Tuesday's Tip

You Have Permission!

Sometimes as a leader you have to give yourself permission to say no to good and right things at just the right time. Take the phone off the hook for an afternoon and do a happy dance; set regular, guilt-free hours to enjoy homeschooling your kids; delegate as many jobs as you can, and by all means, take time to feast on the delicious Word of God each and every day.

We at Homeschool Group Leader are going to practice what we are preaching. For this week only, there will be no Friday's Answer. Enjoy your families, we'll enjoy ours, and have a Christ-filled Christmas!

Many Christmas Blessings,
Kristen & Denise
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com

Friday's Answer: Be the Bad Guy!

"How do other leaders deal with members who always RSVP and pay for events late?"

Ring! It's a another sign up after you have already turned in the final count. You let a little exasperation show in your voice as you make promises to work them in. They apologize, but you know they will do it again. What can you do to relieve the stress and extra work? Here's our best advice.

1. Communicate your deadline well – Make sure you give your members plenty of advance notice of any deadlines, especially anything that’s going to cost. Communicate the details and deadlines through several different mediums, such as in your newsletter, during meeting announcements, and by e-mail.

2. Set it and forget it – Set your deadline and don’t doubt yourself. If you ask for an RSVP, then it is reasonable to expect members to make a quick phone call or drop a short email to let you know they’re coming.

3. Stand your ground – Be willing to be the bad guy and say no to those who want to sign up late or don’t deal well with boundaries. Whatever level of excellence you expect of your members is what they are going to rise to over time.

4. Retrain the brain – Leave your members options as you retrain them to RSVP or to pay on time. For example, they are welcome to pay late, but it will cost extra. In doing so, you are rewarding those members who faithfully pay on time.

5. Mercy has its place – There is a time and a season for everything. And there is a time to stand your ground, and there is a time to extend a deadline. If you discern extenuating circumstances or feel mercy is the best call, then don’t hesitate to make an exception. Even bad guys have a soft side.

Here’s a secret to leadership success. If you set your deadlines a couple of days earlier than you really need to, then when you get those late calls, you always get to say yes and be the good guy.

Christmas blessings,

Denise & Kristen
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com

Tuesday's Tip!

Say “Cheese!”

Drop by your local newspaper with a photo from your group’s latest activity. Include a caption, and don’t forget to use your spell-check!

Friday's Answer: Web Site Apathy

“How to get more participation? We have over 100 families on
our yahoo loop and yet only about 10 show up to different things. We are averaging 2-3 families per event.”

Three things come to our mind here.

#1 As a yahoo group, do the members clearly know what the vision or purpose of the group is? Whether your group is primarily for online support through emails or primarily a connection for real-world activities, it needs to be stated clearly somewhere on your front page.

The key word here is “primarily.” If the members joined for the purpose of getting online ideas and support, then don’t stress about trying to get them together for activities. Maybe they aren’t coming to activities because it simply doesn’t fit their need or reason for joining your group. Assess your group’s needs and clearly communicate the group’s vision to those who are signing on with you.

#2 Take a poll of your members. Find out what your members want and how often they want it. Get as much feedback as you can through email, personal phone calls or face-to-face contact. Multiple choice polls make it much easier for them to zip back an answer to you and make it much easier for you to assess the needs of your group.

#3 If your members still need to be inspired to action, consider having a cool giveaway every once in awhile to offer them some incentive. For example, the first 25 to respond to such and such will have their names entered into a drawing for two passes to the museum. Make the giveaway something affordable, and have fun being creative with your reward if your budget isn’t very big.

Hope this helps!
Denise & Kristen

www.HomeschoolGroupLeader.com

Tuesday's Tip!

We are so excited to introduce 2 new features here on our blog for you--Tuesday's Tip and Friday's Answer. We think they will be a tremendous help to you as a homeschool group leader.

On Tuesdays, we will post a quick tip that will give you a suggestion, a reminder, or an idea that will spark your leadership imagination. They will be short and fun and cover a variety of great homeschool leader subjects.

On Fridays, we want to give away some great answers to the many great questions that you have sent us. Everyone will want to keep up with these--because your question could be answered that week, another leader just may ask something you want to know as well, and you could be a help to other leaders by posting your quick comments of what has or hasn't worked for you.

These 2 new features will give you just a taste of what's coming up soon in our new e-book for homeschool group leaders, Motivating Your Members. You're going to love it.

Here's the Tuesday's Tip for you today:

Do a service project: Bless your local firemen with a gift basket of goodies and deliver it to the station. Remember your camera!

Stay tuned for Friday's Answer,
Denise & Kristen
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com

Thanksgiving Everyday

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving this week. Our family did! We were blessed by having both my parents and my husband's here with us. Mine drove an hour to join us, and my in-laws traveled all the way from Wyoming. This was truly a rare treat.

I just love this time of year and how everything reminds me to focus on giving thanks to the Lord. I love the pumpkin pie, the loving faces of family, the story of Squanto, the mouth-watering smells of dinner cooking, and the memories passed down and retold.

Through it all I was overwhelmed, realizing anew how amazingly good God is to me--such an undeserving soul. I never could finish a mental list I was trying to compile of all the things I'm thankful for. It is truly endless because giving thanks must continue on each and every day.

Sheila Campbell, of Texas Home School Coalition, wrote these encouraging words for homeschool group leaders during this time of year:

Thankful Thoughts on Leadership

Be Thankful for the Position - Remember, whether you applied for leadership or not, position is ultimately ordained by God.

Be Thankful for the Freedom to Lead - Take time to praise God for the country and state in which we live. Praise Him for the time and place in which He has placed you.

Be Thankful for Partners in Leadership - Whether you are supported by a spouse, other members of your leadership team, or other leaders across the state, praise God you are not alone.

Be Thankful for Those Whom you Serve - Thank God for the opportunity and privilege to serve and encourage others.

Be Thankful for Those Who Have Gone Before - Remember those who have gone before you and fought for our freedoms in our country, our state, and the home school movement. Don't forget those who have served in leadership before you in your group and across the state.

Be Thankful for Those Who Follow - Praise God for the younger members of your group and the children whose lives will impact tomorrow!

Counting my blessings everyday,

Denise

www.homeschoolgroupleader.com

Be Proactive!

During this season of thankfulness, a recent lesson I have learned about leadership came to my mind.

I am so thankful for recently learning the lesson to be PROACTIVE in all areas of my life. I first heard this point at the Texas Home School Coalition leadership conference when Tim Lambert was illustrating the importance of being positively proactive when dealing with the media. If there is a problem, or potential problem, head it off at the pass with no fear, with a smile and with correct information (my words).

Applying this to parenting is easy. I have been praying for wisdom to pinpoint the problems with my kids and then praying for creative solutions to intercept the problems and turn them in a positive direction.

For example, I have a brand new, beautiful teenaged daughter who is a good and responsible girl who loves Jesus, but I can see and hear her gently "experimenting" with worldly ideas. To intercept this, I plan to do something that I read about in a recent Old Schoolhouse magazine interview with Sally Clarkson: I plan to have more than one type of Bible study and opportunities for her to hang out with positive peer pressure groups. If I know God has called me to train her to be a leader, then she needs to be hanging around leaders-in-training as much as possible instead of just the kids who think like the world.

Applying this to homeschool group leadership is also easy. If you notice the moms in your group only talking to the ones they know and leaving others out, as a leader, you can be proactive about this problem in at least four ways:

1. Have name tags and invite them to introduce themselves to one person they haven't met yet or don't know very well (name tags take away any awkwardness of forgetting a name)

2. Creatively juggle the seating by "assigning" ladies to sit at tables based on something really fun or random like the color shirt they are wearing (wouldn't have to do this every time, just enough to jolt things out of a comfortable routine every once in awhile)

3. Remind them at the beginning of each meeting to make sure they help the visitors/new moms feel warm and welcomed (sometimes, members simply need to be reminded)

4. Offer a fun question that can get people talking together (ex: What's your favorite children's book? or What would be the ultimate international homeschool field trip?)

So, being proactive is a very positive way to deal with sticky situations and turn them for good.

Keeping ahead of the game,
Kristen
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com