Sarah Holland 2 PACs, DPAC, geek What do we communicate, and what - - PDF document

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5/3/2013 Sarah Holland, Prince George District Parent Advisory Council BCCPAC Conference May 3, 2013 Sarah Holland 2 PACs, DPAC, geek What do we communicate, and what do we want people to do as a result? Info minutes,

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5/3/2013 1

Sarah Holland, Prince George District Parent Advisory Council BCCPAC Conference May 3, 2013

Sarah Holland – 2 PACs, DPAC, geek What do we communicate, and what do we

want people to do as a result?

Info – minutes, reports, agendas Actions required – volunteers, wanted, events,

meeting attendance

Just feel informed about what is going on So parents know how to get more information –

means and people

Different schools will use different tools –

enrolment of 20 students very different from 1,278 (Prince George extremes)

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5/3/2013 2 Twitter and Facebook and group meetings and newsletters are all TOOLS. Tools matter, because tools impact the way you

interact. You don’t need to use every tool, but every tool you

use you must use well. – Seth Godin, courtesy of Chris Kennedy

How can we communicate both OUT and IN? How do we make this as simple as possible for our

volunteers?

How do we make it as reasonably priced as possible? How can we make sure communications is a priority? How do we keep from excluding people? How can we get someone else to do it when we move

How much of this is going to be controlled by the school

r school district?

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5/3/2013 3

Some people

will always complain, no matter what

Accept this and

move on

Face to face Meetings Signage & posters Phone calls and trees Newsletters – paper, email Websites Social media – facebook, twitter, etc

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5/3/2013 4

Face to Face – this is the most effective method, and

most time consuming

“Hi, I’m ____, can ...” Meetings “If they really wanted to know...” Don’t mistake parents who don’t come for parents who

aren’t interested

Parents who go to meetings are the strange ones Signage and Posters Useful, but limited Phone Calls and Trees Works better in smaller schools

Most traditional method of communications Plus Expected Some people need paper Minus Teacher time Bottom of backpack Siblings Environmentally un-friendly Talk to school – publish in conjunction?

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5/3/2013 5 Pay attention to design! Consistency Use a grid, template, don’t distract from message Conservation (Clutter-busting) Adding fonts and clip art does not make a

newsletter more interesting

Readability is important Contrast Type contrast, white space, sizes

!"#$%&!'!

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5/3/2013 6 Big question - where to get emails, how to

maintain, confidentiality, transition year to year

Different methods Email program or merge Email list manager School secretary

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5/3/2013 7 Privacy concerns – CC often used instead of a

merge or BCC

should everyone be able to see everyone’s email

address?

Life too short for me to maintain email lists People need to be able to add or remove

themselves from list without taking up my time

Are people actually reading the emails? Mail Chimp – great service Free up to 2,000 users and 12,000

emails/month

Allows users to administer themselves (add,

remove, change)

Reports on who opens, how often opened,

etc.

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Plus Easier to maintain and publish Environmentally friendly Anyone can access The new expected Minus Not all parents have internet access Some are on dialup - slow Need some tech ability to setup and maintain SD57 school websites horrible

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As of October 2012 December 11, 2012 last update, as of May 2013

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5/3/2013 10 Is an abandoned web site worse than no

web site?

What’s your commitment level? How do we make this as simple as possible

for our volunteers?

How can we get someone else to do it when

we move on?

Domain name Web Host Platform

Address, or URL
Own this yourself?
Points to…
Where files are stored
Free or paid
Displayed by…
How you control what

appears on the website

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5/3/2013 11

Domain name purchased through GoDaddy.com .info $2.99 for first year, .com $9.99 a year Web Host Originally hosted on a free platform, blogger Moved to dreamhost.com ($79 for 2 years – special

deal – usually $8.95 a month)

Platform Originally using Blogger platform Now set up with WordPress – more power and

control

Easy to set up editor roles for other users, such as

principal

Old method - bookmark websites in your

browser, manually return to them on a regular basis to see what had been added

Gets complicated, miss information, keep seeing

same info

New Method – RSS - “Real Simple Syndication” Have website let you know everytime it updates Use RSS reader or use RSS update service But – one big problem with using RSS Anyone know what it is?

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5/3/2013 12 Set up one RSS to email campaign on

MailChimp

Automatically emails RSS updates once a day

r week at a specific time

Volunteer only needs to do one thing – post

to website

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5/3/2013 13 MailChimp gives ability to see if emails are

being opened

Google Analytics gives ability to see how

website is being used

Free service Set up one time

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5/3/2013 16 Facebook Confidentiality issues Moderation important Which parents don’t use Facebook? Recommendation: Use this tool as

supplemental communication for your school and parent-group.

Twitter Pinterest

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Twitter

Also good for breaking news

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Visit -

jointheassoc iation.com

Face to face Suggestion box Online surveys ThoughtStream Going to meetings Post comments Emails Phone calls Anonymous?

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