Does anyone out ther run a homeschool support group? Ours is getting dumped in my lap; the woman who started has moved away, the woman who was helping with the e-list can't do it anymore, and the woman who was the phone contact is also leaving. No one else is dedicated (read: there every week) enough to run the group.

There are a lot of people on the e-list, but many of them don't come to park days and I think a few joined just to promote their activities. I would say right now that 6 families come often enough that I know who they are. Of them, only one family has been coming for more than a year. There really isn't a lot of loyalty.

I'm trying to find out the issues and solve them. Several mamas with young children didn't like the park we were meeting at, so I changed that. We are meeting earlier to beat the heat, as well as scheduling a few other activities.

The thing is, I'm not sure I want responsibility for the group, but it will die out if I don't take it.

So tell me about your groups. Are they growing? What works? What doesn't?

Kimberly

I've been thinking about this all morning, after volunteering to be the phone contact & all. I'm not comfortable talking about it on the list (I'm on it too), because I don't want to offend the founders, kwim? I still feel like one of the newbies... :rolleyes: Anyhow, there *are* a lot of people on the list who I've never seen email from or anything, maybe it's time to prune them? Or ask everyone for a brief intro, and if they fail to respond in a reasonable amount of time, then prune them? They can always come back.

Still thinking...

Deanna,

I don't mean to say that you aren't loyal or dedicated; I guess I should have pointed out that a lot of members have small children and just can't make it every week. I was really expressing my frustration at having people on the list that I have never even met. I also feel like this got dumped on me; Barbara told Stephanie that she hoped I would take over, but never spoke to me personally about it.

I've been attending the group for almost 2 years now. There were plenty of park days when it was only me and Barbara, or me, Barbara, and Carrie. Quite often people would come once or twice and never come back, which suggested a problem to me. Really, I feel like I got things going again by encouraging members of the APIE group to give us a try again. Without you, Candice, Autumn, and Becky the group would probably have just died out.

I too feel that everything is going to be monitored by Barbara. She has a vested interest in our survival as she founded the group. I'm thinking she'll stay on the group to post events and opportunities, if nothing else.

I think there should be a pruning, maybe in a few months. A lot of people don't come in summer anyway.

Kimberly

I don't mean to say that you aren't loyal or dedicated
No worries, I am so not offended... I'm trying to think of other ways I can help, it's hard because I still don't know much about the area. I agree it got dumped on you, you're always there and don't have a toddler! But then, we do have a group of us with kids all about the same age, & we're all about to do this legally, so maybe it's just time for us to step up & take over, kwim?

I'd like Barbara &/or Carrie to stay on the list, they've been where we're at, and I like being able to draw on their experience and knowledge. On the other hand, I feel like they're looking over our shoulders. I have a couple of emails I'd like to send that may help... We haven't had a lot of discussion, just announcements.

I am so glad you invited us to join in the first place, this group has become really important to us. I want to help out more, I'm so glad you posted this over here, and I'm really hoping to get more input!!!

I feel so much better since I first posted yesterday, because you, Candice, and Karol offered to help. Candice and I can be the email contacts and run the list, you can field the phone calls (there won't be that many), and maybe Karol can take care of the informational flyers that Barbara used to bring.

Candice and I were just talking about how many of us have to get legal this year. Ethan, Thomas, Skyler, and Mary all turned 6 this year. I need to email Becky Maxwell and ask her about her ISP. Part of me wants to do the R-4 but they ask a lot of questions so I will either do a statement-in-lieu or sign up with an ISP (if it's not too expensive).

I guess what I really need to do is join CHN!

Kimberly

Candice and I were just talking about how many of us have to get legal this year.
Yep, and Sarah and Jacob are right behind them. It's a good time for the group to grow!!!

and I'm glad you feel better... :happy: See you tomorrow!

I'm sort of "in charge" of our group since I'm the only one that really keeps us going. I always let everyone know that this group is everyone's group though....so things don't have to go through me. We had a group in our town that never got together on a regular basis, so I started a yahoo group hoping to find people to get together with more regularly. We went from about 3 members right at first to 25 now. 25 families definitely don't get together with us on a regular basis, but we have a core group of about 10 families. We like it that way so that we can get to know each other better. In our town, weekly would be way too much for most of the members. We only do monthly meetings. Each meeting is a field trip or a craft day or a park day...depending on the weather and if there's anything fun to do. Once a month, we also have a mom's night out where the mom's will get together for something to eat and talk for a couple hours at a local restaraunt. If any of us feel the need to get together more often, we plan something and invite everyone by posting on the yahoo group. If it's a nice day, we do random park days, etc.

Maybe you could try sending out a questionnaire getting responses on what they'd like to see in a homeschool group? What would make people participate more, etc. I've found that a lot of homeschool moms don't like to have something going on each and every week.

Sarah