Are You Burning Out?

Kristen and Denise of Homeschool Group Leader recently interviewed me about leader burnout.

They are currently running a series at their blog on burnout with a new topic each Wednesday.

Here is the first portion of the interview:

What a great time we had interviewing author and Homeschool CPA, Carol Topp! She shared a bundle of hand-picked truths from her super-helpful book, Homeschool Co-ops: How to Start Them, Run Them and Not Burn Out. With knowledge and insight, Carol explained the warning signs of leader burn out and how to avoid it.

Do you feel like you might be burning out? Is homeschool group leadership overwhelming you? Have you noticed another leader’s fire seems to be fizzling out? How would you know?

HGL: From your experience, how can a leader know when he or she is burning out?

Carol Topp: It is important to recognize burn-out before it causes damage to you, your family or your homeschool group. Here are some symptoms of burn-out:

* loss of enthusiasm
* negativity
* depression
* health problems
* neglecting your own children
* neglecting your husband
* irritability
* feeling like a failure
* losing joy in serving

If you have 4-5 of any of these symptoms, you are experiencing burn-out.

This simple list can enlighten the path ahead so that leaders can take action and be completely healthy.

Kristen & Denise will make the complete interview available to you as soon as possible. Until then, you can read more of the interview at Homeschool Group Leader blog as they post excerpts from my interview each Wednesday. Soon the complete interview will be available in two reasonably-priced formats—audio cd and word-for-word transcript!

Can’t wait? Need help now?

My book Homeschool Co-ops: How to Start Them, Run Them and Not Burn Out has an entire chapter devoted to burn out.  Actually the whole book offers suggestions on how to delegate and avoid burn out. It is available from Amazon.com.

Read a sample chapter here.

Order here.

Kristen and Denise have a terrific book One By One: The Homeschool Group Leader’s Guide to Motivating Your Members. It is an ebook and available for immediate download.
Click Here!

What to do with a large gift from my co-op?

Hi Carol–your website and book have provided valuable information to our group as we have grown from a medium-sized support group to a large, full-fledged co-op in just three years.  I have had the privilege of leading the group throughout this process, and I am blessed to be a part of such a wonderful group of families.

They are so wonderful, in fact, that my Board of Directors recently took up a collection from our members as a way of presenting me with an end-of-year gift of appreciation.  This was a complete surprise to me, especially when they presented me with a check totaling over $700!

My question to you is in regard to this check.  The Board collected donations from individual members and then wrote me a check on the group account.  I’m unsure of how to deal with this tax-wise.  We are a 501(c)3 with gross receipts under $25,000.  I read on your website the faq about paying an honorarium–is that what a gift of this nature is?  The gift was given with the intent of paying my expenses for our state’s homeschool convention, including the leadership conference.  If I didn’t cash the check and used the funds by using the group’s debit card to pay my hotel expenses, would this alleviate the filing requirements (since the amount would then be under $700), or does the hotel payment constitute income as well?

Thank you for taking the time to answer.  I want to make this as easy as possible for group record keeping, and I’m not sure if this is the correct way to go about it.

Blessings,
Barbie T, Florida

Have trouble motivating members?

Many homeschoool leaders have trouble motivating their members to attend events, pitch in and help lead activities or step up to leadership roles.

How can you motivate members?

Kristen & Denise of Homeschool Group Leader blog have written an ebook, One by One: The Homeschool Group Leader’s Guide to Motivating Your Members.

Order Here!

Homeschool group leaders often ask, “How we can we motivate our members to get more involved?” and worry about getting more members to volunteer and share in the workload. Veteran homeschool leaders, Kristen Fagala and Denise Hyde of Homeschool Group Leader, take that question head-on in their idea-packed e-guide, One By One: The Homeschool Group Leader’s Guide to Motivating Your Members. With clear illustrations and timeless principles pulled directly from Scripture, this 80 plus-page e-guide lays out a feast of practical how-to’s for leaders to apply right now.

There are no cookie-cutter members, therefore there is no cookie-cutter way of motivating each one. The good news is that there are tried-and-true motivators that can be applied easily and successfully to each unique situation and member. Whether leaders live in the high desert or in the bustling city, they can motivate each and every member of their group from apathy to action with this e-guide for leadership success. Order your copy of One By One today and start gaining confidence, happy volunteers, and active members.

I was able to get a preview copy and here’s what I think about the book:

One by One is a book that every homeschool leader needs, but does not realize the need until it is too late!  Every leader has difficulty motivating members or getting volunteers, but they only ask for help when it’s too late and they are tired, frustrated and want to quit!  Instead, leaders should read Kristen and Denise’s very practical and encouraging book.

Inside you will find the three secrets to successfully motivating every member and then practical, real-life ways to apply those skills to everyone from moms to teenagers. I especially appreciated the true stories of how Kristen & Denise implemented everything they suggest.  They know their stuff and have a heart to share what they know with others. Take some of the advice, share it with your fellow leaders, apply it and you will find happier members, a more relaxed leader and a successful group!

Sound like something that you could use?  Well, Kristen & Denise are offering a great deal on their ebook.

It is available for three days (Nov 25-27 includes Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday) for the sale price of $19,

then $24 for the next three days (Nov 28-30).

After the six days, starting December 1st, the e-book will be available at it’s regular price of $29.

Order Here!

Carol Topp, CPA

Economy drives more parents to homeschool

A homeschool co-op in South Carolina, has grown to 345 students from a small home-based study group!  Wow!

It is a great story and pretty familiar to me. I have heard of a lot of growth in homeschool co-ops lately.  My own homeschool co-op had a waiting list of 25 families this year. We couldn’t accommodate them all, so we helped them start a new co-op. I gave them a copy of  Homeschool Co-ops: How to Start Them, Run Them and Not Burn Out and my ebook Money Management for Homeschool Organizations. They are now going strong with 28 families their first year!

From the Greenville (SC) News online:

Upstate Homeschool Co-op sees increase in students

With 345 students enrolled this school year, the Upstate Homeschool Co-op has seen its numbers swell dramatically since it first began as a small study group in Suzanne Brown’s Taylors home for her three oldest children.

Now, the co-op, which meets twice a week at Taylors First Baptist Church and offers enrichment and academic classes to students 4K-12, is seeing longer waiting lists and has doubled its high school courses to meet a growing demand as the economic recession continues to tighten household finances and more parents become dissatisfied with public school education.

I bet they are a blessing to many homeschool families, but their leaders may also suffer from growing pains!  I emailed their director, Suzanne Brown to tell her about HomeschoolCPA, its Leader Tools and my newly launched  ebooks and audios. She may need some help to manage a group of that size! You might too!

Carol Topp, CPA

Homeschool Leader, Do You Need Help?

Off to Home Educators Assoc of Virginia (HEAV) Convention

For the next few days I will be at the Home Educators Assoc of Virginia (HEAV) Convention in Richmond, VA.

They have a pretty busy schedule for me. I’ll be giving workshops on:

• Budget Is a Dirty Word: Money Management for Those Who Hate to Manage Money
• Wanna Be a WAHM? The Pitfalls and Possibilities of Being a Work at Home Mom
• Small Business for Teenagers
• Is Your Homeschool Group Ready for the Next Step? Becoming a 501c3 Tax-Exempt Organization
• How to Start and Manage a Homeschool Organization: Boards, Budgets, and Bylaws

(see full descriptions of the workshops here and get the handouts here)

I’ll also be attending the homeschool leaders lunch and I am serving on a Q&A panel for leaders. I hope to meet some of you.

If you’ll be at HEAV, come by my booth #237 or to a workshop and say hello!

Carol Topp, CPA

Ten Ways to Torture a Tired Leader

My friends Kristen and Denise of Homeschool Group Leader have a sense of humor.

You have to be able to laugh at human weaknesses if you are a homeschool leader.

Here are their 10 Ways to Torture a Tired Leader:

1. Don’t Listen ~ Talk all during the announcements, the meeting discussions and while your leader shares important information.
2. Be Clueless ~ Ask your leader repeated questions about the information that you didn’t just listen to. Send them one-line questions in individual emails spread out over time.
3. Fill Other Members’ E-mail In Boxes ~ Send your repeated questions and comments to everyone on the list, filling all in-boxes, instead of only the in-box of the leader to whom you’re writing.
4. Quit at the Last Second ~ Volunteer to help with, or better yet–lead–an activity, then back out at the very end, leaving it all for the leader to complete.
5. Gossip ~ Discuss the leader’s clothes, kids, home life, homeschool, and leadership style –openly and with great fervor.
6. Complain ~ Never be happy with the place, the decisions, the agenda, the trips, the teachers, or the way the leader looks at you.
7. Show Up Late ~ Choose carefully the events that need to start at a specific time and strategically and systematically show up 15 or 30 minutes late.
8. Never Help Clean Up ~ Don’t stay after any event and help clean up. After all, isn’t that what the leader is there for??
9. Don’t Watch Your Kids ~ Let them run wild or talk while someone else is talking. Then get offended when someone asks them to be quiet or to sit down.
10. Be Demanding ~ Always express your opinion as fact. Be sure you speak every time someone else does, making sure that your frustrations and wants are very clear each time.

Recognize anyone?  Maybe you at times? Some of these are too close to the truth to be truly funny!

Carol Topp, CPA

Observations from the Midwest Homeschool Convention

On April 16-18, 2009 , I attended the Midwest Homeschool Convention here in my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.

I did two workshops, one on Homeschool Co-ops: How to Start Them, Run Them and Not Burn Out (named after my book of the same title) and the other on Micro Business for Teenagers (my upcoming book).

Here are a few of my observations:

Homeschool leaders from across the country all have similar problems:

• No one wants to work or join the board
• Older, experienced hoemschool mothes are not coming to meetings
• There is a need for a clear vision and purpose. Leaders want to be everything to everyone.
• Policies and bylaws are sorely needed to elect new board members, deal with conflict, and to prevent burnout

Meeting and talking to attorney David Gibbs of the Homeschool Legal Advantage was a highlight.  We look forward to a wonderful working partnership helping homeschool organizations. Individual families have long had access to legal advice, but now there is a need for homeschool groups to have access to legal advice also.

Some homeschool leaders lack business sense. I heard about fund raising disasters, mistakes with charging fees and offering discounts, etc.

Meeting some of my virtual friends in person was fun.  And I’m so sorry that I missed some of you! I was stuck in my booth (I shared a booth with Mary Hood, the Relaxed Homeschooler) and didn’t get out much.

Here were some of the questions that were asked during the Homeschool Co-ops workshop:

• What does your co-op charge? Is it by student or by family?
• How often does your co-op meet? How long each time?
• Do you interview potential members?
• How do we ensure everyone is like minded?
• How can we encourage members to help out more?
• Do you group grades/ages in your co-op?
• What classes do you offer?
• Ho do you “fire” a volunteer?
• How do you elect a new baord?
• Can a co-op keep the same director/leader forever?
• Why collect a registration fee?
• Where do you meet for co-op classes?
• What is a typical rental fee?

Aren’t those great questions? I’ll work on answering them on this blog in the future.

I will also be presenting this workshop and several others at the Home Educators Association of Virginia convention  June 11-13.  Stop by my booth and say hello if you attend the convention!

Carol Topp, CPA

Government Intrusion and 501c3 Tax Exempt Status

Michele in Colorado e-mailed me with an excellent question on government intrusion into 501c3 organizations:

Hi Carol,

I am part of a homeschool group in Canon City, CO.  We are trying to figure out what we are to do financially next year.  We do not have a non -profit status and most people in our group do not want to organize that much.  Some of the people in our group have had some experiences with 5013C status that the government has made them open their group up to individuals that they would not normally allow in their group because they are a government entity (like permitting someone not in our faith to teach a class).

Thank you so much for your help to the homeschool community and for whatever answers you can give us.

Sincerely,
Michelle P

Michelle,
Good for you in wanting to make sure that you are doing things properly in your homeschool group.

Your people are mistaken. Receiving 501c3 tax exempt status does NOT make your organization a government entity; it simply means that you are exempt from paying income tax on your profit and donors can make tax-deductible contributions.  It’s a tax status.  501c3 status does NOT mean you  must open up your group. No way!  We still have religious freedom in American and freedom to assemble.  Someone is greatly misinformed.  You are certainly free to choose your members and choose who teaches a class. Does a Catholic school have to allow non-Catholics teach their classes?  Of course not!

The Boy Scouts won a very important Supreme Court case in 2000 allowing them to exclude homos*xual men from being Boy Scout leaders. Read about it here. Your group is free to exclude certain people from membership. It’s a basic American right called freedom of assembly.

God Bless America!

Carol Topp, CPA

A Homeschool Leader Gathering

Do you ever wish that you could gather with other homeschool leaders just to receive encouragement, share resources or bend someone’s ear?

Last month, 12 homeschool leaders from seven different homeschool groups gathered on a cold winter night in Cincinnati, Ohio just to meet and support each other.

We had coffee, cookies and laughed, gently reproved and empathized with other leaders.

We came from a diverse background.  Some were experienced homeschoolers-one with 15 years of leadership under her belt! Others had only been leading their group for two weeks! We had unschoolers, classical schoolers, virtual schoolers and traditional homeschoolers (whatever that means!)

After we exchanged names and information on our groups, we listed what challenges we face as homeschool leaders.  Here’s what the leaders listed:

Any of these sound familiar? I think these are common problems.  Sometimes the other leaders had helpful answers and suggestions; sometimes they just offered sympathy and encouragement. Everyone needs someone who can say, “I understand.”

I shared some resources including:

• My website, HomeschoolCPA.com, for articles and ebooks on running a homeschool organization

• My book, Homeschool Co-ops: How to Start Them, Run Them and Not Burn Out

• The Old Schoolhouse magazine’s Homeschool Leader Yahoo group, a wonderful place for homeschool leaders to pose questions and get answers from leaders across the country

• Homeschool Group Leader blog, run by my cyber friends, Kristen and Denise, full of tips, answers and encouragement.

I hope you find these resources helpful too.

Carol Topp, CPA

HomeschoolCPA.com

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