60 Seconds in Sparks Club!

 

Having trouble keeping parents connected?  

Catch their attention in just 60 seconds with this tool!

Last summer, I did a lot of thinking about our AWANA Sparks Club and what areas needed some improvement.  I knew right away that we really needed to improve how we communicate with and support our parents.  Parents are the number one missionaries of their homes, the spiritual training of their children is first and foremost their responsibility, however, in order to make AWANA Clubs work as a training resource for parents, we must include them and partner with them whenever possible.  

I realized, as I was thinking back on our club from last year, that any lack in handbook progress or inconsistent attendance can most often be linked back to a lack of connection with the family.  Of course, this isn't always the case, but it's my feeling that when parents don't feel connected to the club they are less likely to give it priority in their busy daily schedules, which means they are less likely to be encouraging their children to memorize their verses. And we all know that children are much more likely to complete their handbooks when they receive support at home.  

So, think about it....if the parents don't feel connected to the club, and they aren't working with their children at home, their children are most likely not making as much progress in their handbooks as they could be, and if their parents aren't seeing progress being made they tend to value club participation even less. It's a vicious cycle if you think about it, and it definitely builds a case for making parent involvement a priority when planning for the AWANA year. 

Last year, I sent a lot of emails to parents trying to keep them informed about club activities and their children's progress, but when I asked parents for feedback at the end of the year I was told that they don't really like lengthy emails, and they often go unread, or at the very least skimmed through. I was also told that they do not like to get take home papers every week because they end up either getting lost somewhere between club and home, or they get deposited into the dreaded "pile" of other school papers, daily junk mail and other forgotten items. 

I'm a parent of a Sparks clubber myself, so I understand how much papers come home from school, and other extra-curricular activities, and I have definitely been guilty of skimming an email for what seems important instead of reading the whole thing. So I decided that we needed to create a short, easy and engaging way of communicating with parents and keeping them connected. This is basically the story of how 60 Seconds in Sparks Club was born. 

60 Seconds in Sparks Club started as a weekly video clip for parents.  

• This short clip quickly goes over what the weekly lesson will be about so that parents know what's happening at club.  

• We also include short announcements and reminders, as well as tips for better success when time allows.  You probably guessed from the name that these clips are about 60 seconds in length, now I know that doesn't seem like a lot, but you would be surprised how much info you can get into a 60 second video clip! 

• These video clips are a short, easy, and fun way to get information.  Parents don't have to take time to read (or skim) through lengthy emails, and they don't have to worry about losing take home papers that may have important information on them. 

• We post these videos to our church AWANA blog and alert parents every Sunday that a new clip has been uploaded. 

• We also post a Parent Download with the video clip each week.  This download has a more detailed lesson overview for parents that want more. We also include Family Follow Up activities and suggestions. The Parent Downloads are a bit lengthy, but they are optional so parents don't miss out, necessarily, if they choose not to read the download. Some parents really like the downloads, other don't, but the point is that we are offering parents options so that they can be involved in a way that works best for them. Just be careful when creating parent downloads not to copy the complete lesson from the AWANA curriculum, make sure to paraphrase and keep it as short and simple as possible. We don't want to lose parents in the details, just tell them what they need to know. Remember, AWANA Curriculum is copyrighted material that churches must purchase from AWANA.

Results???

This was our first year to use 60 Seconds in Sparks Club, and we immediately recognized the success of offering bite sized options for busy parents.  We got a lot of feedback from parents that they liked the videos, however, we didn't see many parents taking advantage of the Parent Download of weekly lesson details.  We also realized over time that a weekly video was a little much, both for us to keep up with producing, and for parents to view. 

What did work was the short one minute format of the video, parents really liked that.  We also found success in providing parents with several options to get information through emailing out alerts, posting our videos to our YouTube Channel, and adding these links to our church AWANA Blog. So I would definitely suggest this tool to other clubs, but in the future we are going to be doing a Monthly video, and of course, use it for special announcements.  How clubs choose to use this tool really depends on their own specific clubs needs, but I thought it was definitely a tool worth posting about. 

Oh, and I should probably mention that I produced these videos using images and voice over. I have a Mac, so I used iMovie and my iPhone voice memo app to record the voice over.  No fancy equipment or skills needed here, trust me, I have neither!!!