I'm just too doggone...
BUSY
Honestly, I should know better. But I keep hoping when I say the work at My Charter School is lessening, it will stay that way. NOT! We have a charity golf tournament coming up to raise funds for our playground. The board member in charge of fundraising works part time and wasn't able to keep up. So when I stopped by the school for our Friday story time, I was given the assignment to market the darn thing.
(An aside - I want to give a shout out to Rhonda, our teaching assistant and co-owner of the Jazzy Bean coffee shop. She's the one who conducts the story time. Not only did she read to the kids and pass out juice and snacks, but she had them do a craft - a Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat hat made with paper plates, paper strips, and stapled together. I was extremely impressed! Plus she's got a wonderful rapport with the kids. We're so lucky to have her on our staff.)
Here's what I've done today or have to do over the weekend:
- emailed the event listing to all the local papers
- listed the event on a Colorado golf website
- emailed local reporters in hope they will write a story about the event
- wrote an email to the parents which will go out Monday
- get 1000 fliers printed at Office Depot
- distribute fliers to local golf stores
- work with our Volunteer Coordinator to get people to distribute fliers around the Tri-Town area - post offices, rec center, local businesses and restaurants, libraries, etc. (If she can't get people, I may have to distribute the fliers myself.)
- drop off fliers at school
- go to the Firestone town meeting on Thursday and ask the trustees to sponsor the breakfast and a foursome
- discuss further marketing ideas at the next board meeting
- go by the Comcast office to get a form to advertise on their free cable access channel (This is the hardest advertising to write since you only have so many lines and so many spaces per line. I've done it before for our enrollment sessions and the preschool program and it takes forever to do.)
- emailed the owner of Saddleback Golf Club to see what's being done at the course to market the event (luckily she's a very supportive charter school parent)
- emailed some of my husband's coworkers to form a foursome. (Thanks Uncle Pete!) and another friend, who unfortunately declined
- emailed the mayor of Firestone, who's also my chiropractor, to find out how I get on the agenda and if I should only talk about golf tournament or should I also give the town trustees an update on the school
Then I'm rather...
PISSED OFF
I wasn't planning to do all this stuff, but I wasn't surprised that it happened. Mama Rant to the rescue! And another afternoon spent at the computer while I ignored my children. Great.
Luckily for me, it's been very hot, and we haven't felt like going anywhere after 11 a.m. So we've been staying home to keep cool. Boo Girl and Monkey Boy were pretty good watching the Bambi DVD
Even though I've become a finely tuned, working-on-very-little-money marketing machine, I'm tired of being the only one who can do this at My Charter School. My fellow board members have very little experience in advertising/PR/marketing and aren't strong writers. Besides me, our principal is probably our best writer and he's got plenty on his plate without having to write copy for a fundraiser.
Months ago I found a parent with writing skills that would have been very helpful with projects like this. I should have insisted on her joining the board. However, the others felt we had enough members and didn't need the help. I personally disagreed, but went along with their wishes. Oh well, another "I told you so" moment.
(I'd love to tell you about the other "I told you so," but I'm waiting until after our October 1 headcount to blog about this person since I believe s/he reads this blog. Since I don't want to threaten enrollment numbers by causing controversy, I'm keeping quiet for now.)
Also, I found out more about our enrollment numbers. Some of those 307 kids have to be on waiting lists since we're full in grades K-2, so we have less kids than I thought. We need to have about 20-25 more kids as a safety net to deal with attrition. Still I think we're going to come very close to reaching our goal on opening day.
It'll be interesting to see how many kids enroll after school starts. I think it'll be substantial when the parents of the kids going to the elementary school down my street see the two new trailers in the front of the school. They'll freak out when they find out they're for the ESL students that are being moved there (oh, no...immigrant kids!). Then they'll run to us begging for a spot for their kids.
Then on top of all this stuff, I have to find someone to stay with the kids while I'm at the town trustees meeting because Big Bad Dad is out of town. (They're at a friend's house on Monday during our board meeting.)
Why does all this stuff happen when he's gone and I'm all....
ALONE
Big Bad Dad left for a prestigious, by-invitation-only, chemistry conference in New Hampshire today. He's hanging out in Boston over the weekend, seeing some friends, eating some lobster, and checking out the local sites, like Salem. Then he's driving up to the conference, where they have nothing to do but attend meetings and lectures, play golf and softball, and eat and drink to excess. Except for the unairconditioned dorm rooms, sounds pretty good to me and a lot better than trying to market a school fundraiser.
