Ingredients of an Announcement

  1. Moment of attention
    1. Make it clear, quick, and with chutzpah—own the platform.
    2. Participation—don’t beg or whine for it, squander it, or demand 100% of it.
    3. If you don’t have their attention, it doesn’t matter what you say.
  2. Lean, simple words
    1. Use the least number of words to get the announcement made.
    2. Providing a place to get more details keeps your announcements simpler.
    3. Share just enough to get them to their next announcement time.
    4. Eight is enough—find a way to keep your announcements down to eight items in less than four minutes.
  3. A dash of humor
    1. A laugh once or twice is plenty—if every announcement is a joke, you will lose your audience’s attention whenever they feel you are not funny anymore; you have gained attention because you are funny not because you have something they need to hear.
    2. Don’t use sarcasm—you risk someone not understanding your sarcasm and your sarcasm being viewed as any other announcement. Not good!
    3. Be careful about using the same joke every year—every week is fine, but at some point you need to think of a new joke . . . probably each year.
  4. What, when, where, why, when, where
    1. For clarity, begin with the what; for anticipation, begin with the why; for confusion, leave out when and where.
    2. Sandwich the why with when and where.
    3. For example: The Soldier Mountain hike is tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. We will meet at the bell to start the hike. You don’t want to miss a gorgeous sunrise, massive sand dune, and a look at Ironwood from 900 feet higher than you are now. We may see a lizard or two, and you definitely want to touch the cross at the top. We leave at 6:00 tomorrow morning. Meet Mr. Micah at the bell!
  5. Final Announcement
    1. End with what the audience needs to know for what is happening next.
    2. Make it clear when you are finished.
    3. Give a good the hand off (e.g., back to what you were doing, over to the song leader, look at your counselor)
    4. Consider what your announcements are competing with—meal time won’t be as effective as orientation time. The more things vying for your audience’s attention, the more difficult it is to make good announcements.