** High Priority **

Flash Alert Subscribers:

It seems that the bad weather season has arrived in full force and may be continuing for some time.  A number of reports have come in regarding slow or no text messages being received by cell phones in affected schools this morning.

With the Flash Alert system, once the message is sent out the control of the message is in the hands of the cell phone user's carrier.  When many messages are sent at once (like over 100) AT&T and Verizon systems are primed to label those messages as spam and they are often blocked or slowed down.

In order to get around this spam blocking, each Flash News/Flash Alert member district or charter school has had a Twitter account in the name of the school integrated into Flash Alert.  This means that when a message is produced in Flash Alert (less than 140 characters) then it is also sent out on Twitter.

For your Flash Alert clients to receive Twitter notices (which ARE NOT BLOCKED), they must go to their Flash Alert account, log in to manage the account, and under MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS click on the Twitter Bluebird following your district's name. If the individual already has a Twitter account, they simply indicate that they want to follow your district.  If they do not have a Twitter account, they will have to create one and then they will indicate that they want to follow your district.

Flash Alert accounts for the district ARE listed as district plus FA (for Flash Alert), i.e., MidlothianISDFA.  In fact, because Twitter is a public system, you have people following your Flash Alert messages already.

The process is simple to do and will 'guarantee' a text message reaching a cell phone via Twitter, even if the cell phone provider blocks it.

Thanks.  If you have other questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.  I will try to stay on top of the weather and keep advising you on the best use of your Flash News/Flash Alert system.


Ron Simpson
Chief Communications Officer
Region 10 ESC