Saturday, May 24, 2008

That's Mrs. Head-Playgroup-Organizer to you!

Yes, I'm officially the new playgroup Organizer. And for my first act of duty I'll panic, bother the old organizer relentlessly, and chew my fingernails in worry! I'm slowly realizing I may not be cut out for this. Okay, quickly realizing. It sounded like a fun idea until I actually took over... less than a week ago.

We have our own website that can be found here. If you are thinking of starting a group that needs a calendar to post it's activities, Meetup.com is great. We have our calendar, and when you add a meet-up to it, an email gets sent to all the members letting them know there's a new meet-up added. They can go to the calendar and RSVP yes, no, or maybe. That way we know how many to expect. And some meet-ups, like ones in our homes, have a set limit. With the calendar, and the RSVP's, we can set it to a maximum of 6 or 8, and then the RSVP's turn off as soon as it fills up. Nice, huh?! There's also a message board that we keep pretty hoppin'!

Now here's where my problem comes in. Summer is typically slower (although this is only the 2nd summer this particular playgroup has been in business). A lot of the husbands/daddies here have summer leave, wives/moms who's husbands are deployed go home for the summer, and it's just too darn hot down here to meet at the park all the time like we do in the fall and the spring. But it seems to me that it's all personal. I feel like everyone is saying "Oh great, SHE'S taking over! I'm not going to go to meet-ups anymore!"

Yes, that's silly! People wouldn't actually do that.... would they?

Why does it always feel personal when everyone drops out of activities as soon as I take over? This really is a reoccurring thing for me. And I take everything personal as it is.

So I email the former organizer, yet again, asking her if I'm doing everything okay, and why did everyone drop out of the past two meet-ups when people are usually so excited to go to them, and why isn't anyone RSVPing "yes" for the new meet-ups I put on the calendar? And did she worry this much when she took over? She told me she stressed a lot in the beginning, too. She worried that there wasn't enough on the calendar, that people weren't happy, that people complained all the meet-ups were full all the time... but she realized after awhile that she wasn't ever going to make everyone happy. She settled for making some of the people happy some of the time.

So I'm not crazy! That's good to know.

And it's okay if I don't have 25 people signed up for my Father's Day craft. I have 8, and that's good, and that's 8 Daddy's who will get cute little handprints of their kiddos, and that's all I need to do!

This won't be the last you hear of my playgroup woes, I'm sure! I have a long road ahead of me. I'm excited, though! I've never been in charge of anything big like this before. I'm always the one helping out in the background.

1 comment:

Sandy said...

It's not you! Playgroups are like the tides - they ebb and flow. You're going to do great!