Parents Team Communication

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How much team communication do you receive from the Head Coach? Not communication about your child...but about the team. How is this communication formatted? Do you have parents that just don't ever look at anything?
 
We have a group on Shutterfly, where most of the info is posted. When they post something there, all members of the group get emails. Sometimes they just send out emails. Sometimes they put the information (like meet roster and schedule) up on a bulletin board in the gym.
 
when i first started i gave nothing except xerox copies and put them in the lobby. the parents would complain...why don't i mail them to make sure they get it. and when i did they didn't read it cause they would show up to the meet 2 hours late. and all those zerox copies COST ME MONEY I DIDN'T HAVE CAUSE I NEEDED TO EAT!

now we do everything. xerox copies in the gym, email, website links, texts, etc; NOW THEY SAY IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR THEM IF IT CAME TO THEIR "i" THIS or "i" THAT OR TWEET THIS OR TWAT THAT...THE TECHNOLOGICAL LIST GOES ON AND ON.

and they STILL can't understand the difference between "check-in" and "warm up" and "competition time start".and this is AFTER several team meetings and phone calls and texts and tweets and twats....

and then there is always a parent who says after showing up late or early or whatever..."oh, i didn't know there was a time zone change".

dunno is now screaming and pulling his hair (what's left of it) out once again. :)
 
Our HC or the owner doesn't say anything but she tells me and then I send out emails using mail chimp. We also have a team webpage that I keep updated and I post things on the team board at the gym. But of course I still get parents who say I didn't know!
 
We use an app called TeamSnap at our gym. It can be set up (by the parents themselves) to send them texts, emails or push notifications. Some parents still complain that they don't get the messages. For those of us who keep our info up-to-date it works well. The coaches use it to communicate about meets, events and practice change times. The basic app is free, but you can pay a small amount to upgrade it with more features. I've had several different sports use this app and I really like it.

Also, our coaches list the times the girls need to be with the coach and it very clearly says "be with coach at xx time". They don't reference warm up time or start time. That just seems to confuse people.
 
i get you ^^^ but we list the girls name under the session and time they must be there. and some parents think we have made a mistake and bring them at another time listed on OUR sheet to them. redefines the word 'frustration'.
 
HC sends out emails. It always seems like there's one or two parents who say they aren't on one email list or another and aren't getting the messages, but in general it works well.
 
when i first started i gave nothing except xerox copies and put them in the lobby. the parents would complain...why don't i mail them to make sure they get it. and when i did they didn't read it cause they would show up to the meet 2 hours late. and all those zerox copies COST ME MONEY I DIDN'T HAVE CAUSE I NEEDED TO EAT!

now we do everything. xerox copies in the gym, email, website links, texts, etc; NOW THEY SAY IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR THEM IF IT CAME TO THEIR "i" THIS or "i" THAT OR TWEET THIS OR TWAT THAT...THE TECHNOLOGICAL LIST GOES ON AND ON.

and they STILL can't understand the difference between "check-in" and "warm up" and "competition time start".and this is AFTER several team meetings and phone calls and texts and tweets and twats....

and then there is always a parent who says after showing up late or early or whatever..."oh, i didn't know there was a time zone change".

dunno is now screaming and pulling his hair (what's left of it) out once again. :)
lol, give them the basics. Gymnasts in session 1 need to arrive by x:xx am ... don't give them the full schedule. I am in charge of the team website and emails about schedule, etc. I tell them where the meet is, what levels are in a session, what time the gymnasts need to be there, what time they will actually start competing, and i do that for each session. (If it is in a different time zone, I label the times with that zone designation and put parenthesis and "x:yy our time"- rare... only happens for Y Nationals). Lately, if a level is broken up, I am even listing the specific girls in the session. Then i send reminder emails the day before (and they can access the calendar on the website). I have most of the parents cell numbers and will text, if asked, in the morning.
 
Our gym uses the following:
email (most frequent)
bulletin board in lobby
printed flyers (minimal)
Gym website
Gym Facebook page
Team Facebook pages (Artistic, cheer, and tumbling each have their own) My favorite b/c we can post questions and get public replies that help everyone. We also post pictures, etc.
Texts from coaches for unexpected or last minute updates
 
In my oldest dd's group we get sent an email a few days before the competition with the warm up time and the time to meet up with the coaches. My dd's group also has a "Secret Facebook page" that the same info is posted, not everyone has Facebook so they also send emails with the same details, the coach also reminds us after the final practice before the competition.
 
The clubs website is updated regularly and really informative. There's also a monthly newsletter published via the website which is also good - about 4 sides of a4 so lots of info on there.
I'm pretty sure most of the info on the website and in the newsletter is written by the HC.
It's good to be able to keep up with the team news.
 
HC sends emails with meet schedules. I then print and copy, putting schedule on BB at gym, and in the box where people can take acopy. Arrival times are highlighted.

Other info, coach will send out emails/letters. I post everything on our FB page as well. But some people, still, don't find out something in time. sigh.
 
We get emails through our booster club communication person regarding schedule changes etc. We also have a "rep" through our club (a mom on the board) who is in charge of registering the girls for the meets and then emailing out the schedules when they are posted. As a parent we are responsible for checking the emailed schedule (double checking that the session is correct), and appearing prepared at the meet around 30 minutes prior to open stretch time. The club had a "parent meeting" before our first meet season explaining the expectations to us, and from what I have seen, everyone falls in line. Our gym has a kind of "no nonsense" attitude about this stuff- we all do what the coaches want. Questions are generally routed through our reps, unless it is a very specific issue with our child. It works pretty well from what I have seen. :)
 
How much team communication do you receive from the Head Coach? Not communication about your child...but about the team. How is this communication formatted? Do you have parents that just don't ever look at anything?

In a word?

NONE.

We would love more information, but we get zip zero zilch unless we specifically ask a question. It is a major point of frustration for everyone.
 
Most of the time, info is filtered through the kids. If I ask a direct question (via email or in person) there is usually a follow up email to the entirety of team parents. Last week we got our first unsolicited email because a coach quit and everyone's schedules were changed.
 
i get you ^^^ but we list the girls name under the session and time they must be there. and some parents think we have made a mistake and bring them at another time listed on OUR sheet to them. redefines the word 'frustration'.

You can't fix stupid. ;):Do_O
 
I'm pretty sure it's just our level, but we have very little communication unless we seek it out. It can be very frustrating, as for all us parent's this is our girls first year competing. Myself and another mom try to catch the coaches when they seem to "sneak" out of the gym just to ask things like "when are we competing, and what time do we need to be there?" We're not trying to get answers to complicated problems, just basic things you think they'd tell us without having to ask. Prior to the first meet, we were a few days out, and had been given no info, some of the parent's didn't know how to fix hair, if they needed to wear warm-ups, just no info!
 

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