Program Reminders

I am throwing this out into the universe because apparently there are still librarians out there who do not know about Remind.

Remind is a service designed for educators to communicate with their classes/parents. And best of all: it's free!

Librarians love free!

Now I know that this is free for "educators", but fret not I did check in with the amazing folks at Remind a couple of years back and they are more than happy to extend their awesomeness to us too.

Whoo-Hoo!

So how it works: Set up an account. Create your "classes". Then print off the invitation page (or use the content for your own flyers/postcards/bookmarks). Then you just need to get it into the hands of the people. They can sign up for either an email reminder or a text reminder.

In short
What your patrons do:

1. Sign up.
2. Get information.
3. Be happy.

What you do:

1. Create your "classes". For example: we use this not only for our TASK group, but also for our general youth services events. So we have: Storytime, Toddler Time, Mother Goose Time, STEAM, Family Friday, Teen Events, etc.
2. Decide how to use your classes. Some of these we use when we want to cancel an event or to remind our public that we are taking a break from programming (and then again when programming resumes). For others we use them as a weekly reminder that we have an event approaching (usually the evening before).
3. Spread the word. Make a brochure that contains your sign-up information or attach the info on your flyers. Spread the word on your website and social media too!
4. Start sending announcements. The wonderful thing: you can schedule them. And if you are a night owl or early bird Remind does have a delightful little pop-up that will prevent you from accidentally sending something out at 5:30 a.m. (thank goodness!).

So that's it in a nutshell. Give it a whirl and fall in love. If you are wanting to try it with your teens it's more than likely they are already familiar with it because schools all over are already head over heels for Remind.

Bonuses:

• They have an app.
• They also have a very nice chat feature.
• And, I almost forgot the most important feature. It protects your contact info and theirs. So they never see my cell phone # if I use the app and I don't see the number/email I send it to.