Family Nights

[sarahlovesav 0]

What we do in my community are a "family night" each month or every couple of months. We like to include our resident's family members in a special activity. Say, a party or BBQ in the summer. What we did for Thanksgiving is had a Thanksgiving dinner the week before the holiday for our resident's family to join. We had prob close to 300 people show up- it was huge!

 

For Christmas I had my husband get together a brass quintet from his school and come perform. We had a huge "open house" for the resident's family and friends to come- we rented chairs and set them up all over our community and let people come in and out and enjoy refreshments/punch. It was a huge hit!!!!!

[doodlebug 0]

We have the same problem, getting families involved in family nights and family council meetings. Do you all have any trouble getting families to attend family council meetings? We host a meeting quarterly, but have trouble getting families to participate. We offer free food - but that doesn't seem to be enough to pull the families in. We have tried morning, afternoon and evening meetings as well. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Does anyone else find it difficult to find topics and speakers for these meetings?

 

Thanks,

Deana

[BillinDayton 0]

As an entertainer, I've been hired for many "Family Nights" over the years. I'm not involved in the planning at all on these events, but I have noticed a trend that seems to be very consistent...

 

The Communities that hold these events on a regular basis get a much much better turnout than the facilities that hold one "every now and then." In a way, it reminds me of the private clubs that offer live music every couple months and then wonder why they have low turnouts.

 

My Marketing experience tells me its about creating habits with your family members. If you have an event on a consistent time of the month for a extended period of time, I think you'll see good attendance.

 

Good luck!

[catlover30 0]

We have the same problem, getting families involved in family nights and family council meetings. Do you all have any trouble getting families to attend family council meetings? We host a meeting quarterly, but have trouble getting families to participate. We offer free food - but that doesn't seem to be enough to pull the families in. We have tried morning, afternoon and evening meetings as well. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Does anyone else find it difficult to find topics and speakers for these meetings?

 

Thanks,

Deana

 

 

I agree with the person who commented after you if you have it on a regular basis like lets say the 3rd or 1st Saturday of the month families will know not to make plans that day and will make time available to come to your gatherings... and you have to keep on going

 

 

*****one thing you might want to try is have family day with a comment/ suggestions/questions/concern box out with paper and pencils for families to fill out (helps with the shy ones or ones who are afraid to speak thinking you'll hold a grudge against them) and instead of having a whole hour be about business and speaking about problems in the beginning of every family day that you have pull out 2-3 comments/suggestions/questions/concerns and open the floor to anyone for the first 15-30 minutes then from there let the games and good times roll by having a performer and family activities that most can participate it to do and maybe even ice cream! That way they leave in a happy mood! But keep it consistent and you'll have more and more people coming as time goes by! And if you have a newsletter that you pass out let the families know what you went over and how much fun family day was and how you hope to see them there next time and that there comments/ suggestions/questions/concerns are always welcomed! even post some pictures so they can see all the fun they missed out on! Good Luck!