::There is such a thing as a Free Lunch
By Cindy Sabato, past ClaSPRA President and CalSPRA eNewsletter Committee Chair
The best free lunch this year has been CalSPRA’s October Networking Luncheons hosted by several County Offices of Education throughout the state. This year’s luncheons were part of CalSPRA’s continued effort to provide low-cost, easy-to-access professional growth opportunities during the ongoing budget crisis. If you chose not to attend because you couldn’t get away from the office for a few hours or couldn’t afford the free lunch, you missed some great discussions and shared knowledge of our membership.

“In our area we rarely get together, so this was a great opportunity to sit down together and share the challenges and successes of our jobs,” said Kelly Avants, director of communications & board relations for Clovis Unified School District. “In Fresno, we had people travel from Madera to Hanford to attend the luncheon. Three of the five people present are involved in boundary changes and facility bond projects, so we were able to share ideas of what our respective districts are doing to communicate with their community on these issues. Some discussion occurred around event planning and crisis communication as well.”

Jake Bragonier, public information officer at Madera Unified School District and just a few months on the job, said one of the most valuable topics for him at the Fresno luncheon was on the subject of growth. “Here in the city of Madera, the school district is growing at an incredible rate. Madera Unified added an elementary and middle school this year, will be adding another elementary school and high school next year, and have two more elementary schools in the planning stages,” he said. Based on the way the Central Valley is growing, any conversation amongst CalSPRA colleagues there cover the funding of new schools, strategies and success stories for passing school bonds, breaking ground and opening new schools, and so on.

At the Riverside County Office of Education, which served as the host for the Riverside, San Bernardino, and a few Los Angeles area folks, more than a dozen participants listened to the NSPRA Power Hour on PR tips for principals and followed with their own networking on issues affecting districts. Host Rick Peoples said the conversation was filled with topics including working with local law enforcement and warning parents about attempted abductions, introducing a new superintendent to the community, forming a local SoCal study group for the APR exam (you can do this too, in your area!), and upcoming CalSPRA events and dates.

Rick de la Torre, APR, communications specialist for Los Angeles County Office of Education and host of the Los Angeles and Orange County luncheon, said his luncheon was filled with some detailed discussions about special event planning and mutual disaster aid for PIOs. “We talked about the challenges of putting on all-staff conferences, timing the event at the right time to get full motivation and attendance, making it short enough so it’s not a time burden and people can get back to their sites, and the possibility that employee awards can be a great addition to an all-staff event to make it something more than a pep rally for the superintendent,” he said. LACOE held its first ever all-staff event for about 1,500 employees in September. Rick said it was “part pep rally, part discourse, and part call to action. The main thing is that it was successful and it worked, but we already got some new ideas from the luncheon about how to improve it next year.”

Another important topic at the LACOE luncheon was about building a local network of PIOs who can help one another out during disasters. “This was the start of a conversation that needs to continue for a long time. Katrina is the big, bad recent example that teaches us this. But we know it would probably be an earthquake here in California,” Rick said. He said the discussion reminded participants that disasters don’t respect boundaries, so PIOs should remember to think of colleagues in other counties or cities nearby. But he added, “we have to get to know and meet the PIOs in our areas before we have to call them, or they call us, for disaster help,” he said.

The LA luncheon group agreed that having regular meetings like the CalSPRA luncheon can be a great way to share information about crisis communication plans, what disaster preparedness systems are used, and how districts coordinate with local emergency agencies. “We agreed that regular meetings can help sustain momentum and create leadership, and that the eight people who attended our luncheon will be the basis of a new PIO networking group around the Greater LA area, but open to everyone, of course. If we know each other and have met, it’s likely we will be more inclined to offer or accept help when it really counts,” Rick said.

So if you missed out on the free lunch, we hope you’ll think again next year. Kelly said of her group, “We enjoyed the chance to swap war stories and to encourage one another in what we are doing, and all agreed that we have to do this more often!” But Rick de la Torre adds a valuable insight: “Here at LACOE our thinking is that even if CalSPRA can't afford another "free lunch" event, we are all free to organize something like a "no host" lunch event in the coming months to keep some momentum going and keep in touch.”