Tina--I anxiously await your return!
I have already visited about half of the places on post and gathered info--I have to hit some more places today. At each place I collected pamphlets and asked questions like "What info do you think is important for them to know?" and "When you were new to this post what info did you wish you knew" and stuff like that.
I have created a list of all the phone numbers on post that could be useful to the wives along with the addresses and a brief summary of what the place does.
I have put together a short history of the place the spouses work at along with the crest and insignia associated with it. I created a list of acronyms,times and the phonetic alphabet.
I have come up with some fun activities (at least I think so) and some fundraising ideas as well.
My laundry room is FRG central with white boards and filing cabinet and lots of.... stuff
I need more!!!!!!!!!!!! Which is why I came here--I want to know what every spouse wishes they knew, I want to know what every soldier wishes we knew, I want to be better at this than I am and if something comes up I want to be 10000% prepared.
First, I'm going to tell you that you are never completely prepared. Seriously, the most crazy stuff you could never think of has a very good chance of happening. Just be armed with resources and some patience.
I think a great FRG leader is someone that cares and is genuine. If people can warm up to you, and know that you are real and want to help then they will seek you out. What kind of FRG does your commander want to have? This is pretty important as FRG is a commander's program ultimately. What about the BN? Do you receive your information from them? Do you have a FRGA/FRSA that helps get you information? BTW are you preparing for a deployment?
What kind of resources do you have at ACS? Usually you can get information booklets about all the organizations that fall under ACS(EFMP, Employment, Financial Readiness, Family Advocacy, and other programs). Do you have the little handheld(pocket/wallet size) cards with important numbers like post information, staff duty/cq, 1sgt/CO's office, and whatever you think is important. We had the little cards with general post information and then I made magnents with the specific company information.
Do you have alot of new families in your unit now? I would start getting them squared away with POAs. One night I had a big potluck where we met and had dinner and then legal came out and made general POAs for families and went over the different POAs possible especially those with children and maybe sending kids to grandparents for vacation. Legal can also update wills or create new ones.
One thing that helped me was getting wlecome packets from ACS or the post information office. Each packet usually had a phone book, maps of post, details about the agencies on post and contacts, as well as some information about the area right outside of post.
Do you have your phone tree set up? Do you have POC in place? Get some good exprienced people for your POCs because they are your first line of defense. If one of your family members is having an issue they should go to the POC(if they feel comfortable) and your POC should be able to set them in the right direction instead of just sending it up to you. Find out what families do not want to be involved with the FRG and that includes getting information. Have the SPOUSE sign a statement of non-inclusion. Very important because you don't want them to come back saying you didn't send me info blah blah.
If you want to talk more about this, I'd be happy to send you an email or a phone number. I'm actually setting up new FRGs here at Belvoir now. You'd think I was making fire for the first time the way some people around here are reacting lol. Good luck it sounds like you are doing great and wanting to make a difference and caring about the families is probably the most important thing.
