Planning Your Meeting and Follow Up
When you plan a meeting with a high-level school administrator, you need to prepare a tight outline (even with minute cues for a 30-minute session) to keep your group on task.
Example: Draft Script for Meeting with the Principal [or College Administrator]
[3-5 minutes] Introduction: Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us. Let’s briefly introduce ourselves by name first. [name and role of all attendees] I know we must improve the quality of our sports programs by improving their equality. We have confidence that you know Title IX’s guidelines. We have provided several supplemental materials that have guided our efforts.
[4-5 minutes] Student-Athlete: I am a student-athlete and have played for three years on two teams. As a participant, I have seen gender differences in our treatment, including facilities and equipment. A school is obligated to ensure that it provides its male and female athletes with comparable benefits, resources and participation opportunities. [The example that follows focuses on treatment of athletes. If your group’s concern is related to opportunities to participate or funding (you want a girls’ varsity soccer team) please target that in your statement.] The treatment categories include: equipment, facilities, publicity, scheduling, coaching, travel and daily allowance, training (medical), [tutoring, recruitment, housing/dining—typically in higher education] and support services.
Specific examples: The girls’ basketball team has all of its games at 4 p.m., and the boys’ basketball team plays games at 7 p.m.; the booster club paid for a new baseball field, while the softball field badly needs repairs; we have one coach for the boys’ and girls’ tennis teams, but he doesn’t work with us hardly at all; when it rains, the boys get to use indoor facilities and our practices are just cancelled; the boys’ teams have a huge, free fall banquet at homecoming and the girls don’t have anything that’s even similar; the male athletes get letter jackets paid for by somebody and we just get letters.
[4-5 minutes] Parent: The examples presented represent a few of the problems prohibited by Title IX. Additionally, we did a Grade Your School report card online with the Women’s Sports Foundation, and it shows that [insert school name] is not in compliance “earning” a final grade of [insert grade]. Plus, I have received “Play Fair: A Title IX Playbook for Victory,” that outlines the guidelines for Title IX, which I have included along with the graded report card for your review.
[3-4 minutes] Team Captain: A school is obligated to ensure that the overall benefits and treatments of the male and female programs are comparable. Under Title IX, budgets for boys’ and girls’ teams do not have to be equal, but the bottom line is that the benefits provided must be equal. The treatment categories include: equipment, facilities, publicity, scheduling, coaching, travel and daily allowance, training (medical) [tutoring, recruitment, housing/dining-typically in high education] and support services.
[5-6 minutes] Supporter: What suggestion might you offer as a next step for us? [open conversation] Perhaps you would call an action meeting with your staff and discuss these matters. We will partner with you all to rectify the current concerns and introduce guidelines to make sure the problems do not reoccur. Keeping us involved will support transparency and model the community-school partnership that is so effective.
[4-5 minutes] Closer: I’ll analyze briefly what has been presented today. [Review the opening comment, athlete’s perspective, parent’s input and supporter’s viewpoints.] Now more importantly, let’s restate what our plan is to move forward on Title IX compliance. Would each of you summarize what your next step will be? [Take notes so that you have confirmation and direction when you leave the meeting.]
Following the meeting, within 2-3 days, write a letter of thanks to the school administrator. It’s important to review the meeting, including a restatement of what happened from the opening introduction and the student and parent revelations to what your group wants to occur to what the school officials promised to do in a step-by-step manner. Note that the sample provides several key places to insert your own story and details.
Example: Draft Thank-You Letter for Meeting with the Principal or College Administrator
[Your Address/Contact Information]
[Date]
To [Administrator]:
On [date], the [Advocates for Change] met with you to review findings that show our school’s non-compliance with Title IX. We are so grateful for your time, demonstrating your willingness to examine the law’s policies and practices for our student-athletes.
The reasons for our meeting remain clear. We have several explicit gender disparities [insert your own examples] regarding facilities, uniforms and overall support (or non-supportive) services that consistently favor boys and their programs over the girls.
We agreed on the following course of action [describe your own results] driven by a newly established Task Force for Equity:
1) Meeting with AD and administrative staff to analyze data, with information to be submitted within 20 days.
2) Establish a time line of financial compliance for the current and next budget cycle.
3) Meet with the administrative team, coaches and support staff, within 30 days, to clarify campus compliance with Title IX and invite solutions for this year.
4) [Whatever else you need to describe]
Incidentally, the new and gender-balanced publicity materials you shared provide concrete hope that our progress will continue. [Add any positive meeting outcomes.]
We remain appreciative of your agreement to develop a Task Force for Equity. On behalf of our committee, I look forward to hearing from you in the next week with the meeting date, place and the short-range objectives. Please contact me [via e-mail address] or by phone [list numbers].
Sincerely,
[Name]
P.A. Rant
A Concerned Parent
cc: [The Stepup HS Title IX Advocacy Group and previous contacts]
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