I'm a writer (poetry, memoir, fiction….and a lot of web content!) , a sporadic blogger, a social media evangelist (love it for political activism, love it for arts distribution, love it for marketing), and a former independent school English faculty. (Five private schools in total, two of them boarding). I also happen to be staring rather desperately at the blank hole that's being left in my life by my two almost grown-up kids. My son is a junior at the U.S. Naval Academy and my daughter is a junior at a NYC private high school. (I raised them to be independent, right?! ) One of my New Year's resolutions is to re-discover some of those old passions that I just didn't have time for when I was full-time parenting – and maybe discover a few new ones. Growing as a Communications and Development professional is high on that list.
Which brings me to my job and why I want to blog about it. In 2008 I made the transition from teaching faculty to communications staff largely because there weren't any teaching jobs, but there were communications jobs. The fact that I knew how to use Facebook (Zuckerberg was trialing it at Phillips Exeter when I was a dorm head there) meant that I could make the switch. Luckily, I loved it and haven't ever looked back. Even so it's been a busy few years. In my first few roles I have been the webmaster, a primary web content provider, the public relations liaison, done video and photo editing (including being the one with the FlipCam at Assembly), ghost blogged for a variety of Admin Staff, and also directed a significant amount of print collateral production. My sense is I'm not alone in this. There just seems to be something about the job title “Director of Communications” which means “Director of Everything that Doesn't Fit Anywhere Else”.
As if being a Director of Communications wasn't enough, I added a new role when I joined my current school. I'm now the Director of Development and Communications of a private elementary school in Manhattan where I do all of the above, and run an Annual Auction and Annual Fund, as well as direct a Capital Campaign. I'm also helping to grow an Alumni Relations program – this last is kind of fun because an “alumni” of an elementary school is, on average, about 14 years old.
I have a part-time admin assistant who does my print mailings and helps with the donor database – but that's it. The rest is on me. It's exciting and challenging, there are tremendous synergies between new media communications and the new Advancement climate, and it's also just plain insane. I need help. My Twitter feed is my best professional development asset, but to really keep up I need to be more organized and more connected to my peer community. Which is you. Which is why I'm glad Brendan is lending me his space to talk with you!
My first task in January is to create a Social Media System for my school. Right now it's all in my head, but I need a policy that I can be consistent about and maybe train someone to help me with. Brendan's tips have got me started, but I have other questions too. How do I harness the power of volunteers without being taken over by them? How can I find time to do labor intensive tasks like video, photo and website editing and still make the space to think strategically – to stay creative and forward thinking? Is there an app (or two or three?) that can help me do the planning for a major event like an Auction? These questions are just the tip of the iceberg for me, so I'm looking forward to hearing from you!
