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A
PARENT'S GUIDE:
ACCESSING PARENT GROUPS
By Suzanne Ripley
What
do we need to do to start a new group?
Once
you have considered these questions and talked to others about your
group, its goals, and your ideas for issues to address, it's time
to actually get started. Here are some general guidelines. Again,
you may add any number of additional activities of your own or tailor
these suggestions to meet your needs.
- Determine
leadership. Who will conduct the first meeting? Will you have
officers, will you elect a leader, appoint a leader and get group
approval, or elect several officers?
- Develop
an agenda for the first meeting. You may want to start informally
and offer participants a change to get together to talk or you
may want to devote the first meeting to organizational issues.
Do you want to invite a guest speaker, show a video, or combine
the meeting with a social event? Be sure the agenda is specific,
goal oriented, and short enough that you can comfortably get through
all items listed.
- Arrange
for the place of the meeting. Pick a convenient location that
can comfortably hold the maximum number of people you expect to
attend. This does not have to be a permanent meeting place, but
pick some place easy to find. Be sure this place is accessible
to individuals with disabilities; set a good example!
- Invite
guests to the meeting. Do you want to control who is coming to
this meeting or open it up to the public by advertising? You may
wish to post notices in places like schools, doctors' offices,
libraries, the recreation center, or other locations where your
prospective members might see them. The local newspaper may have
a section that announces local meetings; call the paper and find
out how to access this.
How
should the first meeting be handled?
Here
are some suggestions to help your first meeting be a success:
- Get
there early and be sure everything is set up as you want it.
- Be
sure to put signs at the door directing people to the meeting
room.
- Have
a guest list for people to sign as they arrive. It is always helpful
to have a mailing list of potential members. Even if all participants
were invited, you may want to get phone numbers or other information.
You might want to add one or two identifiers to this list, such
as age of child, school child attends, disability of child, or
whatever information may be useful in selecting future activities.
Be sure guests understand that they are not signing up to be members
or volunteering to do anything; this is an informational list
only.
- Provide
name tags. Guests may not know each other. There are many ways
to personalize the tags. Guests could be asked to include information
about their child or occupation on the tag.
When all guests have arrived, and you're ready to officially begin
the meeting, you might find these suggestions helpful:
- If
the audience is of an appropriate size, you may want to take a
few minutes to have everyone give his/her name, age of child,
disability of child, and/or school child attends. Professionals
would introduce themselves by giving their name, profession, and
school.
- Introduce
the leaders of the group or candidates for officers, and any community
leaders or school officials in attendance.
- Go
through the items on your agenda. Don't rush, but keep the meeting
moving.
- Set
a time and place for the next meeting, and identify possible topics.
-
Allow time for socializing and discussion. It's important for
members to be able to talk to one another; it's also important
not to let this aspect "take over" the meeting.
-
End on time.
What
should happen after the first meeting?
It's a good idea to send a notice to all those who signed your guest
list, and let them know you're glad they came. In this letter, you
may wish to:
- Give
some information on the kind of people who were there, based on
the information you collected. For example, you might be able
to say that 80% of those attending were parents, over half of
their children are under age 8, that most of the children are
identified as developmentally delayed or mildly mentally retarded,
and that the professionals who attended were all special education
teachers at the elementary level.
-
Reiterate any decisions that were reached at the meeting, certainly
the name of the group, its officers, and the time and place of
the next meeting.
- Describe
any nominations or elections that are planned.
-
Make requests for any needed help. Be specific about what is needed
and how much time is involved.
-
Provide a means for those who attended to make suggestions and
recommend future agenda items.
-
Be sure to let people know how to get in touch with you and other
leaders.
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