Come Back Strong for Fall 2021: Your Post-Pandemic Planning Guide

SESSION 4

This week, we’re focused on recruiting! With spring here, we must have a productive recruiting season to ensure our program is full and vibrant next fall.

In-Person Recruiting Ideas

If you are presently enrolled in in-person learning, here are some great recruiting ideas that we have borrowed from fellow educators.

• “Blitz Week” — Pick a week for a recruiting “blitz” at your feeder programs or elementary school. Hang up posters around the school. Order campaign-style yard signs and place them in the carpool drive-through for parents to read. Welcome students as they are coming in and out of the cafeteria at lunch with a small ensemble performance. Submit a morning announcement or create a video to be played during the school’s morning broadcast. Scheduling a specific “blitz week” can be an effective way to reach incoming students. 

• Drive-thru Instrument Safari — Take a page out of Jacob Campos’ book at Franklin High School and set up a date for parents to do a drive-thru instrument safari. Arrange your high school sections throughout the school parking lot and provide a safari path for parents to navigate with their child and listen to each section. Each section can pick a fun song to play that features their respective instruments. Students can vote on their favorite instruments, and directors can speak with each family after they have completed the safari — all while socially distanced and outside. 

Virtual Recruiting Ideas

Teaching virtually doesn’t mean your recruiting efforts will be any less effective as in previous years. Here are some ideas that will ensure next year’s class is as full as ever!

• Be an Online Guest Artist — Schedule a time to digitally visit your feeder programs to act as a guest teacher or artist for the day. You can show brief videos or demonstrations of each instrument and talk to students about joining the band or orchestra. 
• Utilize Student Videos — Student videos are a great way to recruit future members. Ask students to submit brief videos explaining why they joined the band or orchestra and what they enjoy the most. You can keep it simple or get creative.
• Drop in a Cameo — The website www.cameo.com allows you to create a personalized video featuring television, music and movie stars. Here is a recruiting video Siegel Middle School created featuring Rick from “Pawn Stars” 

Hybrid and Blended-Learning Recruiting Ideas

Many teachers are teaching both online and in-person. Here are some recruiting ideas that translate to both in-person and online learning. 

• Social Media Takeover — Coordinate with your school to do a social media takeover. This can be a great way to live-stream videos from inside your program. Feature your students, programs and accomplishments, and explain why students should join the band or orchestra. Many parents follow the social media accounts of their child’s school, and this can be a great way to reach these parents. 
• Slideshow Presentation — Create a simple and fun slideshow that can be shown in-person or online. Schedule a time to speak with students, either in their homerooms, in a school assembly, during their music class or digitally. A slide show can be a great way to get students excited about joining your program — make sure to feature your current students and highlight accomplishments. You can also take the opportunity to address some of the FAQs that you get, such as can students participate in music and another school activity or club? Here is an example. 
• Phone Calls — While an “old-school” approach, phone calls remain one of the most effective means of recruiting students. Calling parents individually allows you to speak one-on-one with parents to share your excitement about the program and uncover any concerns. Oftentimes, parents want their child to be in the band or orchestra but may have a misunderstanding about the conflicts or other commitments that might prevent them from enrolling their child. Here is a list of FAQs you might receive from parents and a phone script to kick off the conversation. 
• Parks and Rec Programming — A summer parks and rec program is a great way to reach a wide audience and expose students to the joys of playing music. Many of these programs are being scheduled now so that registration can occur later in the spring. Here is more information. 

Don't Forget to Check-In

By now, we should be aligned with our building principal and counselor about our plans for next year. If not, a scheduled conversation can help bring everyone up to speed. But it’s important that you check-in regularly. Schedules and decisions can change, so you must be aware of any conversations that could impact your program. A casual conversation to confirm everyone is on the same page ensures that there are no surprises later. 

Resource Roundup

• Be Part of the Music is an outstanding recruiting resource with more recruiting ideas, videos, email templates and even the ability to create a recruiting website for your school. 
• Join “After Hours: Conversations for Music Educators” on March 9th for a panel discussion on recruiting ideas for the spring and summer. Register for this free webinar here. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

We hope you’ve found the first two sessions helpful and are taking positive action to build toward a strong Fall 2021. We’ve got your back and are going to walk beside you, step-by-step, in bringing back the music!

In this session, we have three big areas of focus:

1. engaging another key stakeholder — your counselors,
2. continuing to build momentum in our recruiting efforts and
3. incorporating activities specifically designed to retain our beginning students

GOAL: Tap in to Your Counselor

In Session 1, we outlined a conversation with your building principal that will help you plan for the coming year. This week, we turn our attention to having a similar conversation with your school counselor to determine how you can best partner with them to increase student enrollment.

Important things to consider: 

1. Don’t wait for the counselor to reach out to you: A proactive conversation will determine if there have been procedural or date changes relating to signing up students.
2. Plan ahead for the conversation. A planned conversation can help you identify any new “landmines” for this fall. Here is a list of considerations to prepare for your meeting. 

RECRUITING TIP: It's Elementary 

RETENTION TIP: Get S.M.A.R.T. 

While it's great that we are getting a jump-start on recruiting for next fall, don’t overlook the importance of retaining the students already in our program. Here is a great resource  that provides a “S.M.A.R.T. approach” to retaining the beginners presently enrolled in your program. 

Don't Forget 

If you haven’t started yet, now is the time to collect testimonials from your parents and students for use later in the spring for recruiting. This email/letter template from Session 1 can be sent home to encourage students and parents to share their experiences.  

Resource Roundup

• It’s easy to get focused on the challenges we face, but here’s a reminder of 5 good things that came out of 2020. 
• Need a digital recruiting idea? Here is a recruiting slideshow that can be used in-person or online! 

Save the Date 

• On March 9th at 5 p.m. CST, “After Hours: Conversations for Music Educators” will host a live podcast recording and panel discussion on recruiting ideas for spring 2021. Register for this free Zoom event here.

Let's keep the momentum going as we build toward a successful start to the upcoming school year! 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

SESSION 2

For this session, we’re focused on setting the table for credible, impactful conversations with your building principal, school board members and elementary school teachers. It’s important that we proactively share information with key decision-makers to ensure our program’s voice is heard throughout the spring and the entire decision-making process. 


Let's Talk Minimizing Risk in Music

There is still a great deal of concern relating to the spread of COVID-19 in our schools, so it's important that we are prepared to address this head on. Fortunately, there are significant studies underway that directly address how to minimize risk in the music classroom. Here are the key takeaways from the most recent findings in a long and abbreviated format. 

• It's important we use the appropriate vocabulary when communicating these findings. These measures do not make music “safe,” but rather, “significantly reduce risk,” in some cases by up to 90%. We want to ensure that we are communicating this information accurately. 

We also want to communicate this information to our key decision makers in an easy-to-follow format, so that they can make the best decision possible. Don’t assume they know what you know! Here is an email template you can use to communicate this important information about safety measures to your decision makers. 

GOAL: Get Your Community Involved

It's vitally important that our community supports the arts, and who better to lead this charge than music teachers? The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) recently launched an initiative called “ARTS ARE EDUCATION.” You can find the press release for this initiative here. This is an easy, turnkey way to share the importance of music with your community and gather support. 

Get your community involved: 

• • • Budget decisions are already underway. Parents asking the school board to pledge support of the arts makes music a budgetary priority.

RECRUITING TIP: It's Elementary

Recruiting can never start too early, and elementary school music teachers are a great ally in this activity. Here are some things to do now to kick-off recruiting alongside your elementary school teacher:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Goal: Lay the Groundwork

This session is all about laying the groundwork. Our goal is to uncover any roadblocks that might present themselves later in the spring and to ensure that music has a voice at the table as plans are made for 2021-22. Have you considered these items to prepare for the fall?

• • • Remember: When framing your conversation with your administrator, be sure to present your solutions in the context of what’s best for the students.

□ You may need to remind your administrator why music is a crucial part of the curriculum. Here is an example of a presentation successfully used by teachers in Lincoln, NE to ensure continued support of music programs.

 

Recruiting Tip: Prep Now 

We all know recruiting is 24/7, but it is more important than ever to be focused, organized and proactive. We’ll provide a recruiting tip or action item in every email to help and inspire you. Our tip this month is:  

□ Start collecting written and virtual testimonials from your parents and students about the importance of music in their lives. These can be outstanding materials to help you recruit later in the semester. Here is a sample email letter you can use to collect these testimonials.

 

Resource Roundup

If you are looking for some more resources to help you with these conversations and to-do items, here are a few you might consider:

• NAMM’s Webinar on “Talking to your Administrators about why Music Education Matters” (recorded Oct. 8th, 2020)
• Amro Music’s Podcast on "Recruiting Resources from Yamaha Featuring Disney Pixar’s 'Soul'" (recorded Jan. 5th, 2021)
• NFHS summary of most recent aerosol study results