People in Moms Groups - Help please!

[af1212]

I am on the board of my local MOMS chapter. We currently have a mess of ways to connect, including Evites for events, a yahoo groups page for e-mailing group questions, a facebook page, a blog, as well as files (excel, word) that have the roster, etc. that are e-mailed to the group periodically.

It is a nightmare :-( and we are trying to streamline it. What tools does your moms group use to keep members connected, allow them to interact, and schedule events?

Thanks so much for any help!

[Deleted]

We only use a private Facebook group. My moms group is small (about 15 moms), so that works well for us. It also works for events.

[af1212]

Do you know if anyone has ever been excluded because they don't have a facebook account? This seems to be a concern of some in my group.

[pugz]

I know in my area the meetup.com site is popular, and private FB groups

[Deleted]

We do have one holdout that doesn't have FB.

She can either pay attention in person or miss out. It's the easiest thing for the other 14, so majority rules.

[Becca]

For docs, why not use google docs? That way everyone always has access to the most up to date version. And editing abilities can be restricted

[ilikedonuts]

Meetup.com

[hannamaren]

We have a private group on FB. I like it because you can post questions and events.

I am also a member of a meetup group, but I dont know if you can make that closed?

[bunch]

Meetup.

[af1212]

Thanks all. I have never used meetup. Does it allow you to have conversations and invite people to events (with RSVPs)?

[af1212]

Hmm ... it looks like Meetup costs $$ (says it's $12/month) so that would probably not go over too well with the group.

[keh2oblue]

Aug 7, 2012 17:02:41 GMT -5 @tokenhoser said:

We only use a private Facebook group. My moms group is small (about 15 moms), so that works well for us. It also works for events.

This is basically my group, too.

[thedash]

Mine is meetup based and we each pay $20 per year.

[bunch]

Aug 7, 2012 18:45:46 GMT -5 af1212 said:

Thanks all. I have never used meetup. Does it allow you to have conversations and invite people to events (with RSVPs)?

yes. Events with rsvps, a message board that you can subscribe to and I even get email notifications when a fb friend is attending one of the events. It's fantastic

[af1212]

Thanks for the Meetup feedback. We pay dues, but I'm not sure exactly how the money is allocated. We are a chapter of the International MOMS club, so I know there are rules about how that money is spent. I'll have to look into it further.

[doctorsbaby]

We email everything out. Also have a fb page but that is more for attracting new members than keeping in touch with everyone. Once a month, we email out the newsletter & it has the full months calendar. A directory is also emailed out monthly. We are trying out meetup but that's mainly for attracting new members, it might get cut though b/c it is too expensive and we would need to attract about 10 new members a year to come out ahead.

The board uses a private group to communicate (cuts wayyyyy down on emails).

[doctorsbaby]

Whoops, missed one thing. All events are scheduled at our mommy mixer & one person is picked as the RSVP for each event. That info is all put in the newsletter.

[bunch]

Aug 7, 2012 19:06:44 GMT -5 af1212 said:

Thanks for the Meetup feedback. We pay dues, but I'm not sure exactly how the money is allocated. We are a chapter of the International MOMS club, so I know there are rules about how that money is spent. I'll have to look into it further.

we are official MOMS club as well. With dues.

[6fsn]

I have one group that uses meetup and another that uses a combo of fb and evites. My old mom group used fb and email and even had a phone tree.

[angeldcf]

What is a "MOMS group?" I've seen some local MOPS groups here, but it's frustrating that all of them are only for SAHMs.

Our friends with kids live far away & others don't have kiddos. Not trying to start SAHM/Working mom war, but what do other working moms do?

[Deleted]

We have a google plus group. It seems to work for right now.

[annieh2]

I think I'm in your moms club because ours is the same way with the methods of communication. We've just started using Shutterfly for calendar/scheduling along with pictures. We also use a ton of email, to the point where I don't even open them because it's just way too many emails all the time.
I wish we would do a private fb group, but there are too many concerned with people missing things if they do not use fb.

[egishere]

Big Tent is what my moms of multiples group uses. You can pay your dues through it, do invites/rsvps and add docs and pics.

[6fsn]

Aug 7, 2012 20:20:45 GMT -5 angeldcf said:

What is a "MOMS group?" I've seen some local MOPS groups here, but it's frustrating that all of them are only for SAHMs.

Our friends with kids live far away & others don't have kiddos. Not trying to start SAHM/Working mom war, but what do other working moms do?

I've seen quite a few working mom groups on meetup. I've never been to one, but you can check there for something.

[tardyfortheparty]

My MOMS group is kind if the same way with a million ways to coordinate. I wish they would just do FB or meetup.

[froggy76]

My moms group used to be a Meetup group (before I was a member), but defected to FB. A friend invited me. We have over 100 members and FB works great.

[af1212]

Thanks all. I sent these suggestions on to our president. I just browsed quickly at Big Tent and it looks great! I love it that the dues can be paid directly through them.

Angeldcf - MOMS stands for Moms Offering Moms Support. It's a group that was designed specifically for stay at home moms although lots of groups have part time working moms in the group as well. Most of the events are during the day, so it wouldn't be a good match for most working parents. In my area there's another group called Moms and More that is more geared for working parents. They have evening and weekend speakers, get togethers, etc. Maybe something like that would be more up your alley?