Communications
You want your events and information to go out to the McAuliffe Community in a timely and effective manner. Your Communications team wants to help.
In accordance with our PTSA Goals and Objectives, every effort is made to reduce distributing PTSA information on paper. Exceptions are given for preprinted forms from other organizations (like Girl Scouts), forms that must be returned by the entire or a majority of the student body and other individual exceptions such as beginning and end of year newsletter and rare emergencies.
Primary modes of PTSA Communication for the 2009-2010 school year will be the Daily and Weekly Star Gazer, the Tandem Calendar, the school and PTSA websites,
We want you to have as much publicity as possible (all while saving the planet!). The following describes how to get the most publicity with the Tandem Calendar, our PTSA website, and The Star Gazer (monthly newsletter).
Submitting Events to Tandem
Tandem is the calendar system that is supported by the Lake Washington School District (Parent Organizer is no longer supported). It is a robust system that feeds directly to the school and PTSA websites and can even automatically update in parents' personal calendars.
Upcoming Tandem Events will also be listed in the Star Gazer automatically.
If you would like a calendar item put into Tandem, send your unformatted request to: tandem@mcauliffeptsa.org
- Date time and location of event
- Any additional information and links
- Contact person (name, email address and optional phone number)
Submitting News and Events to The Star Gazer/News Blog
We use a blog system that automatically creates our Weekly and Daily Star Gazer. Parents are automatically opted into the Weekly Star Gazer with an option for Daily delivery.
It is important to enter your news item in this system so your request is not misplaced. Don't worry, it is really easy! After you have done it once, it's a snap.
Directions on how to add a blog/news item can be found at:
www.mcauliffeptsa.org/c5/training/adding-news-blog
You will need a login. If you are a Board member, you already have one. If you are a committee chair, please email communications@mcauliffeptsa.org for one. Otherwise, contact the committee chair to whom you report or email communications@mcauliffeptsa.org for one.
Occasionally, email postcards are sent as reminders about upcoming PTSA events. If you would like an email postcard for your event, contact your Communications VP, Susannah Pryal at communications@mcauliffeptsa.org to arrange it. Please allow at least one week before you would like to to send it out.
Front Page Banners
Postcards are usually made into banners on the front page of the website to remind parents of upcoming events.
Any Board Member or Committee member can have an individual web page for his or her committee or event. This can include information, links, picture galleries, forms, polls, etc.
If you do have a flyer that needs to go into Payload packets, it must be approved by the VP of Communications. You will need to have an approval form attached to it that you will receive once it is approved. Please follow the guidelines before making any copies.