By Todd Milner, Board Member/Director of Campus Development for Father’s Club
The 2021/2022 school year is rapidly coming to a close. What an awesome school year for Father’s Club after being sidelined for the past couple years! Dads from all the chapters enjoyed and supported so many events that are too numerous to list. New chapters joined, and many new dads stepped up and showed up!
Here are just some of the highlights from this school year:
- We welcomed 5 new chapters or high schools!
- We locked arms & hosted over 15 Fist Bumps 4 Food welcoming students back to school!
- We supported KC Relays in April with dads running events and concessions stands!
- Scotch & Scissors March Madness watch party!
- Weekly & monthly coffee gatherings at many chapters!
- Father’s Club New Year’s Eve party!
- Multiple Chicken N Pickle gatherings for dads & their families!
- Father’s Club Board & Leadership retreat!
- Supported the “Go The Distance” event!
- BVHS Band Appreciation event!
- SMS Spring Campus Clean Up Day!
It’s an understatement to say that Dads were engaged, showed up and created so many simple ways for other dads to be intentional with the kids, each other, and the communities in which they serve.
Summer Plans
As we look forward to a summer full of vacations, time with family & friends, back-yard BBQs, baseball games, etc. Father’s Club will be hosting several social events for dads to connect. The board continues to meet monthly, working hard on a number of projects and exciting announcements we will be sharing late summer/early fall!
Continue to check the online calendar and watch for social media posts announcing all the summer events.
Interested in Starting a Chapter?
If you’re wondering what it takes to start a Father’s Club chapter at your school, let’s start by talking about our Why.
Like all things, the key to the Father’s Club is to not overthink things and to keep it simple. When the Father’s Club began in 2018, the mission was clear and focused around getting busy dads to be more engaged and intentional with their kiddos and in their schools.
Dads traditionally are busy with work, family, activities, life in general, and find their tank empty each night and by the end of the week. Often, men wait for their significant others to lean in and tell them when to #ShowUp. We lacked intentionality. We lacked leadership in our schools and communities. Many times, we let others fill the void as we’re too busy!
Like our partners at F3 say, “We were suffering from Sad Clown Syndrome.” We go to work, come home, get sucked into our electronic devices, hope we did our best to provide for our family, participate in our kids’ activities, and try to go on a vacation each year. Then we rinse and repeat this course of action day in and day out, week in and week out until our tank is empty.
While we are more connected than ever before in history, we still feel more disconnected than ever before. Do you ever ask yourself why? What can I do to change this cycle?
The Father’s Club was born out of dads who are called to be leaders at home, at work and in their communities to be more engaged with their kids and their schools. In the battle for our time and talents, Father’s Club believes dads are stronger together and we help men understand they are not alone in the battles we face day in and day out.
Here are the simple steps in the process to get a Father’s Club Chapter kicked off.
1. Identify a small group of men in your school community who have shared vision and desire to live life together in community with one another. We cannot overemphasize the importance of this step. The group may or may not exist today. But finding likeminded men with a shared vision is mission critical. A Father’s Club Chapter’s success is dependent on a group of men committed to mission, purpose, and authenticity with one another.
2. Next, you need to engage with the administration at your school. Cast your vision to the principal and other members of the administration. These individuals are key stakeholders in the mission and allowing them to provide input and feedback is also mission critical. Our experience tells us that most administrators are more than excited to share in the Father’s Club vision and are longing for help and support from the dads in their school community.
3. Contact the development team at the Father’s Club. Visit our website (fathersclub.org), Click on CONTACT. Send us an email. Our development team will connect with you directly and provide you with the entire playbook for a successful Father’s Club Chapter Launch.
4. Schedule your Chapter Launch Meeting.
5. Solidify a steering committee that will carry out the Father’s Club Mission at your school.
6. Keep it Simple. Select a few simple things you can do for kids, dads, and your school community. Whatever, those few things are done with excellence, love & humility. As you grow and expand your reach amongst the community you can add more engagement opportunities
Every kid matters. Every Dad matters. Every school community matters. Don’t wait. Don’t overthink it. When you lock arms with another dad and make the decision to lean in together, amazing things will happen in your family, in your life and within your school.
If this mission hits home with you, you love your kids and you have a passion to serve others, you’re a perfect fit to be part of one of our Father’s Club Chapters throughout the metro area. All it takes is that first step, and we are here for you when you decide to take it.
Special thanks to Randy Bratton, Todd Milner, Kevin Easterday and John Hinman on our growth and development team. They’ve been successful meeting with multiple principals and leaders at schools. We’ve brought on more schools this year including a key milestone involving crossing the state line into Missouri. We have Lee’s Summit schools coming on board. Kudos to Brett Potts who went from Blue Valley West over to Lee’s Summit and made introductions in that school system for us. We have about 20 high schools involved in The Father’s Club at this point with more to come.
