With the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference, the State of the State address and the MSBO Financial Strategies Conference behind us, it can only mean one thing… the “official” budget season is here. While many of us have been working on budgets for months or even year round, now is the time the conversation about the budget begins to take place inside your district and in the public. Nothing can help you tell your message better then a budget communication plan. When it comes to communication, any professional will tell you it is always better to be proactive rather than reactive. You always want to tell your story before someone else tells it for you.
The first step to a good communication plan is to understand your financial situation. This is the part of the process we typically excel at as business officials, “crunching the numbers” as everyone likes to call it. The harder part is crafting the story that the numbers tell. The next task is to identify your various audiences and understand what is important to them and communicate that message in their “language.” The final considerations are when, where, and how to communicate the message.
It is important to understand that your budget message may have a different focus for different groups, so one chapter may not tell your entire story. You will have to tailor the message to the audience to accomplish what might be multiple objectives using simple, real world examples they can relate to.
Who are your audiences? The days of presenting your budget at an obscure budget hearing on a date in late June with two people in the audience are long gone in these times of big cuts and multiple interested stakeholders. The school board, parents, employees, legislators, taxpayers, media, district vendors, alumni, and even students now want to know and understand how budgets are designed. They want to know the decision points and assumptions and who is determining them. When districts are in a cutting mode stakeholders appear from everywhere, so preparing for them before your budget hearing can avert problems.
It is important to determine whether you are calling for action from legislators, media, or parents versus audiences who may just be looking for information like taxpayers or alumni. The message may be to request help or ideas from employees or parents. Whatever the focus or motive for communicating with various groups may be, you need to proactively plan for all of them. Never release a budget resolution to anyone without some sort of accompanying document to narrate the story, because if you don’t the recipient will create the story.
The final part of the communication plan may be the most important of all. Creating a timeline or calendar for communication is essential to keeping control of the message. A schedule will help keep the various communications in order and completed on time. You should decide what you plan to communicate at each of the next 5 board meetings. A district should also consider when it plans to communication with employees, who can help carry the message to others. Preparation and timing of press releases can again help craft the story for the media. The creation of white papers about situations can help if the district is looking to initiate legislative action to meet needs. A plan to release information to parents and students simultaneously to media will be well received by those groups, so they don’t feel like they are the last to know.
One of the newer considerations is how to communicate the message. The best answer is likely a combination of efforts. Public meetings, employee meetings, mailings, websites, emails, Facebook, Skype, and Twitter may all have a place in your plan to reach your audience. Don’t find yourself caught in the “way it’s always been done,” because these are not the times of the past. The numbers are the numbers but they can’t express the past or the future without the words of your communication plan.