Should I Stay or Should I Go?

A number of years ago, a popular hotel chain was using that tune from The Clash as the soundtrack from their commercials. And because the messages in music resonate with people who hear it, some of them might be thinking the same thing if they have children enrolled in your school – especially at this time of the year.

If your school is not located in the state of Georgia (where school began today), the start of the school year for your students is just around the corner. This week, visit your local office supply store or check out Amazon.com or Walmart.com to get some packets of Avery postcard paper. A package of 200 is about $25, so consider this an investment in securing your current school enrollment. There is a template you can choose that will format the WORD document properly so you can compose and print your “We’re looking forward to welcoming you to another school year” message.

The message should be directed toward your STUDENTS, since you’ll be mailing these postcards to your students. Sign them in BLUE ink!

Get a list of students from last year, and HAND-ADDRESS the other side of the postcard in BLUE ink as well! While the message on the card can be printed on your computer, the address and the signature need to be hand-written in BLUE ink.

If you’re able to get the teacher of the class which the students will be entering to sign the card for those students entering that grade, then this task can be effectively divided. However, if there’s still classroom assignments to be made, then the Principal MUST PERSONALLY sign the cards.

Remember, the hand-written components need to be done it BLUE ink!

Have I said BLUE ink enough?

The BLUE ink stands out, showing that you have taken some time to actually hand-address the card, put the postage on it, and sign the note rather than inserting a computer-generated signature,

Don’t have time to do this? Have a staff person address them in BLUE ink, allowing the principal to PERSONALLY sign the cards in BLUE ink. If you don’t MAKE the time to do this, you may get an unpleasant surprise in a few days or weeks when ten students you’re expecting to attend don’t show up.

Remember, rule #1 of Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is “BE PROACTIVE.”® This is not difficult, it’s not going to cost a lot of money, and it will be time well spent!

You may read this and say, “You know what? I just looked at the bottom of this article, and found it was originally written 20 years ago! Things have changed since then. We do a lot of this by email and by text now!”

That’s true!

Email is a wonderful thing.

Texting is even more efficient!

But keep these three things in mind:

1) This postcard is to the child…and you’ve seen what happens when teachers or administrators communicate electronically directly with students;

2) Kids LOVE to get mail in the mailbox! It’s such a novel thing these days! Imagine! Someone’s actually taken time to write to them rather than send them a text!

3) Postcards don’t get caught in spam filters.

Of course, you can always continue to hope they show up on the first day of school….and, the last time I checked, hope, while being one of the three things that last, is not a strategy.