Interested Mothers' Workshop
from LEAVEN, November-December
1992, p. 92.
by Joyce Bussell Jensen Beach,
Florida, USA
When I first became a Leader,
I thought an Applicant was a mother who was "hand-picked" by Leaders
in her Group. In my zeal to recruit new Leaders, I overwhelmed two Applicants
and completely missed seeing the potential of other mothers. I am grateful
that these women have remained my friends and still have a special place
in their hearts for La Leche League, but I realize that I was trying
to decide for them, rather than giving them room to explore the possibilities
of leadership and decide for themselves.
Iris Merryweather, one of
Florida's past Associate Coordinators of Leader Accreditation, gave
me a suggestion that has had exciting results. It is called an "Interested
Mothers' Workshop." Leaders can develop outlines or write to the Coordinator
of Leader Accreditation for ideas.
In three years, we have
held four workshops with an average attendance of five mothers. Our
Group, which once had a lone Leader, now has four Leaders and two Leader
Applicants. Seven women have become Leader Applicants after attending
workshops. Over the years, we have adjusted our presentation to fit
the needs of participants. We began holding our workshops at the playground
in an effort to accommodate busy toddlers. As the Florida summer got
hotter, we had fewer people attending, so we decided to try the church
room we used for regular meetings. Attendance increased.
At first, we invited the
mothers we thought would be interested by phone or postcard. We found
this was time-consuming and awkward. Some of the women in our Group
were upset when they discovered they hadn't been included in this special
meeting. Now, we hold an Interested Mothers' Workshop at least once
a year during one of our Evaluation Meetings. We type a notice at the
beginning of the year, with the workshop included on the schedule of
enrichment topics, and distribute it to all the mothers at each meeting.
We became comfortable with this general invitation when we realized
that the information benefits all of us. Anyone interested in breastfeeding
and La Leche League profits from knowing how Leaders help mothers and
what the accreditation process involves. The mothers who attend also
enjoy our discussion of La Leche League philosophy and usually go on
to read more about it from selections in the Group library.
We do not bring Application
Packets to the Interested Mothers' Workshop. Instead, we hand out "Becoming
a La Leche League Leader" (No. 4) to everyone who attends. We are sure
to say that anyone who is interested in leadership needs to arrange
to meet individually with a Leader to talk in more detail about La Leche
League philosophy and the responsibilities of a La Leche League Leader.
Originally, we presented
the Interested Mothers' Workshop in two sessions. Because we experienced
very low attendance for the second, we decided to reduce our outline
so it can be covered in one meeting. We present four topics: each takes
15 to 20 minutes, and then we have questions and answers. The topics
include:
* La Leche League philosophy:
explore the concepts
* A Leader's responsibilities: which are basic, which optional
* Why become an LLL Leader: what Leaders enjoy most, making a difference,
learning and practicing new skills, friendship
* The La Leche League Leader's resources: "the goodies beside the Leader's
telephone," La Leche League's support structure.
This article was originally
published in Florida's "Baby Beams."
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:32:11 UTC 2007.
