When the Richland High School marching band travels to competitions across Texas, parents at home sometimes know how the band performed before it has even left the field. They just keep their cell phones close and wait for Pam Donahoo to text them.

“The opportunity is—and I know there are other parents just like me—if I’m not home or if I’m traveling this weekend and I have my phone with me and I get this text message that says the kids made finals or they came in second in this contest, how good does that make me feel that I’m now connected with my kid? I get home and I can jump off the plane and say, ‘Hey, I heard you did great yesterday,’” says Donahoo, CAE, who is both chair of the band booster club and executive director of American Mensa.

Parents of about two thirds of the 240 band members have signed up. Donahoo says the mobile updates have helped draw in new parents sooner, upped the level of volunteer involvement from parents throughout the year, and, most of all, “really helped connect the parents with their kids.”

Of course, a marching-band booster club isn’t as complex as a trade association or professional society, but the same principle applies: The ubiquity and increasing power of mobile phones means time, place, tech savvy, and being plugged in are no longer barriers to the exchange of information.

via asaecenter.org