A survey of the Signal Mountain community conducted this summer revealed that many people are interested in volunteering for the Mountain Education Foundation but are unsure how to get involved, said Katie Hanners, the foundation’s executive director.
MEF, which raises funds to cover the costs of providing the three public schools on the mountain with educational extras such as art teachers, a strings program and classroom technology not covered by the Department of Education, is introducing a solution in the form of its Ambassador Program.
The survey was conducted by a task force appointed this summer to make recommendations to the foundation’s board on how it could improve communication with the community, said Hanners.
“We’ve been using lots of avenues to communicate the work being done by MEF to support our schools, but we realized there are still a lot of holes, and there are people we haven’t been reaching,” she said.
This realization led to the idea for the Ambassador Program, which involves training “Ambassadors” to promote MEF through social media.
“We need to be much more far-reaching, and we’re hoping to utilize this group primarily to convey information through social media and to help share and ‘like’ those posts,” said Hanners.
The only requirements to participate are having an interest in supporting mountain schools and being a user of social media.
Interested volunteers are asked to attend one of two short training sessions at Signal Mountain Middle/High School Tuesday, Oct. 25 at 9 a.m. or 6 p.m. Volunteers are asked to register for the training session online at meftoday.org.
The session will begin with a brief overview of what MEF is and what it does, followed by speaker Katrina Keene, an informational technology consultant, who will teach volunteers the do’s and don’ts of using social media to promote education, as well as how to use social media in fundraising efforts.
“We’re hoping to get as many [ambassadors] as possible,” she said. “It’s a great way to start the volunteer process with us, and a volunteer opportunity that they can do on their own time.”
Signal Mountain Middle/High School is at 2650 Sam Powell Drive.
Email Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com.