Bring Your Child to Your Chapter Day
Updated: Aug. 5, 2025 | Categories: Meetings/Events, Low Engagement
For decades, organizations around the country have held Take Your Child to Work (TYCTW) events. These were developed to help answer the age-old question: “What does Mom or Dad do for a living?”
Typically, these events happen once a year. Kids spend part or all of a day at their parent’s office involved in activities that help them understand what that parent does once they leave the house. (For parents who work from home, many companies have figured out how to do hold these programs virtually.)
TYCTW activities include things like job shadowing, question and answer sessions, and presentations from people in different roles across the company. Kids may also attend meetings, visit a manufacturing line, do arts and crafts and scavenger hunts or participate in interview and resume-building workshops. They often end the day with a party, complete with ice cream, and leave with some free swag.
Have you ever considered why these events happen just once a year? But more importantly, why should it just be the companies your members work for that hold them? Many of your members would love help answering the “what do you do for work?” question, and you’re always looking for creative ways to better engage your membership, so why not extend the idea to your chapter?
TYCTW events are in your chapter DNA. Your members would do a great job explaining your industry and the parents’ connection to it. These events can also be effective at reengaging chapter members, when they go back to the basics and remember why they got into the industry and joined your chapter in the first place, especially when they have to rethink the language they use to describe their industry and explain a concept.
3 Reasons to Hold a Bring Your Child to Your Chapter (BYCTYC) Day
Showcase your profession and inspire. In addition to highlighting what their parent does, it can spark interest and curiosity about career paths that children and teens might not have considered or even been aware of. It’s also a chance to get them excited about the impact of the parents’ job on your industry and on your community.
Strengthen member engagement and community. Parents are often stuck deciding how to spend the little extra time they have. Should they be with their children or connecting with their “work family”? Kid-oriented events help build relationships between parents and children, and other parents with children, while fostering a sense of belonging to and pride in your chapter and your industry.
Promote work-life balance. An event focused on kids shows that you value your members’ needs and see them as people, not just as work professionals. It also shows that you support families and are proud to help support working parents. These events are also low-pressure ways to celebrate members’ contributions in ways that allow their families to participate.
5 Ideas for Bring Your Child to Your Chapter Events
It’s easy to apply the TYCTW model to association chapters; your chapter may already hold some of these kinds of events; you just need to adapt them to be appropriate and engaging for children. Combining multiple activities into a single, robust event for parents and children allows everyone to participate, enjoy and learn, regardless of age.
- A hands-on workshop. Do your members work in industries that could be interesting for kids to participate in hands-on, like chemistry, food or environmental science? Consider an interactive activity that allows kids to do a bit of what their parents do. Members could work with them to scale a meal, cook it and serve it for a large group, complete a science experiment (remember that volcano experiment from high school?) or lead an experience event, like a hike that involves touching and learning about plants, including avoiding the poisonous ones.
- “Ask an expert” panel. Have the kids interview several of your members and ask questions around job responsibilities, likes and dislikes, career paths, etc. Start with a quick primer about what makes a good interview, like the types of questions to ask and how to ask follow up questions, to help to encourage curiosity, build communication skills and connect them with possible role models, including their parents.
- Family volunteer day. What could you do that’s tied to your chapter or industry’s mission, to teach kids values like empathy, civic engagement or practical skills? Try a service event like accepting clothing donations, packing hygiene kits, planting trees or writing cards for seniors. These events, in addition to making it easy for members to spend time with their children, help reinforce those values your chapter stands for.
- Design a poster or video. Once you share with the kids about your industry, invite them to create artwork, slogans and videos about your industry or the job their parents have in it. This kind of event encourages creative thinking and helps them understand and find ways to interpret complex topics. A bonus? The pieces they create could be used in your chapter newsletters or social media.
- A career discovery fair. Members can show how your industry and the roles in it affect real-world problems. The kids get early exposure to concepts like science, technology, design or business in a fun, engaging way, which could spark their interest in future careers in your industry.
Strengthen your Chapter with a BYCTW Event – now and in the future
We’ve talked about how younger people, including high school and college students, are often overlooked for chapter membership and how connecting with them early can help them learn about and become interested in your industry. Children remember what they’re exposed to, even decades later. BYCTYC events can help get the next generation more interested in your industry and maybe as a result, your chapter.
Holding a BYCTW event is a clear choice for most chapters. It’s something you may not have thought of but can be easy to deliver. Hold the right event, and in addition to learning about the industry and their parents’ contributions to it, you’ll help give the kids a sense of identity, while reinvigorating their parents’ connections to the industry and to your chapter.
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