How to Create an Announcement for the District-wide eNews service
Running an event of interest to the PAUSD community? If so, you can send a message to our eNews coordinator at eNews@paloaltopta.org who will then share your event information with ALL 17 individual school eNews coordinators.
That means you can send it out once instead of 17 times! Digests containing recently submitted events are sent to school eNews editors twice a week during term time (usually Tuesday and Friday mornings). Individual editors then send out their own eNews listings once or twice a week, depending on each individual school’s policy.
Here is an eNews Power Point Slide Show to help train PTA volunteers in using eNews.
Here’s a brief guide to creating an announcement for the eNews list.
When composing an eNews message, please include the following information:
1) Event title.
Make it short and distinctive: e.g. “Learn about Inclusiveness in Middle School” instead of just “Parent Ed Event on May 3rd.”
2) Event date, time and location.
3) Relevant grade levels — e.g., is it for parents of students in specific grades, all parents, or parents plus high-school students? etc.
4) The topic and, if relevant, the speaker/s (especially if well known).
5) A URL or contact address for further info, questions, signups, etc.
6) Any deadlines (e.g., “sign up by October 25”)
7) Whether simultaneous Spanish translation will be available.
Whether childcare will be available (important for events aimed at parents of younger children).
9) Costs associated with the event (for admission, childcare, etc.)
10) Names of the event sponsors.
11) A very brief sales pitch. No more than two sentences. What should attendees expect to learn? Why should people come?
Please note: eNews editors at each school decide whether and when to publish an item. They are also not obliged to keep repeating announcements. Make sure to announce events far enough ahead for parents to buy tickets, secure sitters etc. A good lead time to aim for is around three weeks before the event. Events are also posted online at http://info.paloaltopta.org. Your submission will be reviewed and reformatted if necessary to be a single block of text. You will/will not receive an acknowledgment email from the PTAC eNews coordinator that your submission is being processed.