War and Peace in a Sound Bite: Standards for Effective Board Presentations

1
War and Peace in a Sound Bite Standards for
Effective Board Presentations

• Kim Cranston, Rockwood School District
• Chris Tennill, School District of Clayton
• MSBA Fall, 2006

2
Weve All Been There
3
Board Meetings AsCommunication Tools

• A school board is the face of the school
  district.
• Board meetings are
• A reflection of the culture and climate of the
  school district.
• An opportunity to present a positive image of the
  school district.
• A tool for communicating with large groups.

4
The Research Doesnt Connect

• 51 of BOE members rely a lot on BOE meetings
  for community input.
• 83 of BOE members believe meetings are somewhat
  or very effective in communicating with large
  groups
• 75 of BOE meetings are not highly-attended.

5
Wheres the Disconnect?

• There is one audience at BOE meetings.
• There are actually multiple audiences at BOE
  meetings
• Board of Education
• District administrators and staff
• Parents
• Patrons
• Media

6
Keep Your Audiences in Mind

• Effective Presentations
• Increase attention and retention
• Improve persuasiveness
• Impact understanding

7
Keys to Effective Presentations

• Simple
• Succinct
• Short
• Simple Modest Credible

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Keys Keep it Simple

• Avoid educational jargon
• Limit use of complicated charts and graphs

9
Keys Keep it Succinct

• Tell em what youre going to tell em
• Tell em
• Tell em what you told em

10
Keep It Short

• A good presentation technique is the Rule of
  Three.
• People tend to remember three things.
• Put your message into a list of three.
• What are the three most important points my
  audience needs to know?  

11
Use Visual Aids

• Emphasize/reinforce verbal message
• Clarify complex concepts
• Increase retention
• Focus attention
• Stimulate interest
• Organize your ideas

12
Power Point Presentations

• Slide content
• Fonts, colors, backgrounds
• Images and transitions
• Delivery techniques

13
Content - Information on Slides

• The biggest mistake a presenter makes is
  overloading slides with information. Too much
  information will redirect the audiences focus
  from you to your presentation. Audiences will
  also spend more time reading your slides than
  listening to your presentation.

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Content Information on Slides

• Use text and images carefully.
• Use adequate white space (60 - 70).
• Use the 6 x 6 rule
• Six words per line
• Six lines per slide
• Provide additional detail in handouts.

15
Fonts, Colors, and Backgrounds

• Serif vs Sans Serif
• Bold titles
• Avoid italic, decorative, condensed fonts
• Spread out your bullets

Never use green on red
Never use red on green
16
Images and Transitions

• Use images that are
• Clear
• Relevant to the slide
• Not cliché clip art
• Use transitions
• To divide presentation
• In a systematic pattern

17
Delivery Techniques

• Speaker/slide interaction is the key.
• Slides ? Notes
• Dont read slides.
• Pointer tips
• Dont cross over your body.
• Avoid the firefly.
• People came to hear you speak, not to hear you
  read your slides.

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Delivery Techniques Final Prep

• Rehearse presentation out loud.
• Practice with the equipment.
• Practice in the room where youll present.
• Have a backup plan.
• Check for spelling and grammar errors.

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Some Other Tools

• Paperless Board meetings
• Board meeting summaries

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Three Points to Remember

• Keep your audiences in mind.
• Keep presentations simple, succinct and short.
• Use visual aids effectively.

21
Contact Information

• Kim Cranston
• Rockwood School District
• cranstonkim_at_rockwood.k12.mo.us
• [phone]
• Chris Tennill
• School District of Clayton
• chris_tennill_at_clayton.k12.mo.us
• [phone]