Leader has a question: I am struggling trying to communicate with parents in my troop. In the beginning of the year I gave all parents a paper to fill out and tell me the best way to contact them whether it be text call or email and to write the best # and email, I always contact them the way they put would be best but hardly ever get responses. It’s very hard to organize trips or anything when no one will respond. How do you get parents to communicate?
Troop Leaders on our Facebook page wanted to help.
- Gemila’s idea: I print and hole-punch the meeting schedules in September and the girls put this in the front of their handbook. I email this same schedule to parents also, and I still get some asking me when the next meeting is. All events are decided by the girls, and after I check on feasibility and have the details, I send the info via email. Sometimes I even attach the permission slip to the email- works fine usually, but not always. Once my girls became 5th grade Juniors, most of them had their own email addresses. I include them in all emails for two reasons- 1.- Encourages their own responsibility in their troop- they get all information first hand. 2.- If the parent doesn’t see the email, the girl usually does. (all families know that I will NEVER email just the girls)
- Amanda writes: I have this problem. I wanted a single way to communicate ( I have almost 30 girls). last year I had 11 and all were on facebook so we had a group. while I did the same this year. Nope I have some very antifacebook people. so then its text and I hate doing group text . I tried the remind app out of 20 something families like 7 signed up for that. I have even made paper news letters and calendars and I have parents complain about missing events. I don’t know how many more way to get it out there for you. if you get a calendar and take it home that’s your copy. I don’t mind reminding I love my families. but I wish it was easier.
- April’s input: I gave each girl a binder with a calendar of the entire seasons meeting dates. At each meeting I have the girls write events as they are announced on the calendar. We have a Facebook group & I send text, copy & paste not a group text. I still get parents that miss things but I also get a lot of parents that will contact me with questions about meetings & events. I just think it has to do with their level of dedication & how busy their lives are. We do get busy, things do come up, & we just plain forget.
- Doria’s experience: I have a sign up sheet table where parents have to look. I tell the girls to have their parents look at the table. I have them mark yes or no on the sheet so I don’t have to chase anyone down. It seems to be working.
- Nikki’s troop: When our troop tries to communicate with scout parents we use facebook and create a page that I post everything in. I make a new post & updated that single post for the thing/party/meeting etc we are doing. That way I can keep track of who has seen it/commented on it/liked it. Closer to time I will email/text/facebook message so that I KNOW that I have done what I need to do. I will tell you that I weeded out a few non commutative parent’s. They fit better with another troop & it didn’t hurt my feelings. This is volunteer, it should be FUN!!!!
- Leesa: We use Shutterfly – I set up a share site which allows me to post meeting/event/helper sign-ups, a calendar of events, automatically sends out email reminders for those events, creates albums where girls/parents can put photos … works great. I have also used SurveyMonkey for planning “best fit” times for things that are more flexible like end of year parties.
- Danielle’s help: I write a monthly newsletter and post it on shutterfly to reply back to. Plan around the families that do respond. Then if there is availability, the slackers can go. You’ve done what you can. If a girl misses a badge because of it, then she can work it out with her parents.
Leave a Reply