our FRG is in sorry shape, and most of our soldier's spouses are afraid to talk to me when I ask them what they would like to see from the FRG, so I was wondering if anyone here was a member of an FRG, and what sort of things does your FRG do that are positive, and what do you feel they do that is negative, and what sort of things you would like to see from an FRG....? With Deployment just about a month away we need to get it in working order......

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What is a FRG?

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I was the head of hubby's FRG for about 18 months. This was two years ago (that it ended). At that time, I was able to do a bunch of positive things for families...a luncheon for families with a bounce house, dunk tank, etc. so that families could gather with fun things around and had the official FRG officer there to help answer questions. I got heavily engrained with the other unit FRG around our post to try and get more "friendly" so that we could work together when possible. My husband changed units and his new one does not have a FRG.

Now that your deployment is so close, I am sure that things are stressful for both families and soldiers. I don't think I am much help to you, I am sorry! Please keep us informed.

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Family Readiness Group

In reference to soldiers and their families. This group helps when soldiers are deployed, or getting ready to deploy.

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I am in the process of taking over DH's FRG, he is the Troop Commander and most of the family members seem to be afraid of dealing with me.....I am trying to convince the 1st Sgt's wife to come on board as a co-leader so maybe they will be more comfortable. I am trying to prepare a "family fun day" and we are trying to get together a family movie night once a month while the Troops are deployed, etc.
Do you have any advice on how to encourage people to volunteer?

Any insight you have would be so greatly appreciated......I know how hard deployements are and many of our Troopers are young and their families have not been through a deployment before I want to make things as easy and smooth as I possibly can

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"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

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I was DH FRG leader for many years, and what I learned if there are a lot of people that don't want to participate in the FRG. Others feel that the FRG only starts getting active right before a deployment. One thing I learned is getting them when they are NEW to the unit. Before they make any friends...lol Plus it doesn't help when you are an officers wife dealing with enlisted wife or vise versa, best thing you can do is get the 1st SGT wife to help out.

I always felt we have better participation when we were doing stuff for the kids. Good luck, I'm glad I will NEVER have to do that again! Its one of those thankless jobs!

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I would definately get the 1st Sgt's wife on board, it will help encourage others to join in. A family night once a month would be fantastic! Contact the branch of FRG (if you are army, contact the army frg) and they will have things to help get you going. My hubby is National Guard and their official FRG office was able to help me in getting gift certificates for give aways, etc. I knew a family with a bounce house so that is how I was able to get one to our events. Can you get a "shopping afternoon" together to care for the children while the parents might go Christmas shopping? This might be helpful if the wives don't have any family or close friends close by. I know this can be seen as a non-priority by some...but sometimes a mom needs time ot herself so that she can be strong for the kids.

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We were Navy, but basically had the same type group. Our family support group met every month when there were no deployments, when there were deployments there were alot of other acitivites planned. One deployment which only lasted 2 months we planned a swimming party for the kids, then for an adult night we all went to the movies to see Titanic together, hired some babysitters to sit at one or two peoples houses, then the kids went there. A Pampered Chef party was scheduled, a Tupperware party was scheduled, a lingerie party was scheduled. Some people went to everything, some came to none, some just came to a couple of things. The best thing that happened to me out of that group was that I met 3 other women with kids and the 4 of us really hit it off, enough so that we had slumber parties where the 4 of us got us and our kids together rented movies and spent the night at each others houses. For the early movies we rent something for the kids, the later it got we switched to movies that we knew our husbands wouldn't want to see. We got an excercise group going the four of us would meet at the park 3-4 times a week and walk, while the kids played on the playground. Then we each would cook dinner for the other 3 and the kids one night a week and rotate houses. We had alot of fun, none of us worked at the time, so it was good for adult conversation, plus if there was an emergency everyone was there to help each other out. When someone had to take one kid to the emergency room one of us was there to babysit other kids. When my dad died and we got home from the funeral and they had to deploy the next day and someone had broken into our house while we were on funeral leave, these great group of 3 friends, each decided they were going to spend a night at my house and rotated so that me and my two kids weren't alone for a few days. This had to be best duty station we had the entire time DH was in the Navy. Then we had other groups at different commands that mostly did things when the ships were in things like cookouts for the whole family, Easter Egg hunts, that type thing. Same thing with shore duty, it was more like family type stuff that was planned. It just depends on the command. My DD is 22 and married to someone in the Navy, stationed in WA state and he has been deployed to Japan for 3 months, and they had absolutely NO family support at all for the entire deployment and this was after the command talked about how they would be doing this and that for the families, then doing absolutely nothing.

I joined the FRG in my son's battalion while he was deployed.One of the members set up a website,and many of us are still close because of that,even though homecoming was last November.
We had a Christmas party,we called hasbro,fisher price,mattel,and they sent us toys,in all age ranges.Last year they sent us more,even though the families were reunited.All the food was donated by nearby businesses,and a lot of not so near businesses.You have to make all requests on letterhead of the FRG.THough we all worked together,each unit of the battallion had an FRG leader.
There was a girl's night out,once a month or so.We had fundraisers,as each FRG needs a bank account for funds to do things.We have had baby showers.Both during deployment and after.We have had our first home from deployment baby,and there are several more on the way,and we still do baby showers.
We had a welcome home party in February of this year.Once again,everything was donated.
Don't be afraid to ask any business for donations.They are all willing to help the deployed soldiers,and thier families.
We got donations of things to send to them too.Anything to keep moral up.Though we bought them at the beginning of the deployment,when they were all starting to feel down,we sent a flock of flamingos over,and they started popping up here and there,and a few were abducted.
There is probably a ton of things that I have left out.If there is anything else I can help with,let me know.
I came back to add,you can send all of the families letters or post cards,and they will pay the postage at the base.You can also mail packages from the base at no cost to you.

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I came back to mention a website. It looks like others have done the same thing. There should be a website for the post that the unit is deplyed from. You might be able to get your FRG on there.

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If you use the State/federal FRG site,if there is one,there are a lot of problems with what you are allowed to use for content.pictires.messages,pictures where you can see the soldiers name tag,have to be approved,and you can sometimes be told to remove it.If it is a private site(always best to let just your battalion families join)You can do a lot more with it.Ours had/has a wivies only forum
IF you decide to have a seperate forum,always keep OPSEC in mind,so that our soldiers are kept safe.

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I really appreciate all the responses......Thank You!

We are in the process of setting up a website in conjunction with the Squadron on AKO. We are not allowed to ask for donations for ourselves or our FRG here. I find it amazing that every post and Regiment have their own regulations on how to run an FRG. It is very frustrating, because there are things that we have done in the past that we can no longer do. I just hope that I'm strong enough to carry so many through a deployment, when I'm scared to death of DH going back (He was very seriously injured last time, so I'm very scared)

Thanks so much!

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"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O