Book tip from Dr. Dave

Hi folks,
As you know, we will be placing a bulk order of "No" books at the end of the month. The cost will be $6.30 each, plus 5-8% for shipping, no tax, for the paperback version. If you/your agency want to puchase multiple copies of the book, let me know, and I will add your numbers to the total. I will be ordering no later than July 30. In the interim, I got the following email from Dr. Dave. If you want a hardcover copy of the book, or can't wait for the bulk order, this might be a good option. Parter's First Credit Union purchased a number of books this way. They will be a little more expensive than our bulk order, (6.99 plus tax and shipping), but you'd get them sooner. It might also be a good resource for parents that want to purchase the book, but don't want to pay the $14 at Border's.
Again, don't forget to let me know about bulk orders!
Megan

Megan, I just thought I would pass along a tip on inexpensive copies of the book. When we launched the Say Yes to No campaign in Minnesota last fall Simon and Schuster agreed to move up the release of the paperback by six months. That meant that they had a large unsold inventory of hard covered copies. Amazon bought up the inventory and are selling them at a very deep discount. Right now Amazon is selling the hard cover edition for $6.99 (regularly $23). This price is even lower than the paperback and lower than bulk discounts. You might want to pass this along to your partners so they can take advantage of this. I don't know how many they have so I don't know how long this will last.
Also, for folks who may be interested, Amazon is also selling Why Do They Act That Way" A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen for $5.99 (regularly $13)

Dave

Books and Updates

I had lunch with Liz, Bryan, the Small Learning Communities Coordinator for Fort Wayne Community Schools today. Exciting things are happening with Say Yes to No and Fort Wayne Community Schools! FWCS is committed to pushing Say Yes to No to their PTA's, and to that end, has purchased a LOT of books for all the high school PTA's. Liz and I will be coordinating a meeting for hopefully ALL the PTA presidents for elementary, middle and high schools for later this summer. We will further introduce them to the book and campaign, let them know what we as a community are doing with Say Yes to No, and get them pumped to start going! Those of you on the coalition who work for FWCS, expect an email from Liz soon.

Also, a reminder. At the end of the month, I'll be placing our bulk order for "No" books, at a SIGNIFICANT DISCOUNT (over half, I think!), so get your orders in ASAP!

Books in Spanish

I emailed with Dr. Walsh, and, Spanish translations of the books are very expensive - approximately $33. This is because the translator is in Spain, and doesn't mass export.

Dr. Walsh is working on a Spanish audio book, and asked for imput: would there be an interest in having an audio book version of "No" available, and is $14-15 a reasonable price?

Post your comments!

How to Blog

Hi folks,

So, I'm not a blogging expert, but thought I would post a small primer on what I do know. For blogging purposes, I am the "blogger," and you would be the "reader." As the reader, to participate in the blogging experience, you would post comments to the blog. Below each blog entry is an "add comment" link. I have put the settings on this blog to "open," which means you do not need an account with blogspot.com in order to write comments to the blog. What you would do is click on the "add comments" link, and a window will pop up. Type in your comments, then below, you can click to add your name or screen name, so that the next person reading the comments will see who wrote in. From there, at the bottom is the "publish your comment" button. Click and you are done.

This being said, if anyone is an expert blogger, and has tips on how improve this process, let me know....or post a comment!

Megan

PS... In my humble opinion, Parent University at our TWO guinea pig sites went well yesterday!

Say Yes to No: June 23, 3008
Meeting Notes

In attendance: Susie Peirce, Judy Lindsay, Judy King, Otha Aden, Kathyrn Lopez, Angie Glick, Jeff Studebaker, Greg Barnes, Down Cole-Easterday, Megan Kelly

Coalition Book Read Dates:

June 26 from 12 noon to 1pm in the ACPL Main Branch Business and Tech meeting room. (There is another group in there right at 1pm so be prepared to end at 1pm.) We will discuss chapters 6-9.

July 10 from 12 noon to 1pm in the ACPL Main Branch Business and Tech meeting room.

Book Read Resources

We discussed Parent University, being piloted at Indiana Stamp and Partner’s First Credit Union. Megan has divided the book into 8 ½ hour long lessons, with a parent handout. The format is for the facilitator to present the high points of the book section for 8-10 minutes so that parents who may not have read the book can participate, then spend the next 20 minutes discussing the book and q and a. Megan has the handouts and the facilitator notes if anyone finds them useful.

It was suggested to create a Say Yes to No Training of Trainers for Parent University as P.U. unfolds, so that businesses can have their own in-house trainer. This may be beneficial, especially to larger businesses where multiple P.U’s many need to run. There will likely be an ongoing need for Coalition members to teach at businesses however, and it was discussed that to make this successful, multiple coalition members need to be involved so as to share the teaching burden.

It is important to use the name Say Yes to No when discussing the book, doing book reads or parent support groups, to establish common language across the county. As long as Say Yes to No is at the beginning, describing the activity you will complete can be in any format – whatever is most acceptable to the group you will be working with. Examples might be: parent support group, book read, book study, class, workshop, etc.

We are reserving the use of the name Parent University for the activity going on in partnership with Indiana Stamp and the Chamber of Commerce. Say Yes to No is the first “course” of Parent University, but the whole concept is bigger than just Say Yes to No.

Status of Coalition

Early Childhood Alliance (Dawn Cole-Easterday): planning a Say Yes to No group with their teachers during nap times, and will do a parent group this fall (no dates set yet.)

Fort Wayne Community Schools- Bunche and Irwin Elementary (Angie Glick): Did some parent groups, had trouble with parent participation. Many parents work second shift, hard to make meetings. Principals have given Angie the green light to include parents from other schools in groups this fall to make her time worthwhile (versus one parent attending). Angie will be personally meeting with all parents during registration, and will pass our Say Yes to No information and sign-ups for groups.

Southwest Allen County Schools – Whispering Meadows Elementary (Kathryn Lopez): Reported that Catherine Sallaz, also of SACS, did a book read with parents and is planning for more in the fall. Kathryn was in contact with Dupont Hospital, and this fall, she, Catherine, and Roy McAllister will be doing a presentation for new and expectant parents as a part of Dupont Hospital’s every nine-week lecture series. They don’t have a date yet, but they believe this will be about a two-hour block of sharing time. Kathryn also shared that this fall before school begins, the school will be doing an open house at the two major apartment complexes that feed into Whispering Meadows, to try to establish better relationships with the parents that have children at their school. Kathryn indicated that they could perhaps talk briefly about Say Yes to No and have as sign-up sheet for interested parents

East Allen County Schools (Jeff Studebaker): Jeff indicated there was a core group of parents (about 10 families) at Village Elementary School that was very interested in meeting on an ongoing basis, and really asking for parenting information. Jeff believes this information would fit them well.

Urban League (Judy King and Judy Lindsay): Urban League will host Rally to Read on Saturday, September 27. Angie Glick, of FWCS, who is a case manager at schools near Urban League, offered to host a Say Yes to No booth at Rally to Read, since Judy and Judy will be running the entire event and unable to run a booth themselves. Megan will help Angie through providing materials, and Megan and Angie will go to the next Rally to Read meeting.

It was noted that it’s important to remember as we complete reads/studies, etc. to be on the lookout for parents that could perhaps take on doing book reads, disseminating information, etc.

Dates:
October 1, 2008: David Walsh to speak with Parents, Park Hill Training Center Time TBA (likely 7pm, Megan will connect with EACS to set time this week)
October 2, 2008: Conference on Youth, Dr. Walsh, Keynote and workshop speaker

Discussion of Public Kickoff, Fall

The need to get a calendar of Say Yes to No book reads and other events was underscored throughout the entire meeting discussion. Megan has the calendar available on the Great KIDS website, but need the information to plug into it. If you are doing a Say Yes to No event, email Megan with the information. Calendars can also be printed off so when kickoffs, public announcements and rallies happen, parents who want to can get a calendar of places they can plug into for more information.

Timing for the public kickoff will be the last week of Sept/first week of October, culminating with Oct 1 and 2 events. Star 88.3 will work on PSA’s for radio, PBS-39 will work on promoting events on their station. Megan will contact Char Binkley at WLAB, Clinton Faupel at Remedy.fm and Tracie Martin at News Channel 15.

Ideas for ways to get key Say Yes to No messages to the public.

Info disseminated at the Zoo
Info disseminated at Science Central
Grocery bag inserts at Kroger/Scott’s
Billboards/bus huts – look into getting a corporate sponsor
Using digital screens across town (Glenbrook, Embassy etc.) to get information out
Information blurbs on YMCA’s closed circuit television
Offering information as Sunday School classes (individual coalition members would need to take this to their churches)
One time meetings at YMCAs, local neighborhoods, library branches
One Sunday in October, churches to include information in their sermon or during announcements (Megan will talk to Vernon Graham for help, Otha Aden will talk to his contacts, Megan will ask Ken Shields and Fred Graf for help getting to The Chapel)
Pediatricians to “write prescriptions” to read book (Judy will coordinate/investigate)
Booth at Latin Fest (July 3-5) (Megan will call Sal Soto)
Booth at Black Expo (Aug 16)

Megan will also email Dr. Walsh about the status of the No book in Spanish.

Book Needs – Bulk Order

Say Yes to No . org now has a bulk order option on their website for books. Megan will be placing a large bulk order (over 700) next month, as the book will be the giveaway for the Conference on Youth. If anyone is interested in getting a number of books, they are free to add on to this order – contact Megan within the next month, and she will place the order. Bulk prices are as follows:

25-99= 8.40 per book
100-999 = 7.00 per book
1000-2,499= 6.30 book

All costs plus 5-8% shipping. Great KIDS/Allen Superior Court is tax-exempt, so we don’t have to worry about that. Megan’s tentative order date will be July 30, and shipping will take 10-14 days.

Next meeting date:

No next meeting was planned. Instead, coalition members are encouraged to use/check the blog: http://greatkidsallencounty.blogspot.com/ or link to it from http://www.greatkidsallencounty.org/

We will likely need to meet again before the public launch.

Old business: Please let Megan know if your agency is on board with the Coalition expectations distributed at the last meeting and included in the meeting notes sent by email. Additionally, please let Megan know if the coalition can use the agency’s name and logo.

Say Yes to No Upcoming Meeting and Coalition Book Read

Hi folks,

Below is an email from Ellie Nickeson regarding the Say Yes to No Book Read for our Coalition. In it she also raises some questions about items further than the initial book read. I've also had some questions raised, and want to start planning for the fall, so I think that it might be best to meet as a group. I hope you all can join me on Monday, June 23 at 10:00am, location TBA (I'll let you know soon - have some calls in). I want to talk about how we're going to launch a more public version of Say Yes to No this fall, and capitalize on the work you are already doing with book reads around the county. I will invite library representatives to join us as well.So! RSVP to me for the June 23 meeting and RSVP to Ellie for the June 19 Book Read!

Megan

Dear Say Yes to No Readers,

Last Thursday, June 5, a group of 7 met for an hour to begin a Say Yes to No book read for professionals. Here is a summary of the results of our discussion. 1 - We will hold 3 more sessions as follows: (this is based on the General Public Discussion Leader Guide from the Minnesota campaign)

* June 19 - chapters 1-5 (Meeting room 2 at the main branch of the ACPL)

* June 26 - chapters 6-9 (location not yet set)

* July 10 - chapters 10-14 (location not yet set)

Preparation for the 3 sessions includes reading the assigned chapters and coming ready to present/discuss your bulletpoints from these chapters. We hope to create a document to use, expecially with non-readers, from these bulletpoints.

2 - We would like to have details about the October 1 parent session with Dr. Walsh to use in our planning for groups that are able to begin prior to that date. We can imagine this session as a real draw to our reading groups.

3 - We are eager to have input from others on possible names for book reads with parents. We are concerned that we may turn off some potential participants if we focus on the reading the book as we publicize our reads. Many of us thought Parent University a nice option.

Megan Here: I would like to this part right now: I think I have to insist that we use the name Say Yes to No and not Parent University for this campaign. I also want to reserve Parent University for the present to its current use - which Say Yes to No is a part of, but the whole is bigger than just Say Yes to No. The library suggests the phrase "book reads" goes over much better than "book study" because it sounds less like work. Additionally, what I am finding and what the National Institute has found that a lot of success is based in not insisting parents read the book ahead of time. We should be familiar enough with the book to be able to talk about it to the group so parents who haven't read it can understand the basic concepts and then facilitate discussion. I'll bring some material I've been working on for Parent University to our next meeting that might be helpful here.

4 - We are looking to produce a list of suggested related books or DVD's that we can share with parents. So far we have 2 suggestions for the list: Mom, They're Teasing Me by Michael Thompson and Punish by Rewards by Alfie Kohn. Please invite any and all professionals to join us. The more the better as we start our initiative!!!

I hope to see you in a week.

Peace,

Ellie Nickeson

Parent University Update

Last week's Parent University kickoff was a success, in my opinion! We had two sessions introducing Parent University and Say Yes to No during Indiana Stamp's lunch hour, and it looked like lots of parents were interested in attending. A number even bought the No book, and Indiana Stamp ended up purchasing a number of books for their employees as well. In addition, Partner's First Credit Union was in attendance, as they are located in the same industrial complex as Indiana Stamp, and they are interested in having their employees attend Parent University. The next step is figuring out time and frequency of meeting. It looks like at this point that we will likely run Parent University before work, and Indiana Stamp will let me know soon day of the week and frequency. This is an exciting first step for a great idea, and I'm excited that Say Yes to NO is such an integral part of it!