The following is a letter written by Mark T. Brookshire, President to the SMS Network

May 2004 : SMS Update

Last week I attended the NIE (Newspapers in Education) national conference in Los Angeles as an exhibitor for the SMS. The meeting was attended by about 150 NIE coordinators from around the country. This was the first time I attended and I was interested to see what newspapers are doing with their various stock market programs.

The main point I learned from this conference was that our friends at the SMG have hired a person specifically to target NIE programs in our SMS states. This makes it critical that each of you develop a strong relationship with the major newspapers in your state to help prevent the SMG from launching a program in your state. If you need you local NIE contacts, please call us and we will share our NIE directory information with you.

Secondly, in the states that are not SMS, many of the NIE programs that were currently working with the SMG had very negative comments about the SMG and its staff and its customer service. So, if things go well over the summer, the SMS will be expanding its presence into some SMG states working with newspapers.

If you are not currently working with an NIE partner and you want some ideas how the newspaper and the Council can work together successfully, please call.

In regards to this Spring 2004 semester, team participation nationwide was generally flat. We are hoping that as the economy starts turning around, then the school budgets will return to normal levels and that funding won't be such an issue.

Lastly, I strongly encourage all of you to attend you statewide social studies and math conferences. If you are doing something specifically promoting your state's SMS, please call and let us know and we will see if we can help either financially or with our presence.

Thanks and have a great summer!

Sincerely,

Mark

Mark T. Brookshire
President

For more information on this press release or on the SMS, please contact Kristi Marie Kilpatrick at 678-475-2539 or by email at kristi@stocktrak.com