Staffing & Structures
Board
Ways the Board Can Support Admission
Head
Admission Director
- NAIS tools for Admission Directors
- 2008 Assembly session: Giving a Good Tour Under Less Than Ideal Circumstances
- 2008 Assembly session: How We Enrolled Our Largest Class in History
- 2008 Assembly session: Realistic Enrollment Projections: How the Admission Director Can Help Head of School and Business Manager
- 2008 Assembly session: Time Management for the Part-Time Professional with a Full-Time Job Load
- Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School Uses Community Outreach to Expand Mission-Driven Marketing
Parent Ambassadors
Many schools are forming corps of well trained, enthusiastic, and articulate parent volunteers (Gann Academy in Boston calls them "Ambassadors") who support the implementation of the school's recruitment activities. Traditional activities include conducting parlor meetings, helping conduct school visits, and acting as guides during open houses. Less conventional ideas include having the parent Ambassadors buddy up, one on one, with prospective parents with common interests. For example, parent Ambassador X from feeder school Y might be buddied up with several prospective feeder school Y families to answer questions, provide perspective on why they choose the school and how their child was faring within it. In this manner, they play an invaluable recruitment role that could never be performed by the Director of Admission. Ideally, they would stay in touch with the prospective parents through to the matriculation of their child. Parent ambassadors are identified through word of mouth, email, and newsletter postings. They are thoroughly trained in communicating the school's "why choose our school" story as well as in describing the school's specific differentiating features. Gann Academy uses Ambassadors (parents, students, and faculty) to great recruiting advantage.
Gann Academy ambassadors (Audio)