Free election calls – get out the vote in schools’ favor

Tuesday, May 5th is election day for many school districts across the country- seeking to fight an uphill battle for taxpayer money in a very tough economy. Even simple renewal levies and referendums are at risk.

One Call Now sends automated notification calls to millions of families every day, and We are pleased to have donated over $50,000 in phone calls to school levy committees to reach voters with their key messages to help get the funds needed for our children.

This season, dozens more are using our help, with professional script writing techniques, and our white paper on how to use the power of voice to win votes.

We recommend calls go not just to parents and staff, (generally called preaching to the choir calls), but  to the entire community, and that’s why we donate calls to the entire community for any school client needing help to win elections. We also often provide the lists of voters, or assist in preparing the lists and the calls – also gratis. We set up a separate (feee) account, and donate the calls to the levy committee – rather than to our client, the school; which might force the school to provide calls for the opposition committee, threatening the outcome.

My wife wears a t-shirt that says “Wouldn’t it be great when schools get all the funding they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber”.

Until that day comes, One Call Now will do whatever we can for every K12 client to help reduce the dependency on bake sales and help get the funding needed to produce the next generation of highly educated Americans.

We are pleased to have won a National Political Consultants POLLIE award for the best automated school phone campaign in the country; where we used geo-targeting techniques to call voters in wards and precinct more likely to vote yes and avoid calling in ‘NO’ vote enclave areas. That campaign, and a majority of the ones we work on, won overwhelmingly.

If you have a funding issue or levy coming up, call us. we’ll call your voters. Effectively. Quickly, and for even better than cheaply- for free.

Send us a request and we’ll send you the “Top Ten Tips To Win Votes” white paper, by clicking here

I APPRECIATE YOUR COMMENTS- CLICK HERE

PS- Ward 4 now votes in several of our office training rooms; the county had been seeking a handicapped accesible, centralized facility, and after we moved here in February, we were happy to make it available. We even took down the ‘Vote for the Renewal Levy” signs in the hallway!

When Messages Matter- Pay-Per-Call plans are bad ideas

Fort Bend, TX has 68,000 families in their school system.

When this school district in Texas cancelled school, at 6:00am, due to the Swine Flu Emergency, parents did not get the call. Instead, because their district had purchased a parent notification call-out system from one of the firms that sell a hardware phone dialer in the school plus limited access to a separate rapid-calling system – that charges the district a per-call fee for mass call-outs; a district staffer decided that a few calls to the media instead would save money.

Parents dropped off their kids in front of locked buildings, blissfully unaware that school had been closed. Maybe the parents need to be forced to listen to select media outlets; or maybe, just maybe, schools like Fort Bend should select Parent Broadcast Systems like One Call Now that allows unlimited anytime telephone, text and email notifications directly to the devices, homes and phones of each parent – in minutes.

Unlimited Calling to reach anyone, anytime- every-time is what we offer to schools. Because When Messages Matter- we deliver.

That’s why we are also offering a completely free, NO-charge emergency alert system for any school system, public safety agency, business or community/religious organization to enable their administrators and managers to reach everyone immediately. Learn more here

Learn more about How NOT to do it by reading on…

Stumbles In Fort Bend ISD’s Notification System

By Richard Connelly in Edumacation

Tuesday, Apr. 28 2009

How did some Fort Bend ISD students learn this morning that school had been canceled?
Some guy drove up to their bus stop and told them. They trudged home from there.
These days, you’d think any school district too big for the old phone-tree would have a computer system that would make automatic calls to parents in emergency situations.
Fort Bend does indeed have one, but the district didn’t use it this morning.
Essentially, spokesperson Mary Ann Simpson said, the district decided not to bother.
“We have a service we can use that can call all households — but the media began announcing it immediately, so it was decided we did not need to do the call out to 68,000 homes — that word was getting out quickly,” she says.
But it might’ve helped, she admits.
The decision to cancel classes was made at 6 am, she says. “The weather, and the rapid rate at which it unfolded this morning, was remarkable. By 6:00 am, some of our high school students are already on their way to the bus stop for school. So I know some were caught off guard,” she says.
But the district did everything it could short of using the automated message, she says: “I called all the TV stations by 6:05 and had something on the website by 6:10 am. Also, the phone message on the main district line was changed quickly to say we were closed.”
Which didn’t help at least one parent, who called her kid’s school only to get a terse confirmation from a harried teacher who said she couldn’t talk longer because she had another 100 or so calls waiting for her to answer.

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I have nothing to add.

Swine Flu Emergency Notification now available at no cost

One Call Now Offers Notification Service at NO CHARGE for Governments, Schools, Businesses, Religious Organizations and Others in Response to Swine Flu Outbreak.

In response to outbreaks of swine flu across North America, One Call Now, America’s leading emergency notification service, has issued professionally-written influenza notification scripts for use by its 35,000 clients to inform and protect the millions of families currently receiving One Call Now Notification Messages.

The company has also announced a NO-Charge, proactive emergency calling plan for any government emergency management agency, school district, business, religious or community organization that lacks an emergency communication system but will find it essential to inform their citizens, families, staff and congregations should the situation change.

One Call Now’s various comprehensive service plans include clear voice, SMS text and email messages, enabling you to reach tens of thousands of recipients a minute to protect lives and keep people informed.

For Government Agencies, the NO-charge service will provide a database of all published and unpublished numbers for every household to be used by government emergency agencies to immediately send a clear, digitally recorded voice message to an entire town, city or county.

For Schools, the NO-Charge service will dial every family in the school’s student database in moments with updates, instructions and details to keep children safe and parents informed.

For Businesses, the NO-charge business continuity plan will allow company management to reach every employee, stakeholder and customer with emergency communications and plans for staff and clients alike.

For Churches, Youth Sports Leagues and Community Organizations, instant communications to keep families safe and informed is vital; and now easy, and at NO charge.

“We have been providing emergency services to tens of thousands of organizations nationwide for eight years, and reach millions of people every day with voice or text messages that inform and protect. In this uncertain time, with the World Health Organization issuing an unprecedented Phase IV pandemic alert, it is incumbent upon every organization to have the ability to contact their people immediately; even if there is no budget or funds available. That’s why we are offering a no-strings, no-charge emergency communications plan for any organization. Our company mission statement, ‘When messages matter, we deliver’ is not just a phrase, it is part of our DNA, and why this no-charge service is so vital for any organization to have in place if the worst should happen. ” said Leib Lurie, CEO of One Call Now.

“The company can have most new clients ready to send their first test message in a matter of hours, and our 24/7 support team is always ready to train and assist with fast, professional implementation. This includes scripts issued to all clients to be used to inform and help keep every family safer from this lethal form of Influenza. ” said company President Angela Kirchner.

For details and immediate implementation for your emergency communications plan, organization administrators are urged to call 877-698-3262.

Community Alerted Instantly After Child Abduction Attempt

MURRAY, KY- Police say the middle school student was walking home on Poplar between 8th and 9th around 3:30 PM Monday when a green car pulled up alongside. Police say the driver asked the student to get inside. The student refused, ran home and told his parents. After police were called, it didn’t take long for the entire community to be put on alert.

“They called to tell us about a student being approached which I thought was fabulous because otherwise we wouldn’t have known anything about it,” said parent Tina Carter.

Carter and hundreds of other parents are on alert because of the One Call Now Service. It’s one step Murray School Administrators and teachers can take to send an instant message to parents home, work or cell phones. The district started the system in January and used it after the Ice Storm. Murray School’s Sherry Purdom says One Call Now can be used for more than just emergencies.

See the video news story here

“It’s been used for meetings that have changed, ball game cancellations anything of that nature,” said Purdom.

“It could have been my child,” said Parent Mitch Knight. “It could have been anyone’s child You don’t think about that happening here but I guess it does happen everywhere,” Knight added.

Staff at Murray Middle talked to students about the dangers of strangers, but Ladonna Sparks plans to stress that lesson at home. While it’s not something anyone wants to hear, parents take comfort knowing this student did the right thing.

And in the end, parents say they are glad they got the message.
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We are glad they did too.

Larry Cave, our Regional Manager  Manager in Kentucky said it best…
“This really makes us feel GOOD about what we sell”.

Studies show that 34% of all schools will have a lockdown or dangerous incident affecting student safety this year, notifying parents immediately needs to be a cornerstone of every schools’ emergency plan.

One Call Now takes this responsibility seriously enough to offer our  Parent Broadcast Notification services absolutely free to any school through the end of the school year when budget monies for next year become available.