Nebraska Family Forum

It is the Mission of the Nebraska Family Forum (NFF) to promote education policies in our state that preserve and protect parental authority and the integrity of the family. In so doing, we will preserve the cooperative and respectful relationship between school authorities and parents, preserve a family-centered community, and provide a well-rounded education for our kids.

Monday, March 19, 2012

The Future of the NFF

Volunteer to Serve on the NFF Board of Directors or as a member of a committee!

We need 9 people to be fully committed to serving on the board by the end of May if the NFF is to continue as an organization in our state!

Please look over the list below and consider what role you can play in the NFF going forward. I know that many of you have worked hard to reach the goals set forth by the NFF and that most of you would like to see the organization continue to play a significant role in protecting the integrity of families in our state through active participation in state politics.

Ultimately the direction the NFF takes and its continued presence in Nebraska politics is entirely reliant on the core supporters who are willing to volunteer to serve on a board of directors. The decision to continue with the NFF will be finalized by the end of May dependent on the numbers of volunteers who stand up to make this organization sustainable.

Many Hands Make Light Work!

With a committed board of directors to support the executive director and members willing to serve on committees, no one person will need to take on too much. Here is how we would like to organize and the positions and committees that will need to be filled.

- Executive director – Stephanie Morgan

*Provide clear leadership for the organization. Inspire and inform. Work with all board members regularly to shape the direction and focus of the organization. Meet often with the assistant director and secretary to evaluate the progress of current goals and assignments.

- Assistant Executive director

*Fill in for the Executive director when they are absent. Council with and support the executive director in leadership of the organization. Provide a unified message with the executive director and attend meetings in representation of the director.

- Secretary

*Keep records of core supporters, community partners, and contact lists for media and state officials. Work up meeting agendas and take notes at meetings. Produce phone trees and mailing lists. Send out organizational emails to core supporter and friends when directed. Publish a monthly email newsletter.

- We need people willing to assist in Secretary duties, such as taking on the newsletter.

- Treasurer

*Take on the task of incorporating the organization and getting a non-profit status for the group. Establish and organization bank account. Organizational accounting of funds and expenditures, tax filings, and yearly financial reports.

- Fundraising Committee: Will work under the Treasurer and help organize fundraising efforts and reach organizational goals for funding.

- Education Director

*Work with local school authorities and elected school boards. Help parents to organize local political action teams to influence local education policy. Watchdog for local education policy. Suggest policy changes needed in local school districts.

- Education Committee: We need members to serve with the education director. If you would like to serve as a representative to your school district please let us know.

- Legislative Director

*Work with state lawmakers and committees. Help group members to be involved in legislative matters and political action. Watchdog for legislation that impacts families. Suggest positions the organization should take on proposed legislation and make suggestions for original legislation.

- Legislative Committee: We need members to serve with the legislative director. If you would like to serve as a representative of your district please let us know.

- Public Relations Director

*Make contacts in local media. Write and distribute press releases. Make commercials and other public outreach materials (posters, mailings, newspaper ads, etc.). Book radio and TV spots.

- Social media facilitator: Use social media to shape the organizational message and activate support for important legislation and other efforts.

- Website developer: Website development and maintenance.

Important Announcement!

I announced to core supporters present at yesterday’s meeting that I will be moving out of state in the next year. My husband who works for the United States Defense Intelligence Agency has been looking to advance his career and this will mean that our family will relocate as soon as he finds the right position. We are not certain yet of the time frame but we are certain that it will happen before my son finishes his eighth grade year in 2013 (though it is likely to happen much sooner). In addition to organizing a board there is a pressing need for some willing person to serve as the assistant executive director with the intention of eventually taking my role as executive director. If you are interested and want to talk with me about it please call me: 402-301-9752

If you think of someone you think would be an excellent candidate to direct the NFF please let me know.

I can’t wait to hear from all of you!

Stephanie Morgan
Executive Director of the Nebraska Family Forum
402-301-9752

nebraskafamilyforum.org

https://www.facebook.com/NFPF2012

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The Personal Impact of Nebraska's School Attendance Law

We began collecting stories in April of 2011 and will continue to collect them as long as the law is abused. The stories we have collected demonstrate how our community has been impacted by Nebraska's school attendance law that counts all absences rather than "unexcused" absences for purposed of "truancy".

It may seem by the district by district breakdown that the law has impacted Millard Public Schools the most, but it is important to note that the Nebraska Family Forum grew out of the Millard Parent Society and therefore the awareness within Millard Public Schools is longstanding.

Out of the 3000+ cases referred to the Douglas County Attorney last year only 400 came from MPS. For every story collected here it is reasonable to assume that they represent dozens more who are affected who have not written their thoughts in a public way.

Nebraska Family Forum: What we Stand For

Mission:

NFF Guiding Principles:

Family is Key: We believe the family is the single most important element to a child’s ability to learn and be successful in school and life, and parents are the foundation upon which family success rests. For this reason, it’s imperative that the state honor the authority of parents as they exercise their natural rights, obligations, and responsibilities to raise, manage, direct, and educate their children.

Freedom in Education is essential: We believe that flexibility in education, school choice, stimulating curriculum, quality teachers, and innovative education reforms are essential to a family centered education. We support policies that will lead to greater parental influence in education innovation, curriculum, and choice.

Family struggles are a healthy part of life: We believe that the fundamental right of a parent does not cease to exist simply because a parent may fail to be a model parent. Parents often struggle to meet the needs of their children, but this is not in itself sufficient cause for unwanted and unwarranted government intrusion into family life. We join with Father Steven Boes of Boys Town in "proclaiming that not only are there no bad boys, as Father Flanagan taught, but there are no bad families.” There is always at least one person in a family that wants what is best for their children and is willing to ask for and receive the help they need.

Government Intrusion can be Harmful: We believe that the right of parents to raise their children without undue government interference is a fundamental liberty that has long been protected by the Constitution of the United States and is not void upon the enrollment of ones child in a public school. We warn that governments who seek to micro-manage the everyday choices of parents in pursuit prescribed outcomes, will do great harm to the integrity of the family and by extension, the well-being of children and society as a whole.

The Simple Truths

Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves. ~ Ernest Dimnet

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. ~ Oscar Wilde

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. ~ William Butler Yeats

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. ~ B. F. Skinner

Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. ~ G. M. Trevelyan

Every educated person is a future enemy. ~ Martin Bormann

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly. ~ Michel de Montaigne

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards. ~ Mark Twain

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants. ~ John W. Gardner

No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding. ~ Ezra Pound

The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives. ~ Robert M. Hutchins

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. ~ Albert Einstein

To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks. ~ A. A. Milne

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. ~ Albert Einstein

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. ~ Abraham Lincoln

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors. ~aya Angelou

Dad kept us out of school, but school comes and goes. Family is forever.

I hated school. Even to this day, when I see a school bus it's just depressing to me. The poor little kids. ~ Dolly Parton

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

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Monday, March 19, 2012

The Future of the NFF

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