We have prayed for you this morning. We prayed that you would have wisdom and that the Lord would strengthen you and encourage your heart to do this great task He's given you.
One of the most common Biggest Questions has been how to get your families more involved in your group. It can be so frustrating to have no one volunteer to help or even show up for an event that you've poured your heart and time into. We've been there.
Once, Denise scheduled a field trip to an alligator farm in our area. She thought it was the perfect summertime field trip and had even gotten feedback that people wanted to go. The day came for the trip and only two families out of 50 showed up! Denise was a little discouraged.
But she learned from it.
- She listened to why people didn't show: the heat, the mosquitoes, and summertime vacations. So from then on, she only scheduled early summer field trips that were indoors.
- She determined that summer field trips just didn't work as well for our group--attendance was low for all our summer activities down here in the Texas heat.
- She chose not to take it personally and began to design the field trips to fit the flow of the group. During the rest of the summer, she would simply pass out info on field trips that the families could do on their own. We completely took August off, with field trips as a group picking back up in September.
This worked really well for our group to encourage involvement. Your group may have a totally different dynamic and climate than ours, but people are the same everywhere. People need to be heard, understood and appreciated. One way you can easily do this and increase participation is to listen well and act on what you hear your families saying. It's a way of serving them, of meeting their needs and appreciating them.
We hope that in sharing our experience, you will be able to better understand and serve your own group. We will be sharing even more experiences in our coming ebook that will guide you as you lead your group to success.
Praying for you,
Kristen and Denise
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com
4 comments:
Good information! In some groups, there's a standing suggestion box. For those Moms who are a little shy about expressing need(no matter in what area), they welcome an opportunity to be specific, even anonymously.
Athelda
How right you are! what works for one year may not work another year as with everything people and more specifically families change and so do their needs. Thanks for providing such excellent information. hugs,liz
The suggestion box is a great tool to find out what others are needing. Thanks! Surveys can also be given at group meetings or online through the website polls. When the choices are ready to just be checked, it becomes easy and quick to participate.
Denise
Liz,
Thanks for your kind words! Your observation of how the group can change and transform over the course of a year is so true. You sure can't predict the paths of the various families. Homeschoolers are so "out-of-the-box," aren't they!
Denise
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