family meeting : free printable

Through the years, we have sporadically held a family meeting on Sunday evenings.  With a new school year beginning and with it, all the craziness of the hockey season, homework, and work for me I am hoping to get back to this tradition on a more consistent basis.

I made a printable using adorable frames created by Barb at Second Chance to Dream {you can see her original Summer Goal Setting printable here}.  Thanks so much, Barb for allowing me to share my printable!

You can download your own with the Box link at the bottom of this post.

Here's how we use it.  

1. Roles  Each person chooses a role for the meeting

     Encourager: is the supportive voice to make sure we all remain encouraging

     Note Recorder: records the info on the laminated agenda sheet with a wet erase marker.  This gets

        hung in our kitchen for the week.  The recorder may also be asked to record other notes and 

        tasks if needed.

     Menu Chalker: chalks the dinners for the week on our menu chalkboard

     Agenda Tracker: keeps us moving through the agenda and on track with our time.  We try to keep 

        our meetings to around 15 minutes.

     Reader: reads the calendar and the info from the previous week's agenda.

        We are a family of 5 so this gives everyone a role, but you can adjust them to fit your family.

2.  The Week Ahead  

     Calendar: We begin our meetings by looking at the calendar for the week, and figuring out which 

        parent is taking which child to their events.  We cross check our calendars (iCals) with the large 

        family paper calendar and make sure everything lines up.  We make note of any special to dos 

        associated with the calendar.

     Menu: Knowing the calendar helps us figure out what meals will look like for the week: when do 

        we need to use the crock pot or grab take out or have a quick-cooking meal.  Everyone offers up 

        suggestions for a meal they would like and the menu board gets filled out along with the initial  

        of the child who will help cook that night.

     Connection: We plan for a family connection time: family movie night, game night, knee hockey 

        game, whatever.  This is a time we schedule for the whole family to get together for an hour or 

        2 each week.  We note it on the agenda and add it to the calendar.

     Other: Any other things that need to be discussed.  We hang a sheet of notebook paper near the 

        agenda for anyone to write down anything that might need to be discussed at the family meeting.

3.  Highs and Lows We discuss what worked this week and what didn't.  These can be family related 

        (like calm discussions or hectic mornings), or personal (like studying and earning an A or not 

        getting enough exercise). We try to focus on the positives (here's where that encourager role 

        comes in) and then make a plan for what needs to be worked on as a family (like cleaning up our 

        messes).

4.  Goals Each person sets a goal for the week which gets recorded.  Throughout the week we check 

        in on each other (ok, mostly I check in on them) to see how they are doing with their goal.  

And that's it!  

Here's a link to the Family Meeting Agenda pdf