Dear TJPTSA members and TJ community at large:
I hope you and your families are enjoying time together this 4th of July weekend. I wish I had good news regarding the state of the TJPTSA to share with you, but sadly I don’t.
First of all, I regret to inform you that two Executive Board Officers have resigned since Friday evening. As many of you are aware, President Elect Harry Jackson signed and mailed his version of the written response to the VA PTA on July 3, after a 4:3 vote during Friday’s Executive Board meeting to have his version serve as the “official response” from the TJPTSA Executive Board. First Vice President, Li Yang, who voted against sending the response prepared by Harry Jackson, gave me her resignation letter right after Friday’s meeting and also submitted it to the Board on Saturday morning. Second Vice President, Jun Wang, who actually voted for sending Harry Jackson’s response, submitted his resignation letter right after the response was mailed to the VA PTA on July 3. Their resignations have been accepted.
Furthermore, I regret to inform you that I have to call off the special membership meeting previously scheduled for Monday, July 5, at 6:30 PM due to the multiple threats of legal actions against me personally that were received in the past 36 hours from a certain group of people, who have apparently been working hard to prevent the removal of the non-compliant Officers (those called out in VA PTA’s June 23rd Intent Letter) by the membership.
The special membership meeting was called in good faith and met the 7-day advance notice requirement according to our bylaws. The Board has received numerous messages from the community, including a Petition signed by more than 300 members, calling for the removal of non-compliant Officers. Nonetheless, a group of people is determined to challenge the sufficiency of the meeting notice in order to prevent the membership from exercising their rights. They are right that my family and I do not have any additional time or energy to deal with frivolous lawsuits after having spent the past six months enduring relentless personal attacks and false accusations against me on social media platforms and in the press, which have greatly harmed my health and taken my time away from my loved ones.
I am just a volunteer who has been trying to do what is the best for our students and our community. I believe the TJPTSA should not have to suffer from the grim consequences of the continued non-compliance of Board Officers (e.g., President Elect Harry Jackson’s continued media appearances to spread the misrepresentation of facts about the VA PTA after receiving the June 23 Intent Letter: July 1 Washington Times article, and June 25 Free Beacon Article).
Given the continued dysfunction, politicization, and combativeness of the Executive Board, Secretary Laura Marschoun and I believe that the best path forward for the sake of saving the TJPTSA would be to urge the resignation of the entire remaining Executive Board. I, as the President, and Laura Marschoun will resign immediately after receiving the resignation letters from President Elect Harry Jackson, Corresponding Secretary Hanning Chen, and Treasurer Himanshu Verma. Now is the time for all the Board Officers to put their personal interests aside for the benefit and greater good of the TJPTSA and the community.
Once the entire Executive Board resigns, all non-compliance cases of current TJPTSA Executive Board members as raised in the VA PTA Intent Letter should have been addressed. The membership can write to the VA PTA by July 7th requesting an extension of time for the election of a completely new Executive Board and for guidance on how this new election should be conducted. The TJPTSA will hopefully be able to carry on and continue to serve our community when it’s time to welcome the new Class of 2025 and when all the students will finally be back on campus in late August.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Qin
TJPTSA President