Looking for a boost

[Christi Mooney]

I'm getting so frustrated.  I'm pouring so much of my time and resources into making the club happen, but getting feedback is almost impossible.  I'm sending out newsletters, messaging parents, creating events and posting frequently.  Everyone seems gungho at the meetings, but in between there, I can't get any action.  We had discussed several projects so I started to put the wheels in motion.  I can't even get a "we can't come" response.  Just nothing.  I'm talking to myself.  My girls love the club so I don't want to stop, but man, I feel like I'm doing this alone.  I'm just going to do simple projects each month for now and leave it at that.  I couldn't even get people to come and design shirts!  I'm just frustrated.  Can anyone give me suggestions?  

[Ben Jones]

Christi,

I know that I responded to you, but somehow it went just to you...so I am going to post my response for everyone.

I have felt this way in the past. A friend of mine has an analogy called 'ask a parent to bring the toilet paper'.

His analogy was referring to group camping he used to coordinate. To get a parent involved he would ask them to bring one thing that was small but important. Of course he said to always have a plan b and pack toilet paper just in case. As you feel you can depend on them more, you ask them to help out more. This way they are not just a participant but a contributor of the club.

The other thing I use to not feel alone is to use Mailchimp for notifications instead of group email from my inbox. The benefit is you can see how many people opened the email which helps to cure the 'I am talking to myself' feeling. Plus the templates really beautiful and beat a plain text email which helps get people's attention.

Your last point of doing simple projects is also a great way to not get frustrated. Doing low effort projects while you build your club is a good plan. At the end of the day, you should have fun with your kids.

I hope this helps!

[Jennifer Johnson]

Having run a Girl Scout troop for 6 years now, coached FIRST Lego League, etc, I have a bit of advice.

- If you're comfortable with it, ask for a modest dues payment for the semester or year. The fall would be a better time to do this (not now). My experience is participation is WAY better when people pay something - even if it's just $50 or 100 for the entire year. When it costs them nothing, it is psychologically easier for them to blow off and dismiss it for the littlest thing. This has the added benefit of giving you a little bit of a budget to work with for supplies - which also removes a hurdle to people attending, as people feel if they have to prep or buy supplies, the prep gets away from them and they just don't show up. Open a separate account and have a trusted second person act as treasurer just to keep things transparent and honest. Even once my GS troop established a strong bank account with fundraisers, I continue to ask modest dues in order to *invest* people.

- Don't do simple projects - at least, not to start. People are going to be more driven to show up if you are offering something they can't do at home. If you're doing something simple that they CAN do at home, a lot of people will frankly just think, why bother showing up? I'm busy, and my kids can do that just as easily without the club.

- "Non-simple" doesn't necessarily mean complicated or expensive. An example might be inviting a community expert to talk to the kids, lead them on a hike, offer a tour.  People are often willing to share their expertise to a group of kids in a way that would just be plain awkward for most individuals. You can create opportunity without having to do a lot of prep beyond making some phone calls and sending an e-mail. Also when you emphasize, "Dr. Wallace the Botanist has graciously volunteered his time to meet with the kids and point out medicinal plants on a local hike. Please do show your support and appreciation by attending this hike!"

Momentum matters, too. Getting started is always the hardest.

[Christi Mooney]

Thanks everyone for the replies.  I am using MailChimp as well.  I can see that they are opening the messages so there is that.  I think I'm just frustrated by the lack of communication.  We had several families that were coming regularly and seemed very excited about upcoming projects.  Then it is like everyone just disappeared.  We had several events planned for April, but zero participation.  I would have even settled for a "hey we can't come", but it was just a ghost town.  I'm planning another event in May, but I'm keeping it to one event a month.  That way, I don't feel that I've wasted too much of my time trying to organize things.  

I think we will definitely do a membership fee next fall.  

Jennifer, I had several mentors lined up, but again, I couldn't get the participation.  I don't want to lose credit with these mentors either so I'm refraining from bringing any more in mentors until participation picks up.  

  

[Michele W.]

We too have found it very challenging to get feedback and volunteers. We also have those who pre-register, we purchase enough supplies for them and then they do not show. At first it didn't matter so much with events such as duct tape, but now with owl pellets, altoids flashlights, etc. the materials are not only more expensive, but for specific projects. When someone doesn't show or give us notice to notify someone on the wait list, we are stuck with those supplies.

We've been running our club for a year now. The first year we went with projects that used every day craft supplies that can be found at Wal Mart. Our experience with simple projects has been a bit different as there is so much one can do with basic supplies. We get comments all the time about how kids take what they learn at Maker Club home and continue to explore that type of material or skill at home. There is a renewed interest in the possibilities using basic materials. Maker Club does not have to mean fancy projects in order to be successful.

We have also had regular open make events where kids bring things in to work on that they started at home or can use our supplies for a project of their choice.

My kids wanted this Maker Club and I scheduled time for them to meet with our children's librarian and propose it. She loved the idea and it became a reality. Although we help a lot, it would be a HUGE undertaking with just me and the boys. We have weekly events, so we are not only preparing for this weeks event, but also gathering ideas for future events and scheduling those as well as checking the supplies we have, will need, and testing projects before they are scheduled to make sure they work well. I would suggest talking to your local children's librarian to see if you could help them start a program. If your local library is not interested, don't hesitate asking other libraries within the county. We help another one out as well. There is definitely a growing interest and your family would be a blessing to that librarian.

There are some hoops with having to have things approved by the library board, not being able to do the actual purchasing ourselves when we see deals, and being limited on what tools we can use (Xacto knives), but it's been a great experience. The librarian handles the pre-registration for events, scheduling (with us having say), purchasing supplies (once we have a list of items we need), and emails. Together we plan via google docs and pinterest and we help set up and clean up from events.

My son made up a planning doc thinking it would help if others saw just how easy it is to plan an event. They do a general theme or material, then have 2-3 suggested projects to get those without an idea jump started. Our goal is to have more kids plan events. So far only one kid has accepted this opportunity. The club is really theirs and the librarian and I are just facilitators to their ideas. We want to know what THEY want to try and are open to learning it WITH them. We've tried to have kids write suggestions on the wall and then put stickers beside the projects they would like to try.

I would love to see each maker at our club in charge of an event. They don't have to teach it, just help the librarian and I with a theme and project ideas. It also would be nice if they made sample projects for the event, came to help set up, and stayed to help clean up for that one event. It's a great experience for the kids, mine has now done 40 some of these, but we're not getting bites.

So far the events have been free. We are seeing if the library will allow us to charge a small registration fee that will be rolled into supplies. It's a lot of tweaking to see what works in your neck of the woods.

Also keep in mind their are seasons in life. Right now attendance is lower after a long winter, with spring weather finally arriving. Now that we've had a full year, we are able to see the curves in attendance, which I don't think relates to the event theme, but rhythms of life.

Encourage your kids to roll with it and have fun making themselves and join in the making with them when you aren't needed to run it.