Open Forum

Today on twitter, there were many tweets about incoming freshmen advice. I myself follow lots of theatre people, so most of the tweets I saw were "#incomingfreshmenadvice join theatre." I also saw a couple of posts about students working their freshmen orientation to promote drama club and thespians. How does/did your school pull new freshmen into the theatre department? 

At our school, we have a club fair and that is where we advertise our troupe. We also send out "FOP" invitations to every freshmen. Freshmen Outreach Program, FOP, is our program set up to pull in new freshmen and mentor them throughout the year. Each new freshmen that signs up at club fair is assigned an upperclassmen buddy to help them through the year! What do you guys do? 

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Katie Siegel
ITO Chair

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I love the FOP idea. Our school does the Link Crew program--a small group of freshmen students is assigned a Link Crew Leader. The Link Leader leads them through orientation and then connects with them in their homeroom classes throughout the school year.

As for recruiting, we have a similar Activities Fair during Freshmen Orientation and our officers assemble a table and chat with freshmen about our theater program. We also make sure to include information on the parent newsletters and such sent out by the school.

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Jennifer Farrell

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Original Message:
Sent: 08-02-2013 23:50
From: Katie Siegel
Subject: Promoting Theatre to Freshmen

Today on twitter, there were many tweets about incoming freshmen advice. I myself follow lots of theatre people, so most of the tweets I saw were "#incomingfreshmenadvice join theatre." I also saw a couple of posts about students working their freshmen orientation to promote drama club and thespians. How does/did your school pull new freshmen into the theatre department? 

At our school, we have a club fair and that is where we advertise our troupe. We also send out "FOP" invitations to every freshmen. Freshmen Outreach Program, FOP, is our program set up to pull in new freshmen and mentor them throughout the year. Each new freshmen that signs up at club fair is assigned an upperclassmen buddy to help them through the year! What do you guys do? 

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Katie Siegel
ITO Chair

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------------------------------------------- Sharon Chadwick ------------------------------------------- We also do an activities fair and show video clip highlights from our past year as well as pass out brochures about our department. This year for the first time we are doing a theatre camp, much like band camp. We have sent out a letter to all the incoming Freshman registered for theatre or tech (too bad I couldn't get a list of ALL the freshman) and invited them to a camp the week before school starts. We have no idea how many will show. But I guess we'll see what happens. It'll be a good learning experience for next year.
Original Message: Sent: 08-03-2013 12:01 From: Jennifer Farrell Subject: Promoting Theatre to Freshmen I love the FOP idea. Our school does the Link Crew program--a small group of freshmen students is assigned a Link Crew Leader. The Link Leader leads them through orientation and then connects with them in their homeroom classes throughout the school year. As for recruiting, we have a similar Activities Fair during Freshmen Orientation and our officers assemble a table and chat with freshmen about our theater program. We also make sure to include information on the parent newsletters and such sent out by the school. ------------------------------------------- Jennifer Farrell -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 08-02-2013 23:50 From: Katie Siegel Subject: Promoting Theatre to Freshmen Today on twitter, there were many tweets about incoming freshmen advice. I myself follow lots of theatre people, so most of the tweets I saw were "#incomingfreshmenadvice join theatre." I also saw a couple of posts about students working their freshmen orientation to promote drama club and thespians. How does/did your school pull new freshmen into the theatre department? At our school, we have a club fair and that is where we advertise our troupe. We also send out "FOP" invitations to every freshmen. Freshmen Outreach Program, FOP, is our program set up to pull in new freshmen and mentor them throughout the year. Each new freshmen that signs up at club fair is assigned an upperclassmen buddy to help them through the year! What do you guys do? ------------------------------------------- Katie Siegel ITO Chair -------------------------------------------

During Freshman Registration our Thespian Officers stand outside greeting all 600+ incoming freshmen with a flier (attached). We follow this up with freshmen only lunchtime Thespian meeting the second week of school where we serve lots of desserts. 
At the end September (once the kids are hooked) they each get a big buddy and we have 1-2x a month Big Buddy/Little Buddy activities for them.

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Krista Carson Elhai
California

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Original Message:
Sent: 08-02-2013 23:50
From: Katie Siegel
Subject: Promoting Theatre to Freshmen

Today on twitter, there were many tweets about incoming freshmen advice. I myself follow lots of theatre people, so most of the tweets I saw were "#incomingfreshmenadvice join theatre." I also saw a couple of posts about students working their freshmen orientation to promote drama club and thespians. How does/did your school pull new freshmen into the theatre department? 

At our school, we have a club fair and that is where we advertise our troupe. We also send out "FOP" invitations to every freshmen. Freshmen Outreach Program, FOP, is our program set up to pull in new freshmen and mentor them throughout the year. Each new freshmen that signs up at club fair is assigned an upperclassmen buddy to help them through the year! What do you guys do? 

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Katie Siegel
ITO Chair

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Start early! The reason I got involved in theatre is because the high school started performing for the middle school when I was in 8th grade. We got the chance to talk to them and ask questions. Hearing real life stories and advice from friendly, older high school kids made an amazing impression. I couldn't wait to get to high school so I could join the drama club. I signed up as soon as I found the auditorium!

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Ginny Butsch
Community Manager
Educational Theatre Association


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Original Message:
Sent: 08-03-2013 14:08
From: Krista Carson Elhai
Subject: Promoting Theatre to Freshmen

During Freshman Registration our Thespian Officers stand outside greeting all 600+ incoming freshmen with a flier (attached). We follow this up with freshmen only lunchtime Thespian meeting the second week of school where we serve lots of desserts. 
At the end September (once the kids are hooked) they each get a big buddy and we have 1-2x a month Big Buddy/Little Buddy activities for them.

-------------------------------------------
Krista Carson Elhai
California

-------------------------------------------






Original Message:
Sent: 08-02-2013 23:50
From: Katie Siegel
Subject: Promoting Theatre to Freshmen

Today on twitter, there were many tweets about incoming freshmen advice. I myself follow lots of theatre people, so most of the tweets I saw were "#incomingfreshmenadvice join theatre." I also saw a couple of posts about students working their freshmen orientation to promote drama club and thespians. How does/did your school pull new freshmen into the theatre department? 

At our school, we have a club fair and that is where we advertise our troupe. We also send out "FOP" invitations to every freshmen. Freshmen Outreach Program, FOP, is our program set up to pull in new freshmen and mentor them throughout the year. Each new freshmen that signs up at club fair is assigned an upperclassmen buddy to help them through the year! What do you guys do? 

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Katie Siegel
ITO Chair

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