Today's Spark: Brand School
giving back to learn more
Volunteering when your kids are little is pretty easy - show up to sell popcorn at movie night, donate coats in winter, or chaperone a field trip. Once they are in high school (aka way too cool for you to appear in public with them) it is still as important but less visible. My contribution to The Brooklyn Latin School was to join the Parent Association when my daughter got in then offer my communication skills to create a weekly newsletter.
Like most schools, TBLS is full of amazing/overstretched/busy/intelligent/caring teachers and staff and the parents who love them. How does a newsletter help? The board brainstormed ways that we could centralize the timely sharing of information to connect parents and the school, minimize phone calls and emails to the office, and improve engagement with events. My fellow communications co-chair and our leadership talked through the sections we’d need, who would contribute, and what schedule made sense to make it useful, and - most importantly - read.
The newsletter - The Vox - is now in its 3rd year and going strong. I took the opportunity to take the school color (purple) and simplify the shades used, as well as a limited font choice. When other parents or teachers step in to update, we have templates and this brand guide to help them.
We have kept a weekly cadence, with a Friday deadline for contributions, Saturday morning building session with the other comms chair and myself, and edits by Monday evening for a Tuesday morning send. We have completed our goals beautifully - I love hearing the feedback from parents and teachers about how much more connected they feel when they learn about what’s happening in the school, or what events are coming up, and how they can help.
We have an auction fundraiser tonight (go ahead and bid!) in its second year and we have used the Vox to sign up volunteers, gather donations of goods & services, sell tickets, and make parents feel welcomed by the school. Our mailing list is parents and guardians only, so we feel good about sharing photos of our kids along with the school itself.
If you are a parent looking to stay connected to your older child’s school once the chaperone stage is over - or too embarrassing - volunteering to join their parent association and bringing your career skills might be one way to do it. What skills? Can you organize, fundraise, do accounting, dj, bake, sew, shop, drive, make phone calls, fold clothes, paint, speak in public, design, brand-build, copy-write, network, campaign, sing? Anything you have on your resume might be valuable. I’ve also seen careers grow out of the relationships and skills learned within school associations!
At Spark Focus, we help brands improve how they work together, through digital transformation, change management, and cross-team collaboration. I have been so happy to find some of the same discussions in the workplace can translate into our work on the TBLS Parents Association too, and will miss my time there when my daughter graduates. For now, I’m pleased my small contribution is helping connect our community and will continue after I’m gone.