarizing the reactions of our membership and emphasizing the core values of NPEN.Members were also encouraged to send their reactions to local media.
3. Attendance at conferences – NPEN members make presentations and talk about NPEN, perhaps having display tables at national conferences. In 2007-8, NPEN had a presence at:
   • Wheelock College Parenting Education Summit, Boston, MA
   • Childhood Conversations Conference, Hartford, CT,
   • PATNC Conference, St. Louis, MO,
   • PAT Trainings in CT,
   • NCFR, Pittsburgh, PA,
   • Arkansas PEN, Little Rock, AR
   • NAEYC, Chicago, IL
   • Connecting for Children’s Justice,
   • Nashville SE Regional Parent Education Conference , Chattonoga, TN,
   • NE Regional Parent Education Conference, Johnson, City, TN,
   • Council on Contemporary Families.
4. NPEN was represented at national credentialing task force of NCFR. There is much overlap from the national CFLE certification and a potential parenting education certification.
5. Four Organizational memberships were added to NPEN’s list.
6. NPEN Increased outreach/support to state PENs with either new or continued contact with 6 new state PENs, LA, SC, TN, MD, MN and CT
7. We began international parenting education contacts in the United Kingdom and FEIP.
8. We assisted in distributing the NPEN-CWLA Journal on parenting education and support. Due to the very positive response, we hope to have a reprinting this spring. In addition to use as an individual resource, this volume is being used in parenting education classes. We will keep all informed.

New NPEN Council Membership (our Board of Directors) and committees

1. The Nominations committee recruited 7 excellent new Council members: Betty Cooke (MN), Christine Deyss (NY), Thomas Linehan (NH), Liz Pearce (VA), Heidi Stolz (TN), Eve Sullivan (MA), Carla-Marie Weir (TX)
2. We have broad geographic representation. Our council now consists of: 5 members from the northeast, 2 from the southeast, 5 from the north central, 4 from the south central, 3 from the northwest, and 4 from the southwest.
3. We also represent different components of parenting education. We have 8 academics, 11 Parenting educators, coordinators or trainers, and 4 representing other close organizations (publication, Headstart, PCA). We have 5 men, 2 African Americans and 1 Latina on the council. We hope you will help us nominate more ethnically diverse parenting educators for our next elections. Please contact Jerri Wolfe, Chair of the Nominations Committee.
4. In response to the trends and issues raised by members, 3 new committees were formed: evaluation, chaired by Judy Nordstrom, NY, communications (includes advocacy and public relations) chaired by Chris Deyss, NY and Professional Recognition Systems (a more general term for all the kinds of credentialing) chaired by Betty Cooke (MN). The ongoing committee, Networking, is chaired by Liz Pearce, VA and Carla-Marie Weir, TX. More information about their work will follow during the year.

Thanks to all for your efforts and I am looking forward to another good year for NPEN.