Yo Jammy

[verycontrary247]

So I was elected to be FRG VP a few months ago, but aside from monthly meetings where basically we talk about the same things we talked about at the last 5 meetings- nothing is happening. Also, since the ship is currently here only like 10 people show up tops.

I want the FRG to be fun but I can't think of a way to entice people to come. The board was pretty much filled with snotty officer's wives (no offense to anyone who is one, but these chicks are stuck up bitches) and I think because of them not many enlisted spouses show.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this train of thought. What do you do to boost attendance?

[iluvmytxrgr]

I'm barging in. How about game or movie nights? We play Bunco and several other games here and there. We also encourage our ladies to meet in smaller groups. For us, that would be by section or platoon. We get together for lunch, the movies, bowling and so on. It helps us all get to know each other. It's easier to be a support system during tough times when you get to know each other during better times.

[verycontrary247]

The current president is fixated on if we're doing something- everyone has to be on board. Like, some people wanted to do a mystery dinner type of deal, but since "not enough" people signed up she cancelled it altogether.

It's a smaller boat to begin with (250 sailors when it's full- there are probably about 200-210 assigned to it now) so I'm not sure breaking down the few people who do come into division groups would help. I'm the only one from H's division that comes


I'd love to do a game/movie night, but I have no idea where we could have it.

[basilosaurus]

Sincere question: why does attendance matter? I get trying to make changes if you think people would want to come but there are barriers (like childcare or the days/hours you schedule), but is it worth tons of effort to recruit people?

I've only ever done spouse things when overseas. That's when my options were limited, both with meeting people and with things to do. Now that I'm in a real city with a real life and real friends, there's really nothing that the frg offers me.

[softspot]

Does the FRG provide childcare for the meeting? That helps bring people in sometimes.

[Jam]

So sorry, dude. I'm currently away for the weekend so I didn't see this until now.

Initially, prior to deployment last year, we had a good turn out of spouses (because information was being released at the meetings) and then that died down severely during the actual deployment.
Fact is, FRGs don't have the best reputation and there are actually quite a few husbands who don't want their wives to be actively involved. There are also the wives who just don't want to be involved because of horror stories they've heard, etc. I'm sure you know all of this already though lol. It's gonna take time for you to break down the pre-conceived stereotypes that people have so be patient. You may not even get the results you want no matter how much effort you put in.

We've had fundraisers, pot lucks, gone to farmer's markets, done group care packages for everyone that was deployed (during the holidays). We've had get togethers for regular holidays like St Patty's (someone hosted and we did a potluck as well) and Valentine's Day (since the unit was deployed).
Like PP asked, does your FRG offer childcare during meetings? Try to hold meetings where child care is available or on weekends. A lot of spouses work so meeting during the week is a PITA for them.
See if you can find local beauty school students who are willing to donate time towards military spouses so you can do a beauty day for mani/pedis or hair makeovers.

Sounds silly but maybe try a local pub crawl, car pooling to a local fair/carnival. Post pictures of your get togethers on fb (if you have one for your FRG) so that any unsure wives will see how much fun you're having.

Just a couple of ideas. Hope those help.

[Jam]

Also- does your base have a community center? Ours has several and you can "rent" them out for the night. They probably have a tv so you could do a TV/potluck thing there.

Sucks that the chick in charge doesn't want to do something unless it's everyone. That is pretty fucking stupid lol.

[verycontrary247]

Jul 14, 2012 22:37:18 GMT -5 softspot said:

Does the FRG provide childcare for the meeting? That helps bring people in sometimes.

President only hires a babysitter if X amount of people RSVP that they're bringing kids, but there is always a kids activity at the far end of the giant room we use.

[pennylane]

Um, yeah the FRG pres needs to get over only holding things if everyone attends. That's impossible. I'm the secretary in ours, and I'd say normally about 10-15 people attend out of the 50+ that get the invites. Since it's a small group, we just host meetings at our own houses (well, you can volunteer to host).

We've done some things as simple as going for pedicures, lunch, going to see movies, etc. We've also done volunteer work things, or fundraisers (we did one at Chik-fil-a that a lot of people came to).

[verycontrary247]

Jul 15, 2012 1:01:54 GMT -5 Jam said:

So sorry, dude. I'm currently away for the weekend so I didn't see this until now.

Initially, prior to deployment last year, we had a good turn out of spouses (because information was being released at the meetings) and then that died down severely during the actual deployment.
Fact is, FRGs don't have the best reputation and there are actually quite a few husbands who don't want their wives to be actively involved. There are also the wives who just don't want to be involved because of horror stories they've heard, etc. I'm sure you know all of this already though lol. It's gonna take time for you to break down the pre-conceived stereotypes that people have so be patient. You may not even get the results you want no matter how much effort you put in.

We've had fundraisers, pot lucks, gone to farmer's markets, done group care packages for everyone that was deployed (during the holidays). We've had get togethers for regular holidays like St Patty's (someone hosted and we did a potluck as well) and Valentine's Day (since the unit was deployed).
Like PP asked, does your FRG offer childcare during meetings? Try to hold meetings where child care is available or on weekends. A lot of spouses work so meeting during the week is a PITA for them.
See if you can find local beauty school students who are willing to donate time towards military spouses so you can do a beauty day for mani/pedis or hair makeovers.

Sounds silly but maybe try a local pub crawl, car pooling to a local fair/carnival. Post pictures of your get togethers on fb (if you have one for your FRG) so that any unsure wives will see how much fun you're having.

Just a couple of ideas. Hope those help.

Yeah, we had awesome turn outs when the ship was deployed last year but whenever they are back everyone stops coming. They are going out for 3 months in the not too distant future then heading to the yards for a year long overhaul and I kind of want to establish a group before that.

The old CO was adamant about us not being allowed to have a FB page, but they just got a new one so I think I'm going to press to see if we can have one now.

We have the meetings the 3rd Saturday of every month.

Maybe I can work on a pitch for a potluck "open house" type of deal.....

[iluvmytxrgr]

I don't know about your state, but high school kids are required to have so many community service hours every year to graduate. We have several HS students who volunteer to baby sit for us a few times a year. We sign off on the hours they qualify for. You may be able to get a few girls to volunteer to work for free. Our girls end up giving out their numbers and making a good bit of money babysitting later. It's a win win for all of us.

[amaristella]

Food....

Attendance wise, there are 130-ish sailors and from them our meetings have anywhere from 10-30+ people show up. We try to always have babysitting, simply adjusting the number of sitters to the number of kids showing up. Also, our meetings are nearly 100% business. Some people only come for information, so we try to put that at the beginning so that they can leave if they need or want to.

We kind of go through a cycle where we brainstorm ideas, the board narrows them down, then we pick a person (can be anyone, not just board members) to be the "chair" for the event and then things go on from there. We very seldom cancel events due to low interest. Either people come or they don't. Also we try to divide our attention equally between fundraisers and social events.