At the start of the ‘07 school year, Ainsworth PTA in Portland, OR, set out to revamp the way it reaches the parents of nearly 500 elementary students.
Not unlike most PTAs, the majority of Ainsworth’s communication had been rooted in print. The PTA directory, back-to-school packets and weekly newsletters sufficed as one-way dialogues that were time-consuming and expensive to produce.
Today 300 PTA members, every teacher and staff member, plus a staggering 96 percent of the school’s parent base, are communicating online via a free, secure and private web-based platform for volunteer-powered organizations from Big Tent Design Inc. Back-to-school packets which had been shuffled through the hands of school officials, copied and collated by teams of volunteers and eventually given to parents are now simply uploaded to the school’s site, where accessing and completing them takes minutes.
What’s more, parents and teachers alike can join forces to discuss key issues on a daily basis—from school improvement projects and curriculum enhancement to increasing safety around morning student drop-offs.
Taking Ainsworth online has also enabled the noteworthy elimination of its weekly hardcopy newsletter. Not only was creating five-page “News Notes” highly labor-intensive and expensive, it funnelled redundant copies to parents with more than one child in the school system. Parent feedback indicates a strong preference for the new online version, which fosters more two-way
dialogue and helps the school “go green” by saving up to 90,000 pieces of paper annually.
With lines of communication wide open for Ainsworth parents to reach all teachers and fellow parents of students, the PTA’s innovation has sparked a renewed appreciation for narrowed communication. Online sub-groups have been designed for every classroom—21 in all—making volunteer coordination and communication about specific room events more efficient, relevant, and personal for parents. An online, integrated calendar provides event alerts and allows
parents to RSVP and an automatic “news feed” each week summarizes important information, events and updates in just one email.
Through the right mix of technology and foresight, the group has fostered dynamic, personalized and meaningful communication—all for the good of the students.
About Big Tent
Big Tent Design, Inc. is where trusted groups connect online. Designed with security and privacy at the core of its platform, Big Tent strengthens group involvement and simplifies group management. By combining the best of today’s social networking features with free group management tools, Big Tent helps real-world communities share, communicate and organize online and in-person. Founded in 2006, the company is headquartered in San Francisco
and currently hosts parents groups, PTAs, preschools, alumni associations, professional organizations and other clubs and community groups nationwide. For more information about Big Tent, please visit: www.bigtent.com.
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