Does Your Tribe Need a Check Up?

As we turn the corner on the new year with Spring only a few weeks away, it's a good time to evaluate how your tribe is doing. Every Fall and Spring, tribes should take a close look at what's working and what isn't. Does your tribe need a check up?

• Question: Do you have your Spring tribe meetings scheduled and everyone know their meeting responsibilities?
  
  Answer: If not, I'd highly recommend setting up a Spring Dads-only meeting to ensure that the rest of your tribal meetings through May are scheduled and you know who will hosting each meeting. Make sure that meeting responsibilities (i.e. story and trick/song) are laid out in advance. For our tribe, I set up a meeting responsibilities spreadsheet on Google Docs that's accessible to all the dads in the tribe. In grid form, it lists all upcoming meetings and the responsibilities that each dad has. This has worked quite well.
  
  Also, plan on having a Fall Dads-Only meeting later in the year to schedule your Fall meeting schedule.
  
  
• Question: Has a dad missed several meetings or shows up unprepared for meetings?
  
  Answer: If so, the chief should call the dad to check if everything is okay. The dad may just be going through a busy stretch at work. He or his family may be going through a health-related situation. Or the dad may be dealing with marriage-related issues. See if there's anything that you or the tribe can do to help and express how everyone misses seeing him and his son/daughter.
  
  If the dad just says he forgets about his responsibilities, remind him of your tribe's responsibility chart (see above) and how it's important for each dad to spend a few minutes preparing for the meeting.
  
  

• Question: Is meeting attendance low and you feel that your tribe is losing momentum?
  
  Answer: This frequently happens when tribes move from having tribe meetings twice a month to only once a month. I've seen that this duration is just too long for tribes build any momentum. Dads and kids get busy doing other things apart instead of spending time together. Some dads question whether they can meet this level of commitment of meeting twice a month. But I know you can do it! Meeting twice a month is only two hours a month where you are exclusively focused on being with your child at a meeting. Rededicate yourself to the program. Make a big deal of the father-child relationship. Recognize that as in all things, you get out of the Program what you put into the Program. If you put in an effort of 6, you will get a 6 in return. Put in a 10 and you will get out a 10!
  
  
• Question: Are your meetings loud with interruptions from the children?
  
  Answer: A "talking stick" will solve this. Go out in the woods with your child and find a nice sized stick. You could strip it of bark and perhaps decorate it together. At your next meeting, introduce the "talking stick" to your tribe. Explain that this will help everyone be respectful to the speaker. Simply pass the stick around to the father or child who is talking. No other tribe member may talk if they aren't holding the stick.
  
  
• Question: Is your tribe still delivering invitations before every meeting?
  
  Answer: If not, start doing it! The value of making and delivering invitations is not for the recipients, but for the host father and child. The time spent discussing what the invitation should be, shopping for any necessary materials, making the invitations and delivering them together is where the value lies. It's just another hour or two that you get to spend time with your child. Your child will enjoy being with you and enjoy dropping off the invitations for other tribe members. My daughter Ashlyn "Fuzzy Kitty" and I always pick up a milkshake while we deliver invitations. While she may not remember making a specific invitation, the tradition and memories of stopping for a milkshake will likely stay with her for years.
  
  
• Question: Are all members of your tribe actively working on earning feathers for their vests?
  
  Answer: If not, then the Chief should talk about the importance of earning feathers at each meeting. Push the tribe to have everyone earn all their yearly feathers in time for Spring Outing. Every father/child pair who earn all their feathers by Spring Outing will receive an arrowhead for their necklace. If all members of your tribe earn all their feathers in time for Spring Outing, your tribe will be recognized at Spring Outing. If you and your child earn all your feathers all three years by Spring Outing, you will receive a special Eagle Claw for your necklace!
  
  Working to earning feathers is yet another activity that father and child get to do together between meetings. Whether it's working on a craft together, making dinner for mom, or dad helping his son or daughter memorize the Aims and Pledge, this time together will bring the father and child closer.
  
  
• Question: Has your tribe signed up for Spring Outing?
  
  Answer: If not, do it now! You simply cannot miss the highlight of the year! Spring Outing is the crowned jewel of the Y-Guides & Princesses program.
  
  Last year in my daughter's 1st year Princess tribe, we had several dads who were considering dropping out of the program. But all that changed when they attended Spring Outing. The whole experience of Spring Outing: sleeping in cabins, eating in the mess hall with the tribe, doing the activities with their children, and sitting with their child at the special campfire ceremony helped them truly see the impact that the program has on their relationship with their child.
  

I hope you and your child, and your tribe have a great Spring! I look forward in seeing all of you at Spring Outing very soon!