Recruiting Participants

Mailing labels for members of professional associations

Approximately 25% of U.S. high school physics teachers are members of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and about the same percentage belong to the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). These organizations will sell, upon request, mailing labels from their membership database (for example, see the NSTA site regarding mailing lists). Requests for these labels need to be accompanied by three-digit zip codes (e.g. 372xx) information for each meeting, as well as identification of the subject matter (physics, since the NSTA database includes all science areas). Labels for mailings for each of the March and April meeting have typically run about $100.

Please note that about half of the AAPT membership does not allow their contact information be released, so they cannot be reached through their affiliation with AAPT.

Contact persons

NSTA: Cynthia Stull, 703-312-9225, cstull@nsta.org.

AAPT: Warren Hein, 301-209-3311, whein@aapt.org.

Additional recruitment resources

Google searches have proven a valuable resource for acquiring names of local school districts and the e-mail addresses for their science supervisors, who can also be asked to circulate the Teachers' Day flyers to their physics teachers.

Also, Google searches can provide the names of local catholic and private schools, and to e-mail addresses for their contact personnel.

Invitation and Promotion

Invitation Letters

Letters should be sent out at least three months prior to the date for the Teacher's Day. Experience has shown that some teachers require more than a month to obtain permission to attend the event. Even with this early mailing, applications still come during the week before the meeting, so getting an early start is very helpful.

Mail directly to schools

Labels can also be purchased from NSTA for the high schools within the ZIP code range that are not represented in the NSTA member list, so that in principle mailings can go out to all high schools in the targeted range of ZIP codes.

These labels are typically addressed to "Chairman of Science Department."

Work with the district science coordinators

Many science coordinators will send out the materials they receive under their own covering letter or e-mail, which can represent a very helpful endorsement of the event. The limitation of this approach is that often a large number of school districts will need to be contacted, many of which might have only a small number of high schools.

State science teacher associations

State science teacher associations are typically willing to promote Teacher's Days in their newsletter or on their web site. They can be found by contacting NSTA. These associations are best contacted about five months in advance, since they send out newsletters only a few times each year.

Notes on Mailings

The broadcast mailing usually consists of a flyer and the draft agenda, if available, and it goes out at least three months before the Teacher's Day.

Organizers are strongly encourage to have teachers respond by e-mail, so that immediate replies with confirmation can be sent out - and teachers can be notified about this quick response turnaround in the flyer. Having them respond by fax has proven unreliable. One or more emails to all registrants reiterates the important information about various things including parking, and should include an agenda, a map, and driving directions.

Experience shows that after sending out 1,000 letters, one might end up with something like 75 attendees.

One possibility is to hold the Teachers' Day on a weekend, if possible, since teachers will otherwise need to have subs cover their classes, requiring extra funds.