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Leader Resource Fair

By Cindy Howard

Our Area (NCA/HI) recently held a Leader Enrichment Day and decided to include a two-hour resource fair in response to comments from Leaders who said they didn't want to attend a Meeting and then go home with MORE work to do.  When publicizing this part of our day, we tried to make it clear that this was a time to work on projects.

The room was set up with tables and chairs and each table was to cover a specific topic. We had generated the topics over the course of two Events Team meetings, with DAs checking in with their Leaders to see what they wanted to cover.  Each table had a coordinator, who generated the handouts and gathered materials, and two hostesses, who staffed the table for one hour each. 

Table hostesses received a $5 discount on their registration fee. Some Leaders volunteered and some were asked to work at particular tables; for example, the APL sat at the outreach table for an hour and the CLA was at the Applicant table the whole time.  For some of the volunteer Leaders, I worked with them to find a table that interested them.

A  District Advisor who couldn't be at the event put together a folder with four meeting ideas and all the props and handouts as a gift for all the Leaders who attended. We distributed these gifts at the beginning of the resource fair and one of the stations was a Series meeting discussion, where Leaders could learn more about the ideas in the packet.

These are the table topics:

Meeting ideas

• Bag of tricks
• A notebook of meeting ideas already prepared
• Running meetings
• Learning styles

Library ideas

• Sponsoring books
• What are other Groups doing?
• Labeling
• What to do with old books
• Disclaimer stickers for books
• Book swap
• Book Evaluation Committee

Finances

• Opening bank accounts
• Getting EINs
• Bookkeeping
• Setting up escrip
• Memberships

Leader Applicant workshop

• Supporting Applicants
• BRG case studies

Communication Skills

• Learn about content of various sessions
• Indicate interest for local session(s)

Involving Group workers

• Memberships; ways to ask for them
• When you don’t ask, we think we can’t
• Ways to acknowledge volunteers
• Things that can be delegated, e.g. treasury

Managing the Task List

• What is most important
• 7 habits of highly effective Leaders

Extra Meetings

• Enrichment Meetings
• Toddler Meetings
• Employed mothers
• Outreach
• Breastfeeding café

Developing a Community Resource Guide

• What to include
• Where to put it
• How to recommend
• Yahoo group databases

Activity Reporting

• Leader logs

Massage

• Chair massage
• Yoga

USWD

• What is it?  What does it do?
• Recommended books displayed

USWD Agreements

• What are they? 
• How might they affect the Group Leader?

Most evaluations for the day included suggestions for future resource table topics. The only complaint on the evaluation forms was that two hours was too long; that comment came from a very introverted Leader and I did notice that at first it was hard for the introverts to join in. Then I put chairs in front of the Resource Fair tables as well as behind them and that seemed to encourage everyone to stay longer and visit.

During the fair, I saw some Leaders set up Leader logs, work on their Group checkbooks, and pick out library books. A couple of Applicants did large parts of their applications orally. Other Leaders hadn't brought anything to work on, so they mainly got ideas to take home.

The fair was held immediately after lunch, and I did notice that women moved into the Resource Fair early from lunch; in hindsight, we could have had a shorter lunch and the same amount of time for the fair or a longer lunch and a shorter fair. By the end of the fair, many Leaders were sitting in small groups in the middle of the room discussing their issues and concerns.

One thing that might have helped Leaders engage more would have been to introduce each Resource Fair table and give a description to the entire group, as they moved in from lunch. But because people drifted in, there was no good time to give announcements like that. If I had this to do again, I’d probably plan to introduce the fair while everyone was gathered in one place for lunch.