Hi all,

I am about to embark on setting up a parenting group at my kids' school. The principal is supportive in arranging me a venue and that's it. Of course with the budget cut (too little time and money and too much to handle), I am not expecting much. I know I'll have to take on a lot of the ground work myself (hopefully getting more parents involved later on).

My main purpose is to meet up with other parents to form a support group, to learn, to share and to have fun.
I realized that I need to have a website/forum for communication. I know there are free websites we could use. I don't have a lot of experience in that area and it will take time to do it. I also planned to draft out waiver of liabilities form for parents to sign when they come in (especially when kids might be playing in the school compound).

That leads the questions here :-

1. Do any of you happen to know of any good and easy to use sites for groups. MSN groups works quite well, as does Facebook groups.

2. Do you know, are there high possibilities of liabilities of any sort involved with running this -both website and personal group? You will at least need a disclaimer on both the website and handed to folks when they first attend. What you need to disclaim, i am not sure.

3. Do you have a draft copy of that sort of thing where I could just modified from and use? No, Im afraid I don't. A local lawyer should be able to help you for a small fee however.

4. Are waiver form any good (I supposed they are otherwise doctors won't use it) but I don't really know and don't have money for legal advice. Waiver forms are decent, but you must remember there are certain things you cannot consent to. Like you cannot consent to someone assaulting you, and you cannot consent to someone ending your life. But you shouldn't have to worry about these. And some people say waivers aren't worth much in court.

5. Is there a place I could get free legal advice?
If you have a legal aid in your area, they may help you for free. Some lawyers will also do a consult for free for you. If not, google search should get you some decent answers.

The main purpose of the site is for posting related articles on parenting,events, for parents interactions, questions, comments, brain-storming, etc...

Thanks for your feedback and help.