4Real Forums: Tips for huge homeschool group

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Topic: Tips for huge homeschool group

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blairb4
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Joined: Oct 08 2006
Location: Texas
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Posted: Aug 05 2008 at 12:34pm \| IP Logged

Hi ladies! I don't post often and hope this is okay for this folder. But I wanted to get some advice for our local Catholic homeschool group. We currently have about 60 families, most with elementary aged children or younger, and are located in a suburb of Houston. The group has almost doubled in size over the past year and I feel like we might need some more organization for things to move smoothly with this many people.

Right now we have a couple email loop moderators who also help to schedule the twice a year planning meetings and monthly mom's nights. Other than that, people just volunteer to lead various activities and field trips. We have First Friday classes at the local parish (Little Flowers, etc) and things like Nature, Fine Arts, and Science clubs. We are talking about starting a PE class and doing some manners classes with the girls and outdoor classes with the boys. The email loop is getting overwhelmed b/c someone will post an idea (like the PE class) and there will be close to 100 responses in one day!!!

For those of you in large, active Catholic homeschool groups...how do things run? What kinds of planning meetings do you have and how are decisions made? What roles/positions are there in your group? How does the email loop work? Also, have any of your groups evolved into a co-op and how does that function?

Thanks for your advice and ideas, ladies! I'm so blessed to be a part of my homeschool group and thought I'd ask around for advice in helping it run more smoothly.

Blessings,
Blair in TX
Wife of Steven (since '01)
Mommy to Mary Clare ('03), Elizabeth ('05) and Stevie ('07)...and little saints Agnes and Augustine
Blair's Blessings Blog

MaryM
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Joined: Feb 11 2005
Location: Colorado
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Posted: Aug 05 2008 at 1:47pm \| IP Logged

We are in a similar place, large mostly suburban group that has increased exponentially the last several years. It covers a pretty substantial geographic portion of our metro area. We have 100 families on our Yahoo group but really only about 50 who we ever see in real life (some who subscribe to the list are actually in other groups but want to see what we are doing, too). We are the largest group in the Denver metro area.

We are experiencing many of the same growing pains and challenges you mention. There used to be a group "leader" that rotated each year, but even when the group was smaller, moms were just afraid to commit to that position - in fact that caused the group to languish for awhile. Now by default the Yahoo moderators have become the visible "leaders." This year we have a core of about a half dozen members who we are calling the steering committee. We coordinate a planning meeting each summer and a welcome tea for new members in late August/early Sept.

Over the years we've had just about every permutation of organizational structure trying to distribute responsibility and get commitment/involvement from members.

Currently as far as the month to month activities we run in a similar fashion to you - having people volunteer to plan field trips and activities as well as a monthly mom's night. Problem is for the most part it is the same people doing the bulk of the work. This year we made up a survey/commitment form. It was given out at the planning meeting (this year we had 3 different times/locations to accommodate more people's feedback) and mailed to all members who didn't attend. People were able to indicate the types of events/activities they were interested in the group doing and then having them commit to the event/club(s) they would help with. We actually got more specifically committed volunteers his way than when we had a sign up sheet by month in past years. Now we have a couple volunteers who are overseeing each area (field trips, liturgical feast day parties, mom's night) and following up with the volunteers each month. We'll see how it works.

The Yahoo group emails were really an issue here as well - though members would absolutely keel over if we ever have 100 posts in one day!!! Sounds like you have tons of enthusiasm for planning and doing - wish we had that! But the volume and off topic posts were an issue, so based on the survey results we have set the reply on the Yahoo group to be "Reply to Sender" instead of Group. Now you really have to want to send to the whole group and consciously do it to do so. Things like RSVPs, responses to pray requests, "yes, I'm interested" posts go the sender so she can keep track - doesn't have to be part of the whole list messages. It is working for us. But if your posts are all productive planning and brainstorming posts I would hesitate to change that.

I was involved with a co-op that came from the group. It was a subgroup of about 12-15 families. We were active for 3 years but ended up disbanding a couple years ago because the coordinators (me and 2 friends) couldn't get other mom's to take on more leadership and teaching responsibilities with the group. Sometimes you just get burned out doing it all. That is my current frustration. Lots of interest - not so much initiative among members. So I'm looking forward to other replies to see how groups generate that follow through.

Oh, and how do big groups handle locations to meet? We don't have many supportive parishes and the some we have had in the past have pulled their use of space from us - that is a big issue for us.

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Mary M. in Denver

Our Domestic Church

Martha
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Joined: Aug 25 2005
Location: N/A
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Posts: 2291

Posted: Aug 05 2008 at 3:06pm \| IP Logged

I made a message board for the catholic hs group here. It's not liek this one, but it's free to nearly free and gets the job done. It took me about 2 hours to set it up, mostly hunting the net for catholic pictures I could decorate it with.

It's much easier to read than an email loop, of which I personally have a profound and strong dislike for!

But it will require members to sign up and check it, vs being able to just get emails all the time. If you're getting that many though, it's got to be easier than weeding through the email.

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Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!

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