A friend of mine and myself are getting ready to start a new chapter of TOPS in our little community. I was just wondering if any of you gals have any good advice for beginners. Thanks so much.

Have fun with it! The more fun you have the more likely visitors will stay! I don't know what normal dues are, but ours are 50 cents a week if you lose or turtle (stay the same) and $1 a week if you gain.
I don't know if every chapter does this or not, but we have a board with 100 squares on it and every time you lose you get to sign a square. When the board is full, 3 numbers get drawn and the people who signed in those squares get prizes. The dues help cover the cost of the prizes.
Good luck!

Have you been to the TOPs website? They will have lots of suggestions. Yes we do the bit with the squares, too. Our dues are $1/week and if you gain there is an optional penelty of 25 cents/quarter pound. We try to run some kind of game each month or two. The last one we had was a flower game. You started with just a stem and added petals for each quarter pound lost, and other things like keeping a food journal. Our club really liked the team game we had too. We gave out movie passess as prizes at the end. Like Jennie said - make it fun.

Lyn

Oh, good luck to you! That is cool. I think TOPS is one of the most under-rated weight-loss programs around, and the coolest part about it is that it's flexible enough to make it what you want it to be. I don't have many suggestions, just to visit the TOPS.org web site and get ideas. Our fees are $4/month, and we frequently have challenges where you have to pay if you gain or you earn if you lose.

Thank all of you who contributed to my request. I just want to make sure this is a success and everyone has fun and stays with the program. The board with the 100 squares will be a for sure thing. Thanks again and I will let you all know how things go. Our open house is not till Sept. 28th but I will let you know how we do.