Communicating with school boards: Position, power, and perseverance

The theme of this years Academy meeting, "Telling Our Story," raises import ant questions about how best to hone our message to diverse audiences in or der to achieve desired outcomes. This paper addresses strategies and techni ques that can be employed with local school boards. The school board is rec ognized as one of the most influential organizations for developing and sha ping policy at the local level. Without the support and advocacy of the loc al board, efforts to promote physical education and healthful activity for children will not be achieved. The paper also suggests that many advocacy a pproaches can be generalized to other groups and settings, including state legislative bodies and other statewide commissions that address issues rela ted to the education of children and youth. Finally, the author acknowledge s that despite the best efforts to tell our story, intervening variables be yond the storyteller's control (e.g., happenstance, chance, and fate) may i nfluence the message.