What do you

[Joy]

touch bases on at your FRG meetings? Maybe an outline of how your meetings go? I'll be picking up as President and it's been almost a year since our last meeting, we had weak attendance, and poor planning. So if anyone has tips, hints, or suggestions, I'm all for it! TIA!

[LittleBit84]

Ooh, when I was in the FRG, I would bring up finances. Our unit was, not unkindly, flat-ass broke. We were always looking for ways to raise money and when to do it. Like: can't do a car wash in December in Va Beach... or a cocoa stand in July. Our cooks were in very high demand and usually at one thing or another come drill, so the colonel would take some of the treasury and go out and by lunches for us (there was like 20 people in my HQ) if the cooks weren't there.

There was also the annual Christmas party: the more money we had in the treasury, the more activities we could have available. We would have one of those clowns with the balloon animals, a jupiter jump, stuff like that.

Since my unit hadn't deployed since Normandy and was shut down last year, we didn't worry about that as a whole, BUT when individual soldiers were attached to deploying units, the FRG was there for them. :]

[Joy]

Awesome thanks! We are starting work-ups, and then deploy early next year so I was thinking on touching on emergency prepardness. Deployment prepardness.

[Kaymara]

I am helping to create the FRG for this command. If you want feel free to PM me and I can give ya an overview of what we;re doing thus far

[navywifeplus3]

I was secretary for our group at our last command. We worked closely with the command on predeployment prep. The command asked that all sailors attend with their families. We had Fleet and Family come out and talk about what to expect, how to emotionally prepare. Navy legal was also there to go over wills, POA's, things like that. For fundraisers we did bake sales, we found Walmart and the NEX were good about working with us. We also had t-shirts made with command logo and the kids shirts also had Jr. Sailor on them. Those sold pretty good. We also did First Kiss raffle tickets. We had a lady donate handmade quilts, which we raffled. Car washes are good as well. As for activities we did while they were deployed, we did some kind of dinner once a month. Whether we gathered at a park for a BBQ, had potluck at the meeting, or did picnic at Balboa Park then went to the free museum. We had one meeting where all we did was manicures, pedicures, and facials. It was a nice pick me up. We had a half way dinner, got many business to donate prizes, and everyone ended up with something by the time the dinner was through. We had a phone tree in place. We did group coffee nights, where we'd meet at one house or another. We also did welcome dinners/potlucks for any family that was arriving mid-deployment. The welcome dinners were coordinated by the CMC's wife and attended by the support group officers and ombudsman, then of course the new family. We also had monthly officers meetings, it just helped for us to touch base and brain storm on things. DELEGATE! You should have 3 officers besides yourself, utilize them. We also established various coordinator positions. Adult halfway party coordinator, childcare coordinator (we had childcare at all meetings except our halfway dinner), childrens halfway party coordinator and so on. I would suggest, if at all possible, you offer childcare at your meetings, preferably free. Many parents don't come because they don't have childcare. We always met at a chapel within housing. The kids were just across the hall in one of the classrooms, and babies in the nursery. The kids did crafts or played some game. We utilized the older girls scouts. The babysitting counts towards their community service and their leader or parent come along to supervise. Also one of us officers or childcare coordinator popped in and out throughout the evening to check on things. We also used the older children of our service members, we had 3 really good and attentive teens who loved spending the evening with the kids playing.

Guess I got a little long winded there! I get excited about the family groups, because they can be such a great asset/resource IF they are run properly. Just so you know when we (the officers I served with) took command of the group, we stepped in to $40.75, a whole lot of leftover drama, and low attendance, many people had a *bad taste* in their mouths because of the way it had been ran, but we were able to turn it around and have a good time! I have no doubt that with a little work and a little help that you can too! If you ever need someone to brainstorm with just PM. Good luck!

[toothfairy03]

I highly suggest having board/committee chair meetings every month usually the week before the actual FRG meeting. That way you all can give ideas and talk about current issues. One thing that the president stressed is getting everyone involved to make it a success. Our last bake sale got canceled due to low participation. The FRG that I'm with right now was made from the ground up so YOU CAN DO THIS!! I'm the FRG fundraising chair and we went from $0 to the highest $2300. If you have any questions you can ask me.

[Jennifer]

We set our schedule 3 months in advance and meet as a presidency ten days before the FRG meeting to get ready. We usually spend 15 minutes doing an intro/welcome to newbies, etc and any business we have, then have the meeting. We've done emergency preparedness(we live in vesuvius blast zone so we have to worry, lol), deployment readiness, a guide to living overseas and navigating the services available, et

[Krisha]

Joy contact FFSC on your base. They have unlimited resources to starting and maintaining FRG's.

[Traci]

Originally Posted by Joy touch bases on at your FRG meetings? Maybe an outline of how your meetings go? I'll be picking up as President and it's been almost a year since our last meeting, we had weak attendance, and poor planning. So if anyone has tips, hints, or suggestions, I'm all for it! TIA!

I get emails every month. My husband had to put me on a list they wouldn't let me do it myself.

[jlbecker]

when i went they had guest speakers. one was a tricare rep. it might have been a good idea to help people out, but he talked FAR too long and it was boring and turned into a *****-fest about tri-care and the local hospital. i didn't go back.

sorry, that's not really a tip, but i guess try to keep topics well-organized and speakers at a time limit so this doesnt happen.