MASSP Membership = Value

From the President

by Mark Palmer
St. Johns High School Principal
MASSP President 2009-10

As you begin gearing up for the 2009-10 school year, be sure to send in your MASSP membership form.  There is no greater value or resource for a Michigan principal than being a member of the MASSP.  Belonging to MASSP gives principals strength in numbers. We have a goal to be 2,000+ members strong for 2009-10! Your active membership in MASSP keeps our profession strong and ensures that principals are at the table for important decisions that affect Michigan students and secondary education. 

Why join the MASSP?  Here are four reasons:

• Advocacy- As administrators we are often a lone voice, not only in our buildings but also in our communities and across the state.  We need an association like MASSP to be there for us.  We need MASSP to advocate for principals in legislation and in developing regulations to help us do the right things for kids.  MASSP is our voice that helps influence legislation and regulations in Lansing.
• Education – Principals are expected to be educational leaders in our districts.  We need to be on the cutting edge of educational best practices to do what is best for programming in our buildings.  MASSP provides us with the education we need to keep us ahead of the curve.  Last year alone at least fifteen different seminars/conferences were sponsored or hosted by MASSP, all geared toward making principals better educational leaders.
• Guidance – MASSP is there to give us guidance as we work through each grinding school year.  The best source of information on how to run a building, interpret a law, or implement regulations comes from the MASSP.  Members can count the MASSP office staff to get questions answered promptly and accurately.  An even more powerful resource is the Q & A section of our web site where principals ask questions and get answers from fellow administrators who are in the field, leading in real time and getting real results.  Do you need a form or a sample letter?  Again see the Principal’s Help Desk on our website.  When you need guidance or information MASSP is your place to turn.
• Leadership – Principals are the instructional leaders in our schools.  MASSP provides us with the leadership training and skill development that we need to be effective leaders.  There are few other places we can turn to that provide us with the skills we need and with training essential to becoming a good leader, on a schedule that recognizes our busy schedules and time commitments.

These attributes are pillars of strength of the MASSP.  However, being a member offers so much more.  For me, the value of membership in MASSP comes in the connections I make with other principals around the state and even the nation.  Very few people outside of the principalship really understand what it is we do each day. Principals--that is why we need each other!  We rely on each other to bounce ideas off, get questions answered and develop strategies to make our schools better.  Sometimes we need each other just to share stories, because no one else will even believe them!

In these tough economic times, I am sure each of us has had to trim our budgets and many of us may have looked at whether or not we can afford to be a member. 

To me the answer is simple-- each of us cannot afford to NOT be a member! For principals, there is no other professional association that offers the value of membership that you get by belonging to MASSP!