Hey girls (and Chrispy) I was wondering how you felt about your FRG? Are they involved in your unit or are they non existent? I never got to experience the true FRG experience so I was curious as to what yours did for you and what did you wish they did? 

Please dont let others influence you about your FRG, go for yourself and make your own mind about how you feel. I was very lucky while at Lewis to have a very wonderful and involved FRG, and no drama was every tolerated.

Here at Sill, I happen to be the FRG leader for our battalion and I can honestly say, I wouldn't tolerate any drama going on. Thankfully, there hasn't been any to speak of, and I think it makes it more enjoyable for the families that do come to the meetings and get involved with volunteering. I have one wife who flat out refuses to give us a shot because she was burned so badly by her last FRG (not at Sill) and it truly makes me sad, but I of course dont hold it against her.

As anything, there is good and bad but the best way to find out for yourself is to go to at least one meeting and give it a shot :) 

Hope that didn't sound preachy, I apologize if it came across that way 

I've only been to one FRG thing. more than a year ago. They seemed nice but one of the purposes of the meeting was to come up with ideas of things to do and um no one had any ideas that panned out, and they don't know how to use email... or maybe they just don't have mine. If you like to go to organized activities then become friends with your FRG leader.

Oh I did go to a unit picnic too, and oh my gosh it was boring.

I do know that with some FRGs you will want to be involved during deployments so you can know what's going on when you're out of contact with your DH 

I'm not going to be influenced by someone else's opinion of the FRG. My husband's units FRG is VERY different from other units because he's WTB so no one is redeploying.

It was more of a discussion topic that I'd like to know what everyones FRG was like and what it meant to them. And what did they do with their FRGs. 

Ours was great for a while. Now its non existant...what's even worse is I'm a poc and I haven't heard a thing from them since everyone got back from deployment. 

OnARoll. Oh man awkward silence when they asked for ideas? That's the worst! 

I tried helping my frg leader but she never contacted me. They never email or anything. Since we can't get moved anymore to the wtb and we are getting medically retired they don't care about us anymore. 

My first FRG was amazing. We had a core group of maybe 8-10 people who came to everything. We all could trust and depend on each other and I am still friends with most of them today. There was no drama or gossip. My second one...not so much. So I stopped going. It's kind of impossible for the unit my husband is with now to have a local FRG because they are overseas and the spouses are spread out everywhere. Supposedly we have an online FRG but the website hasn't been updated for months. So yes, don't judge on anyone else's experience. Go to a few meetings and find out for yourself. If you go and it's drama and gossip, you don't have to get involved or go back. 

We are in a non deploying unit here, so we try and do something a bit different each month. Our next meeting is being held at Laugh Out Loud (think Chucky Cheese type place) so the kids will be able to have fun. Along with monthly meetings, we do a quarterly coffee with the brigade commanders wife and those are always a good time. Lets people get to know each other away from the unit.

I will say, email is the best way for me to reach people, as many of my spouses work and aren't home to get calls. My key caller DOES make the calls a week prior to the meeting, but I follow up with an email that their soldier provided us with during in-process. I have a worksheet type thing that was passed to me when our former FRG leader moved and it's on file in my book. It has their number, address (for newsletter), names and ages of kids, their interests, etc. 

Our FRG goes out. We've been to eat/cocktails, a chocolate tasting, etc. We do mot do stuffy meetings. Everyone i super sweet. I'm a key caller and I must say I've never been involved with such an awesome group before. 

Oh man awkward silence when they asked for ideas? That's the worst! 
yeah. its been quite a while though so maybe i should give them another chance.
it was super awkward lol. 

My first FRG at Fort Carson (where we PCS'd from a year and a half ago) was amazing. I just lucked out and ended up meeting 8 or so women who I really clicked with and we all hung out all the time, during and after deployments. Here, the FRG was... not welcoming to me. Besides some major, major drama that got out of control, I never felt a part of it because I was the only one without three kids (we just have a dog!)... but at least I've heard the drama has stopped once we got a new FRG leader.

Just make your own decision about your FRG - go a few times, go to some of the functions, give it a shot. It's always worth it to make a few friends - especially if a deployment is coming up - but if it isn't your cup of tea, then don't worry about it! As long as you have contact information, you'll be kept in the loop about important stuff. 

Me and a few people didnt like ours. they werent involved and after my husband was already been deployed 8 months is when they decided to contact me when my husband continiuosly gave them my info. Only went to 2 meetings the first all they talked about was how sex deprived they were. In my opinion I could care less. its the life you chose so deal with it or get out of it. The only other meeting was 2 weeks before my husband came home. Im supposidly on the contact list but get no emails still. Im over it. I hope yours is better.