Any ideas on how to increase attendance at the FRG meetings? We had 11 at our meeting last month, and while I am told this is about 7 more than usually come, I was disappointed. I would love to hear thoughts and suggestions anyone has.

raffle off some cool desired door prize and spread the word amongst the command. :goodluck

The local Girl Scout troop did child care for ours at the Armory.... Our leader brought in Caribou Coffee (kinda like Starbucks) and told us that the kids would be watched over while us grownups had coffee.... They even brought in a Barista to make us drinks. Caribou did it pro-bono as a service to the deployed families, the Barista volunteered her time...

All our FRG leader did was ask the manager at Caribou if they could help, they jumped at the chance. :D

It was great..

yeah well you have ours beat... myself and my 2 kids were the only ones that showed up....

i know this might be a stupid question but what is FRG? im sorry

i know this might be a stupid question but what is FRG? im sorry

Family Readiness Group.... It's where you meet all the other wives who have no lives while their men are gone, and gossip about the ones who DO have lives :lmao

I made a couple really good friends there...

*sigh* I dunno...ours is a joke...the person who is in charge can't seem to get himself together enough to hold a simple meeting. I finally just gave up on the whole thing after chasing him down to volunteer my house/money/time. I wish we had a good one :(

Okay ladies, thanks for the ideas. I will try the raffle thing for sure. Please keep more ideas coming!

I know I have never been to one, well, b/c ours is pretty much non-existant. But I did read a few weeks ago when some of the women were giving idea on how to increase attendence. One suggestion that a lot of the women agreed on was having a "less formal" meeting, much like a cookout at someone's house where you can get to know each other instead of just in a room or church that is much more up tight. Just a thought!!

I know I have never been to one, well, b/c ours is pretty much non-existant. But I did read a few weeks ago when some of the women were giving idea on how to increase attendence. One suggestion that a lot of the women agreed on was having a "less formal" meeting, much like a cookout at someone's house where you can get to know each other instead of just in a room or church that is much more up tight. Just a thought!!

Thanks. I plan on doing a BBQ as soon as the guys deploy. I hope to get a good turn out and some new faces.

We have had the same problem. We have seen lots of new places since the ship deployed, but we also do potlucks once a month and have lots of activities besides our FRG Meetings. Good luck to your FRG.

This really makes me sad... I got so much out of ours!!! Some wives drove 2 HOURS to make the meetings. I made so many wonderful friends....

This really makes me sad... I got so much out of ours!!! Some wives drove 2 HOURS to make the meetings. I made so many wonderful friends....

Two hours?!?!:eek What's your secret?!?!

maybe incorporate food somehow, cookies, cupcakes, etc. :dunno It always worked to get people to come to class during presentation day in highschool :heehee

But i think the cookout/bbq is the best idea. Keeping everything casual and social always make for a great atmosphere that everyone wants to contribute to :yes

We usually only have around 10 at the most at our meetings, but they always say 10% of the wives/families will show and we only have about 100 married sailors on our ship because there are only about 230 stationed on the ship... so we're small.

Honestly for me personally I don't want to go to my FRG meetings because I am petrified that it will be catty high school-ness. I do not want to say something inadvertently and embarrass harrison or myself. Now I know that's probably not true in all cases but I do not need more drama in my life so therefore I am not going to open myself up to that.

Honestly for me personally I don't want to go to my FRG meetings because I am petrified that it will be catty high school-ness. I do not want to say something inadvertently and embarrass harrison or myself. Now I know that's probably not true in all cases but I do not need more drama in my life so therefore I am not going to open myself up to that.

You should give your a try at least once. Most FRG's are not like that and really are a great support system. You always hear about the bad ones cause those are the ones who do all the talking. You never know until you try. You really could be missing out on making some great friends.

yeah i need to go and try it out. :sigh i get nervous and anxious in social situations esp. when i have dd unless i know people already

yeah i need to go and try it out. :sigh i get nervous and anxious in social situations esp. when i have dd unless i know people already

Go to the next one. I will be there holding your hand in spirit :innocent

thanks :)

Two hours?!?!:eek What's your secret?!?!

Seriously... 2 hours... Maybe we just had a really good group of women... FRG meetings were at Camp Ripley, we had ladies drive from Willmar, MN to attend.. Perhaps we were just starved for human contact :lol :lol

Two hours?!?!:eek What's your secret?!?!
yea, what's the secret. I personally haven't heard or seen any super good friendships made and people driving 2 hours? wow. seriously. how'd you get them to do that?

Have events, not just meetings. We hold some kind of event every few months(our FRG runs year round). We just had an Easter party, our next event is a bowling night(we pay for the food, you pay for the games), we have family fun days, cookouts, etc.

No ideas here. I went to the last one and there were about 8 people. It was being run by the Ombudsmen and they were trying to get volunteers to take the various positions. I volunteered for one and I think 2-3 others signed up, but since then I haven't heard a peep. From what DH passed along to me, the last CPO's wife who volunteered for one of the positions got ran off by the group. So, I am volunteering my time to the high school quarterback club for my son's football team.....their (FRGs) loss I guess....I have had no communication from the Ombudsmen the entire deployment either.

i really wish i were close enough to go to some.

oh yeah...and married...that would help too :teehee

the one for joe's ship has things like pendants they are selling at the meetings, and shirts, and they have pizza often, and childcare, etc.

Child care is a big thing for me. Even if its some teens in another room. It's really hard to talk or get info when you got kids running up going Mom Mom Mom Mom or he hit me. :no Also try and find the same location each time, nothing sucks more then not knowing where the meeting will be. If it's the same place each time then people can plan ahead. And make it the same day/time each month. One big turn off to me is saying well this month it's going to be on thursday at 6 next month due to location issues it will be tuesday at 5. And if you are going to do raffles or anything like that make sure your meetings are right after payday some people are just plain broke. Oh and maybe say you get on raffle ticket for showing up. I agree thugh offering prizes/childcare are sure fire ways to get people to start showing up.

Ditto Michelle. For out actual meetings, we always have it the same time, the same night of the month, same location. We do a family style potluck for the first 30-45 minutes, then the kids go upstairs with someone from the CDC and a few teenage helpers, and the adults have a meeting for 45 minutes or so.

Oh I like the idea of a potluck dinner. Thanks!

Yeah, I umph the importance of childcare and planning meetings at appropriate times...More so planning them at appropriate times or having them in places where kids can play away from the adults if childcare can't be provided.
My FRG group always had meetings at 8:00 on Sunday night - so even when I had someone to watch the younger kids I still couldn't go because I lived over 30 minutes away and that was just too late in the evening.

Also - phone calls about group events and such were nice but few and far between.
The overall communication with my group was horrible and no one informed me that the group communicated via regular email addresses and not AKO. So I was always checking my AKO account and rarely received info - and when i did receive it and responded no one responded back.

Also, the few times I really did try to attend meetings - with or without kids - since I wasn't familiar with base-roads and so on their directions made no sense. Maybe it's just an "In Arkansas" thing but trees and fences don't make for good directions :rofl :no avoid those type of markers -street signs are best. And buildings that have *signs* on them are great but the "building next to the place where they boarded the buses at" doesn't fly :)

yea, what's the secret. I personally haven't heard or seen any super good friendships made and people driving 2 hours? wow. seriously. how'd you get them to do that?

:dunno My Dh's BB's wife lives 2 hours away, she'd drive with all three of her kids.. I guess when you don't live on base you really reach out for more contact in appropriate environments..

With our husbands working so closely in Iraq, we all relied on each other for information too... I knew exactly when DH left Iraq for Kuwait, because his BB told his wife that his roommate was gone...

I think alot of it was because of 22 month deployment, we wanted to make sure that we socalized with people who were involved with the same thing we were going through. When the boys got extended, we really relied on each other or strength. Since the boys were going through it together, us ladies went through it together too..

Our leader was always really good at making sure that EVERYONE got a weekly 'hi, how's it going' phone call...

:dunno My Dh's BB's wife lives 2 hours away, she'd drive with all three of her kids.. I guess when you don't live on base you really reach out for more contact in appropriate environments..

With our husbands working so closely in Iraq, we all relied on each other for information too... I knew exactly when DH left Iraq for Kuwait, because his BB told his wife that his roommate was gone...

I think alot of it was because of 22 month deployment, we wanted to make sure that we socalized with people who were involved with the same thing we were going through. When the boys got extended, we really relied on each other or strength. Since the boys were going through it together, us ladies went through it together too..

Our leader was always really good at making sure that EVERYONE got a weekly 'hi, how's it going' phone call...
That's great you have that. I have encountered that in this area personally. On the contrary it's the opposite. I couldn't tell you another wives name, little lone anything else. But I also don't circulate FRG. I did in the beginning and I found it to be less than attractive (something happened). Anyhow, I think it's great you guys do this. I personally wouldn't expect a friendship from it, but would be nice to be able to call somebody for information if it was truly warranted.

I've always wondered, though, about why people just don't want to be involved - you can't really change that but it is an interesting mystery.

I don't know much of anything about my husband's unit or anything so I think that, ultimately, leeches into my overall view of making a strong effort to make sure I'm involved. I know nothing and I feel like a retard when I try to learn and people go "she doesn't know anything!"
LOL

I've always wondered, though, about why people just don't want to be involved - you can't really change that but it is an interesting mystery.

I don't know much of anything about my husband's unit or anything so I think that, ultimately, leeches into my overall view of making a strong effort to make sure I'm involved. I know nothing and I feel like a retard when I try to learn and people go "she doesn't know anything!"
LOL

I discovered a long time ago that people who are going to be involved, will be involved, and those who aren't, wont. The ones who are 'involved' are the ones who did Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF or bike-a-thons, or other charity work from the time they were kids. The ones who aren't 'involved' usually never were, and never will be. However, from that group you might get some who are willing to stroke a check for a hundred or so, and will allow the 'involved' ones to use that money toward a common goal.

It's just how it is. If you offer oppportunities for people to get involved, the ones who say ""I want to get involved, but I don't know where to start" are the ones who you sign up for all kinds of stuff. Heck- give 'em the phone tree and tell 'em to call everyone for the next spouse group meeting. The others who say "I don't ewant to do anything, but here's two hundred bucks" are also a viable part of your volunteer group and shouldn't be discounted.