Parents Cabinet Members

Frequently Asked Questions for Parents

About 25 years ago, President Herron organized the President's Parents' Cabinet. Invitations were extended to 12-15 parents, including couples and single parents. Each year additional invitations are made based on the number of parents that "graduate" each spring. This advisory group meets with the President twice per year. Our pattern is to have a Friday evening meal and a 4-hour Saturday morning meeting on Parents'/Homecoming weekend. These events are combined for us and this year was held October 15&16.

Each year the parents of graduating seniors are replaced with parents of incoming students--mostly freshmen. We asked the admissions department to provide us with the names of 6-10 parents they think would be good cabinet members. We purposely have sought to invite a rather diverse group, one which is representative of our student body.

Parents pay their own way to the meetings, seek and pay for there own lodging and food. Exception —-we feed them an excellent dinner on Friday night and a buffet breakfast Saturday morning. At the fall meeting we invite the children of parents on the cabinet who are enrolled to join the group for dinner on Friday evening. The purpose of that event is mainly social. Business is conducted during Saturday morning meeting.

We meet again in the spring usually during the first Friday and Saturday of May. We hold the meeting during the Greenville College Christian music festival called AGAPE which attracts between 3-5,000 people. The pattern is the same...Friday night a social dinner...Saturday buffet breakfast and a business meeting.

Some of the things the Parents' Cabinet has done over the years include:

• Calling the parents of current first-time enrolled freshmen. We provide a list of names and phone numbers and give each parent (couple) about 12 -15 names to call. They do this from their home at their expense. We have done this for three years now and found it to be a great PR and retention tool. The PC find this to be a very rewarding experience.
• In the past, the PC has selected the Parent(s) of the year. We have invited the honorees to campus and given them a plaque in front of the whole student body. We abandoned this about 3 years ago fearing that some may feel left out. It went well during the time it was done, however.

Last year, we began the Parent-to-Parent calling program. This is designed for PC's to call the parents of prospective students who have completed and sent in an admissions application. This is still getting off the ground.

Mostly importantly, the President gives an up date (30-minute PowerPoint presentation) at each meeting. We then set aside about 1-2 hours on Saturday morning to listen to what parents want to say about anything they wish. We learn lots of things which helps us keep a finger on parents and their child's response to how things are going.

It is a very good and inexpensive mechanism for parents to feel like they can get the ear of the President. President usually invites other members of his cabinet or the faculty to come and help him give updates.

Special Assistant to the President
Director of Retention
Greenville College
(618) 664-3128