SPN Invites going into Bulk/Junk/Spam folders

Some of you have highlighted the issue that SPN invitation emails you send out land up in the recipients bulk folder (and hence they never see it!). Since this may impact several users we thought we would add our feedback to this blog.

Please note that email services such as Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, etc. can sometimes route emails to Bulk/Junk/Spam folders. Hence the people you invited may not get the SPN invitation email you sent them. The best way to get around this is to send the people you invited a personal email and to let them know that you will send those who have not signed up yet an SPN invite shortly and that they should look out for it in their Bulk/Junk/Spam folder too. Also please highlight that after they register they should complete their school profile so that they get connected to relevant parents from their school, grade, and class.

After you send out a personal email, login to your SPN account – go to the Invite Status page and “Invite All Again” which will send all those people who have not signed up a new invite (Click here to see a small tour on this feature).

PS: Please "train" your email service by setting emails from schoolparentnet.com in your "safe" list. Alternatively, if you get an email from SPN in your Spam folder, make sure you mark it as "Not Spam". This applies to all current users and to those who may be reading this blog and may expect to get invited (ex: if you request an invite from our home page or know that your PTA may invite you).

Excellent Room Parent Resource

Occasionally you come across a site you feel like telling everyone about. We came across one and thought we would let you know about it - it is the Oak Knoll PTO site. On their site they have a great Room Parent Resource Center where they have done a wonderful job in documenting the "room parent process". It seems that some of these resources would be applicable to others too - such as room/grade parent role descriptions, agenda for meeting with teachers, sign-up and family information sheet templates (we have provided links to some docs - thanks much to this school - if you get a request for a password just click on cancel). We feel that the sign-up sheets could be handled and managed much more easily using SchoolParentNet. Our philosophy on sign-up sheets, is that it is much easier to get people to volunteer for an actual event/task/item rather than to have to make a commitment for a date/time for an unspecified task or for time periods way out in the future. With this in mind, we thought we would outline a "SPN room parent process" for someone who would like to/is using our site:

1) Meet with your teacher and figure out what information needs to be provided to other parents, what are the various activities that need to be planned, for what/how many/when do you need volunteers for in-class and outside class activities.
2) Use a family information sheet or a simple form to collect emails from class parents. You can also hand-out this flier or use this write-up in your class/school/PTA newsletter to help get the word out.
3) Request an invite through the SPN home page and Register after you receive your invitation email.
4) Create a Blog for your class - Blog Description could be "Room Parent Blog - Rm #/Teacher Name/Year".
5) Post information (as it becomes available) about announcements, activities, etc. by updating your blog.
6) Add sign-up sheets to your blog for in-class and extra-curricular activities (check out some of the example tables already pre-loaded that you can use as a starting point). Please note that you do not need to create all sign-up sheets for the school year at one shot - you can just add sign-up sheets to your blog as the date for the specific event/task nears (ex: party, field trip, carnival, etc.) or you could add sign-up sheets on a weekly/monthly basis for tasks that tend to repeat over time (ex: in-class reading/math volunteers, PE/Library volunteers, etc.). Also, our sign-up sheet feature allows the blog owner to send out reminders to all who signed-up with a single click and to print reports showing who signed-up/for what and from which school/grade/class.
7) Invite Parents from your class to view your blog (watch out for the "bulk/junk" mail issue - read this note) .
8) Ask them to set-up the "Notify me when updated" feature so they get an email when you update your class room blog.

And there you have it! You will be on your way with a very useful communication/interaction tool. As your class parents register and create profiles, your school/grade/class groups "directory" will automatically be created for you. You will not need to collate family information and print/copy classroom rosters. Parents will be able to make connections with each other through SPNs message center - enabling them to keep their email/telephone information private and giving it out to only those they would like to. Group messages can be sent to all users in your school/grade/class. You can also create interest groups for your PTC, room parents, etc.

Please note that a similar flow can be used by Grade Level Coordinators, PTO/PTC/PTA committee chairs/members. Enjoy :)

SPN is an extension of PTA websites

Many schools have PTA/PTC websites and often there is a question about how SPN fits into the overall communication plan and if SPN is a replacement for a PTA website.

There are many website services available out there that will help you launch a site for your district, school, class, PTA, etc (ex: using myteacherpages.com). These services will help you create a site that falls into the genre of Web 1.0 sites. These are sites that typically PUSH information and are managed/controlled by a "single" source (for example the PTA). It is important to note that SPN is not and will never be a replacement for these sites.

However, in some cases, SPN can be a "poor-man's" PTA/school site. If the school (ex: small elementary, pre-K, day care center) does not have IT resources or has a budget crunch, SPN can be used to provide information to the parent community. Ideally though, a larger school will have its own PTA website.

SPN fits into the new genre of sites called Web 2.0 - these are typically built to promote social interaction. The user community creates and shares content rather than there being a "central" content owner. In the PreK-12 school application that SPN serves, there is a possibility that some information may overlap between the PTA site and SPN. However, SPN is much more relevant when you use it to foster interaction amongst the school community - Ex:

(1) for signing-up volunteers for a carnival/festival (many people entering their own availability/interest into an online sign-up sheet and being able to see the current status of what tasks are available, which in turn depends on choices made by other people),

(2) for information dissemination/exchange at the class level - where there are many sources - each room parent being the driver, but where there is also feedback through sign-ups/comments from other class parents.

SPN also connects the parent community through a district/city-to-classroom level "directory" which is tied to user created & controlled profiles - thereby enabling users to get to know local families with shared interests/needs. These types of sites have been used in many other segments with great success (Colleges - Facebook; Business - Linkedin; etc).

So the bottom line is - SPN is attempting to bring new technology/ideas to the school/parent community, and it should be considered as an extension of a PTA website and not a replacement. Ideally, your school will have a PTA website and the school community will also get closely connected to each other through a social web service such as SPN.