I guess what I've learned about volunteering from the
kindergarten staff is to take a fuzzy, general offer to "help out", and make
it a firm committment. Say something like, "That's great you want to help
out. Why don't you plan the craft activity for the meeting next month", or
something along those lines.
Leslie -
I think Pam has a good idea there. I went through a similar problem with my Cub Scout den once. I started as a co-leader with a dad when I was a SAHM (that's stay-at-home-mom, before I was a single and happy mother!). Jim ended up with a job that took him out of town all week and I ended up divorced, raising 2 kids by myself and trying to support us. Something had to give. My group of parents all agreed to help and each one took over a task - tracking awards, making phone calls, meeting requirements for certain badges, etc. It worked out fine, but I was relieved when it was over and my son moved to Boy Scouts.
You have to call them in for a meeting and say these are the jobs that need to be covered - what would you like to take? Divide it up so that at least several of them take something definite. Make firm assignments then and there, not just general statements of "I'll help".
That said, if it doesn't work it might just be time to give it up. When my second son was in Cub Scouts I had the same co-leader arrangement with a different dad, but his son dropped out after the first year. None of the other parents was ready to take any respsonsibility, so we ended up disbanding the group. I was really upset about my son missing out on scouting, but we couldn't find another group to fit into...
As it turned out, soccer is his thing and he is on a premier team, which travels quite a bit, which is something my older son did not do - he just played rec. So I hope that the younger one is getting what he needs in a different way. I still have regrets about the scouting, but we just can't fit everything in.
Diane
