{"id":83,"date":"2007-01-01T08:59:21","date_gmt":"2007-01-01T16:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/2007\/01\/the-first-five-minutes\/"},"modified":"2007-01-01T08:59:46","modified_gmt":"2007-01-01T16:59:46","slug":"the-first-five-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/2007\/01\/the-first-five-minutes\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Five Minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published in LLL of New Mexico\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/em> Enchantment and reprinted in LLLI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s LEAVEN, May-June 1988<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meeting day. The hour has arrived. Everybody is settling down. The side conversations have melted away. Your children have gone outside to play in the sandbox. The librarian has finished arranging the books. Now what? What should you say in the first five minutes of a La Leche League meeting?<\/p>\n

When I was a singer in a country music band, we always did a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153throwaway\u00e2\u20ac\u009d song at the beginning of each set. Why? Well, we needed to loosen up because the audience was still settling in, looking at our clothes, and commenting to each other on how we were doing (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Boy, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty bad!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I thought this was a rock \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 roll band!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or something like that). The first song was for checking us out and getting comfortable. Many mothers are doing the same thing at a Leche League meeting. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking at the hostess\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s home. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re dealing with their own feelings of seeing older babies nursing. They might be reading the posters over your shoulder or flipping through the copy of THE WOMANLY ART OF BREASTFEEDING you gave them (in hopes they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d buy a copy after the meeting). The things you say in your introduction may be mostly forgotten.<\/p>\n

I try to present five things in my introductory remarks:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 my name
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 my status as an LLL Leader
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 a few things about what La Leche League has to offer
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 something personal about my family, and
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 something about becoming a La Leche League member.<\/p>\n

I say these five things in the first five minutes knowing that many of the mothers won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be listening or won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember most of it. So, I make an effort to reinforce them throughout the meeting. I do this by:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 saying them again. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll repeat a lot of the same information throughout the meeting.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 using audio-visual aids. I try to wear a nametag (as long as my toddler doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t put if off) and use posters and charts to fill in as we discuss the subject.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 handing out written information. The series announcement, business cards, and Information Sheets help mothers remember and learn more.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 referring to LLL books. I try to mention a few titles related to our subject to reinforce my comments or to show the mothers where they can get more help.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 concluding the meeting with some of the same information.<\/p>\n

A meeting\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first five minutes can be awkward and strained for Leaders and mothers. Remember how hard it was for you to sort everything out after your first meeting? Those juicy LLL nuggets you throw out at that time need to be reinforced and repeated throughout the meeting. They are too important to be your throwaway song<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published in LLL of New Mexico\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Enchantment and reprinted in LLLI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s LEAVEN, May-June 1988 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meeting day. The hour has arrived. Everybody is settling down. The side conversations have melted away. Your children have gone outside to play in the sandbox. The librarian has finished arranging the books. Now what? What should you say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-la-leche-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}