If this isn't built into the weekly schedule, it almost certainly won't happen. Advisors make home visits to every advisee in the summer, or in the first six weeks of school, to build relationships with their advisee's family. Advisors try to speak with parents once a month and encourage parents to call whenever they have questions. Advisories are first and foremost about relationships, but they can be about other things as well. Some staff members use it as a place to plan and carry out community or school service activities.
Some schools teach mediation skills or conflict management skills in advisory.
In those instances, the staff has, in effect, agreed that advisory is another preparation. For some schools, advisories are the place where schoolwide issues are discussed, or where schoolwide tragedies are addressed. But, advisories don't need to be more than a regular time to talk with students about how they're doing. Advisories meet daily for 30 minutes to talk about students' work and school lives. Spending five minutes daily talking with four or five kids allows advisors to touch base with every kid each week and still have a day for some general advisee activities.