July 1, 2025

Dear NESPRA Members,

Summer is here.The daily grind of school days has taken a pause, giving us all a moment to breathe and think more deeply and strategically about our work. Oftentimes my best ideas come when I’m on the beaches of Cape Cod or on a run around Coe’s Reservoir in Worcester. It’s important to relax, reset, and recharge for your mind, body, and soul — and to capitalize on your best thinking!

It was wonderful to see those of you who attended the 2025 NESPRA Conference in May. Our next opportunity to come together will be at the 2025 NSPRA Seminar in Washington, D.C., on July 20-23. Let us know if you’re attending. Let’s stay connected in D.C.! 

The Executive Board will continue to meet this summer to focus on long-term strategic planning for 2025-26 and beyond. A key focus will be to ensure a foundation for future Executive Board members after our current terms end in 2026 to ensure long-term stability and sustainability. That includes finding a Vice President for 2026-2028! ;-)

BTW, did you hear that NESPRA is an NSPRA Exemplary Chapter for the third year in a row!? We are among a short list of regional chapters being recognized for membership growth and professional development offerings.

Please take a few minutes to read some important chapter updates.

Thank you,

Dan O’Brien

President, NESPRA
Chief Communications Officer, Worcester Public Schools (MA)

The annual NESPRA membership renewal process will be open from July 1-August 31, and 2025-26 memberships will be active from September 1, 2025-August 31, 2026. These newly established dates will ensure NESPRA is in line with NSPRA’s fiscal year. 

Ryan Langer, NESPRA’s Membership Coordinator, will email all members with information on how to renew your membership. The annual fee remains $50 ($25 for retirees). Non-paying members will be removed from NESPRA’s members-only privileges on October 15.

NSPRA has provided our chapter with several incentives as a reward for being named a 2025 Exemplary Chapter, which includes one complimentary NSPRA membership, two complimentary registrations for NSPRA’s webinars, and one complimentary discount on registration for the 2026 NSPRA Seminar. Ryan will share details soon on how you could win one of these rewards during the membership renewal process!

If you are attending the 2025 NSPRA Seminar in Washington, D.C., from July 20-23, please fill out this Google Form to stay connected with other NESPRA members during the conference. We’ll use a text chain to arrange for some meals together and to let each other know what sessions and evening events we are attending. For questions, please contact Esmeralda Silva, NESPRA’s Mass. State Rep.

We are seeking a volunteer to run our NESPRA Summer Book Club! If you are interested, please email me ASAP! We had some great discussions the last two years around texts that relate to growing our professional skill sets. It’s a great way to learn on your own time!

At this moment in our history when historically marginalized people are under attack, it is more important than ever to recognize our power to make positive change.

Now through the 2025-26 school year, NESPRA will share educational resources with our members to enhance understanding of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. These resources will be embedded into regular communications that NESPRA already shares. Thank you to Elaine Sein, NESPRA Secretary, and Esmeralda Silva, NESPRA’s Mass. State Representative for compiling these important resources.

As President of NESPRA, I remain steadfast in my commitment to place an intentional focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion – to support school communicators in districts large and small, urban to rural – to support how we enhance a sense of belonging and representation for the children, staff, and communities we serve through our communications work.

I want to thank all of you who attended the 2025 NESPRA Conference in May. Your camaraderie and insights made it a special day. Our attendance was excellent with 98 registered attendees.

I’d also like to thank everyone who took the exit survey. We received 43 responses. Your comments validated what went well and highlighted our opportunities for growth. 

Ninety-seven percent of respondents said they’d recommend the conference to other individuals. On a five-point scale with 5 being excellent, 82% rated the conference at a 4 or 5. 

We received lots of positive feedback for the breakout sessions, with much praise for Sondra Whalen’s “Profile Like the FBI” presentation and Casey Daigle’s “Activate Your On-Call AI Colleague” workshop. 

When it came to possible locations for a future conference, the results were #1: Worcester, MA; #2: Springfield, MA and Manchester, NH (tied); #3: Boston, MA and Hartford, CT (tied).

By comparison, in our fall survey to members (including those who didn’t attend the conference), which received 49 responses, the results were: #1: Boston, MA; #2: Worcester, MA; #3: Springfield, MA and Portland, ME (tied).

The survey results are one factor in how we will decide the location of the 2026 conference. Other factors include cost, equitable driving distances for members, and feasibility of hotel spaces.

While overall our attendees considered the conference a success, we know there are areas where we can continue to improve, including a better process to ensure strong keynote presentations and better signage within the conference facility to make it easier for attendees to find classroom locations. We have discussed ways to ensure an improved keynote address next year. We also acknowledge that signage in the hotel can be improved.

The Executive Board will continue to meet this summer to focus on long-term strategic chapter planning. Our focus will be to ensure a foundation of sustainability for future Executive Board members.

The items we are working on include:

• Launching a NESPRA Advisory Committee (details soon)

• Establishing a Chapter Operations Manual to be finalized in March 2026

• Launching NESPRA’s first annual budgeting process

• Establishing an annual calendar of dates for meetings of Professional Learning Communities, Lunch and Learns, Chapter Chats and state meet-ups

• Establishing a mentorship program in the fall

• Social media content calendars for both chapter operations and to help our members plan and execute content in advance

• Strategic outreach by State Representatives for membership recruitment