I was wondering if any of you wonderful moms here on AFC belong to MOPS (mothers of preschoolers). I was thinking about starting a MOPS group at my local church and I had a couple of questions about it before I go in next Monday to speak with my pastor! Thanks ladies!

I have not joined MOPs, but I have been considering it. I used to be an office manager at a church that had a MOPs program, so I know a fair deal about it. What's your questions?

I was wondering how I would go about starting the group in my church. I don't mean signing the charter contract, but I mean how do I even find out if people in my church would be interested?

Oh...yeah, that could be pretty church specific!

Are you hoping to answer that question before you go see your pastor?

Not necessarily...I was actually hoping he could help me with that! Here's another question. Does everyone who belongs to MOPS have to pay the $20 fee? I know that to get the group chartered you have to pay $275, but I was wondering about the individual members too.

I would ask around in the church.. I mean if you attend somewhat regularly.. I am sure you know who has lil ones. So ask around to see if people would be interested in it...
then talk to the pastor... Then either have it announced.. or pass out fliers on it one sunday after church... Hang them in the nursery if you have one..

Yeah I will do that lhart, thanks for the advice! At my church I think I would have to stand up and speak before the congregation (if the pastor allowed it) which I'm not looking forward to! I need to find people that can help me get it off the ground, too!

Yes, my understanding is the individual members pay the membership fee. I assume you've been looking at the MOPs site. This page gives the membership privileges: Benefits

Charging a membership fee of some sort also encourages attendance because there is an investment on the individual's part. But, it is pretty minimal and there are scholarships available, so it is accessible to almost everyone.

You may want to get this to show at your church in lieu of you having to make an announcement! Why MOPS? DVD - MOPShop

Ok that gives me a little more to work with...I'll talk later I have to get the kids up from naptime.

I belong to MOPS- I don't do any of the planning, etc. so I don't know if I can be of any help, but if so let me know!

missyo and I belong to the same group. It has changed some over the years, depending on the "leaders"

What is your overall impression, Wendy? And how did you and missyo become members? One other question...do you have to pay the $20 a year membership fee?

I started going years ago when my 11 yo was little. now that I have Dominic I started up again. I did pay the $25 dollar reg. fee- It gets you a MOPS magazine, we just got a calendar, and usually some beginning year stuff- sometimes books for moms, one year it was Veggie Tales stuff for the kids. This all comes from the MOPS organization.
Ours is open to the public- you don't have to be a church member to join. It is a lot of the preschool moms from the church preschool, so the meeting times are during preschool. We have regular sitters that watch the little ones not in school. We also pay a $5 fee at each meeting to help pay for a craft for us, and to pay the sitters. We also take turns signing up to bring breakfast dishes to share.
I actually heard about it from a friend of mine whose kids went to the preschool- missyo heard about it from me!
Like I said depending on who is running it, it can vary year to year. We have a smaller group this year for some reason. We start arriving about 9:30, talk and eat-yummy. Then we have some type of devotional/inspirational speaker, a craft/activity for moms-with more chatting of course. Announcements, etc. We have also been trying to plan MOM's nights out- meeting for dinner, Pampering night, Christmas Cookie Exchange, Scrapbooking, etc.
We put out a newsletter of happenings, recipies, kids activities in the ares, etc.
Hope that helps some. Ask away, and I will do my best to answer. i am not on the committee, but I can share my thoughts/views!
As far as the reg fee, they really encourage you to do that-