Online Promotion Guide: Active Parenting Today Online Groups PROMOTING YOUR ONLINE PROGRAM THROUGH PUBLIC SPEAKING

Designate a committee member to contact local organizations (refer to the list in “Preparing for Your Online Group Program”) and ask if you can make a brief presentation promoting your upcoming online group. If time allows, arrange to show a video vignette or two so the audience will see how they can benefit from the group and can recommend it to others.

You may want to outline a five-to-ten minute presentation as follows:

• State who you are and the name of the sponsoring organization; then briefly mention the starting date of the upcoming Active Parenting Today Online Group program.
• Summarize the specific topics covered in the program…styles of parenting, effective nonviolent discipline, teaching responsibility, logical consequences, defusing power struggles, stimulating independence, smoking, drugs, sexuality and violence, and the power of encouragement.
• Briefly describe the online format of the program…weekly session posting, entertaining video vignettes of daily family life on CD-ROM, Parent's Guide, online discussion. Stress the convenience of participating in the online program at a convenient time and place—no babysitter needed!
• Describe the benefits of the workshop…a smoother, more harmonious family life and children who are responsible, cooperative and able to resist peer pressure.
• Briefly describe required computer equipment and software.
• Conclude with a “call to action” by inviting parents to register. Have flyers available. Offer to stay after the meeting to answer questions.

REMEMBER THAT YOUR ENTHUSIASM WILL BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING YOU ACTUALLY SAY.

Have a sign-up sheet available (name, e-mail address, phone number) for those who cannot sign up right then or would like a follow-up e-mail message or phone call. Encourage audience members who do not have children or whose children are grown to take a flyer and give it to a co-worker, neighbor or friend who might benefit from the online group.

Write a thank-you note to the person who arranged for your presentation stressing their role in helping families in the community become stronger and happier.