Homeschool Group Logistics – Tips for Creating Your Leadership Team

Today let’s chat about setting up your leadership team for your local homeschool group or co-op.

Before you set up anything else, in my opinion, the leadership team is the most important. These will be the people that you will serve with over the next school year, so choose wisely. Wink.

Seriously, it is easy to choose your friends but look for people with gifts that bring value to what you want to cultivate also. It’s essential to balance out personalities, and it will be hard to lead well if each of you has the same personality type. It is also important that you CAN work well together, the worst thing that can get in the way and stifle the success of the group is if your leadership team can’t get along or doesn’t work well together.

For Christian Leadership in ANY capacity that is precisely what Satan wants to do, divide and conquer. Let’s face it; homeschool groups bring people together. Our groups create friendships, mentorships, and so much more! God is at work when you allow your leadership skills and efforts to work as a tool for HIM. So always be aware that your team is a target. It is important to pray over your team, and your team is in constant prayer over your members to safeguard your group as much as possible. Don’t forget your homeschool group is a ministry.

Over the years my leadership team has changed, people move away, some people serve for a year or more than take time off, and different seasons bring different volunteers. Just as the leadership team has evolved, my leadership style has as well. In past years I prayed for God to send me the right people and I indeed led my leadership team with my heart. But good leadership also requires organization, regulation, and structure.

This year I decided to implement a leadership contract of sorts finally. A clear contract is important not only to protect the structure of your group but any liability issues as well. It also puts on paper your expectations of conduct and responsibilities. As I prayed over and began compiling what items I thought would be essential to agree to as a member of leadership for my particular homeschool group, it became more evident to me that I needed this all along.

It’s hard to separate friendship and leadership, even if you are friends with your leadership team they represent your branding, your team, and they are in fact role models to your group. I have dealt with unfortunate situations in the past that I believe would have been avoided had I used an agreement of some sort with my leadership team. Even more so it is important to have an agreement for your leadership team members if you do not know them personally well.

So I designed an “Agreement to Service” for our leadership team, and it is not only protecting you and your group but your leadership members as well. You are designing guidelines for you and them.

Also, consider, how many people do you need on your leadership team? We have always had a good sized group of active members and many events. So I have found a team of 3, including myself has worked exceptionally well.

Here are some tips & ideas for you to implement your own “Agreement to Service” Contract

Timeframe – How long of a term do you plan to allow them to serve? How long will they be able to commit? Generally, one homeschool year is fair, then allow them and yourself to re-evaluate if that worked out. Or maybe you want to give others a chance to serve.

Conduct – Do you expect them to conduct themselves in a manner that aligns with biblical principles? Sure we are all sinners, but I want to work alongside women that love the Lord and know they want to represent him well no matter what atmosphere they are in and glorify HIM in all they do.

Leadership – I included in our service agreement that our leaders be in constant prayer over our events, our members, and our ability to lead well. That they utilize their God-given gifts to the best of their ability. That we serve others well + lead well.

Women – I want to foster mentorship between our moms in the group. I do expect my leadership team to make other moms comfortable, reach out to every mom that may be new or feeling awkward, and work at creating an environment that isn’t cliquish or gossipy. We can do better than that as women of God. We should continuously be encouraging one another and looking for opportunities to pray or help a fellow momma!

General – The obvious requirements, be involved in planning, attend events, and promote teamwork.

Here is a FREE Download to the Service Agreement I use, and feel free to copy the parts you like and use while creating a contract for your volunteers.

My expectations are set high, but I think that if you are leading a Christian Homeschool Group, there should be a level of responsibility to Glorify HIM in ALL we do!

Reach out to me if you have ANY questions, or let me know what types of things you add to your agreement here in the comments. I would love to know!