1. New members - Kate TT and Jen to bring fresh meat!
2. Vote on the proposed new Core Rules discussed at the last meeting.
3. Fix the new rotation of Facilitator - Jen is slated for Jan-March. After that, I don't know who is next. Blogmeister to add the year's schedule to the calendar. I've re-drafted the job description. Please see the old and new versions of it at this link:
http://thebabysittersclub3000.blogspot.com/search/label/secretary
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
DRAFT OF PROPOSED NEW RULE AND PROCEDURES
The Babysitter's Club 3000 Rules and Procedures
Nov. 22, 2011
[when this is officially adopted, we will need to re-do this document!]
Introduction
That's the name of our babysitting co-op, which was formed in 2002 by a small group of parents in Western Queens. The name is based on a popular kids' book. Originally, we were based on the book The Smart Moms' Guide to Babysitting Co-ops, but we have evolved a lot since then. Our numbers have fluctuated through the years from as low as 3 families to as many as 10. We trade in points - you sit for someone's kids, you receive points, and if someone sits for your children, you "pay" points to the sitter.
We keep request sits, schedule sits, and keep track of points on our own private blog, so members need to have some basic web-savviness. We meet every two months to discuss our co-op's status and make sure everyone's happy. We do require members to participate at least once a month, and to occasionally assume some co-op responsibilities.
It is worth noting that this is a co-operative, and as such power and responsibility are shared, and the nature of the group is derived from its members. The rules are fungible and in perpetual evolution, but collective wisdom, common sense and pragmatism seem to work best.
Roles and Responsibilities
Facilitator
This is a rotating position. One term lasts 3 months.
- Facilitate sits: Responsible for monitoring sit-requests and reports, encouraging people who haven’t replied to do so, requesting that unfilled sit reports be updated, and assigning sits.
- Verify sit report accuracy: Must ensure that the calendar's events match up with the sit report. Must be comfortable with looking at a spreadsheet (no need to know how to use it) and operating a sit report form.
- Oversees general policy and recruitment
- Leads the co-op meetings, keeps minutes, and ensures that important information is easily accessible on the blog (s/he provides blogmeister with content.)
- Coordinates occasional playdates/get togethers
- Members pay the facilitator 4 points for one term.
Blogmeister
Six months (if possible)
- Maintains the co-op blog and makes updates when necessary.
- Assists members with set up and/or any difficulties using the blog/calendar feature.
- Calculates and posts monthly totals.
- Must be comfortable with Google Docs, Calendar, Labs, Blogger, and spreadsheet logic.
- Each member awards the blogmeister 6 pts every six months. Points are awarded at the end of the term. Term runs from Jan-June.
If a person leaves the group or is unable to fulfill their job duties, they should resign from the position for pro-rated points and the group should come up with a new rotation. Points should be amortized if possible.
The schedule of rotation is maintained in our 30boxes calendar system.
Sit Procedures and Accounting
The sit requester sends a sit request to the facilitator, or requests a sit through our online calendaring system, 30boxes. The facilitator or requester solicits responses from the team and assigns the sit. Typically, the sit is assigned to the available member with the most negative balance. The facilitator "assigns" the sit by alerting the relevant parties via email and noting who was assigned the sit in the calendar entry on 30 boxes. Then the sit happens. The sitter and the sittee discuss who should file the Sit Report (note that the sitter has a vested interest in filing) which goes into an online Google Spreadsheet linked to the blog called the Sit Log. The facilitator follows up and ensures that the sit was recorded properly. At the end of the month, the facilitator reviews all the sit requests and verifies them against the Sit Log. The facilitator also notes who didn't use the co-op that month (vis a vis the monthly Non-Use Form) and who used the "manual override" (more on these below.) Once the facilitator gives the ok, the Blogmeister calculates everyone's monthly totals and posts them to the blog.
The "charges" for sits and related events are as follows:
- 1st child for 1 hour = 4 points
- Subsequent additional children are 2 points per hour
- Night sits entail a 2-point bonus for the sitter. Night sits are defined as those which start after the child's bedtime. Note that multiple sleeping children only count as one child.
- Last-minute sit cancellations (those that occur within 24 hours of a scheduled and assigned sit) cost the canceller 2 points.
- Members are required to use the co-op by either having at least one sit a month, or at least request a sit twice. The cost for non-use is 2 points (every member gets a grace month once a year.)
- Occasionally it may not work for a sitter or sittee for the "most negative" member to do the sit and the sittee may request a different positive responder. In that case, the member can invoke the "Manual Override" use up to 3 times a year without penalty. After that, Manual Overrides are 2 points each.
- The group maintains a "bank" of "extra points" that sometimes accumulate (for example, if a member leaves the co-op with a surfeit of points that cannot be evenly divided amongst remaining members - the remainder would go to the bank.)
- Cat-sitting requests and assignations can be made on an ad-hoc basis. Other occaisonal discretionary point transfers come up from time to time, and these should be handled through the facilitator and the Optional Point Transfers section of the Sit Report. For example, the co-op as a group can also decide to award extra points from the bank for service beyond the ordinary.
- There is no limit on the number of negative points that a member can amass, but at -30 mark, the facilitator and/or the leader should work the debtor to come up with a plan.
- All new members start with a zero balance.
Membership
- New members must be unanimously agreed upon by existing members.
- There is no fixed upper or lower limit on membership, but experience and precedent have guided us to the belief that the co-op really needs 5 families to function well. Occasional "recruitment drives" should be determined on an ad-hoc basis. The leader should organize the group's efforts on this behalf. There are previous recruitment materials available on the blog, under the tag "recruitment."
- There is no established geographical area that the co-op "covers," but rather is based on what is a "reasonable" travel time for a member.
- Members are required to attend bi-monthly meetings which are held on the third Monday of the month at 8:30 pm. The leader should take notes at the meetings and either post them to the blog or forward them to the blogmeister. While it is understood that occasional conflicts will arise, regular non-attendance should be penalized. The leader has the authority to dock a non-attending member 2 points.
- All new members should be included in the Participant Directory, which should include the names of children, insurance companies, etc and so should be maintained in a private manner yet to be designed (lb to fix.) Included with this should be medical authorization forms and safety checklists (also currently private pdfs.) The leader should ensure that new members have filled out this information via the Member Info Form and work with the blogmeister to keep it accessible but protected.
- If for any reason the group feels that a member is not working out, I dunno. I guess they should have a gladiator match. Good luck with that, we have no experience in kicking people out!
Meeting Minutes, from the November 21st, 2011 Meeting:
We made introductions with Abigail and discussed her potential involvement in the co-op.
Next steps are for us to vote and if it is unanimous, I will officially invite her. Please see my separate email with the link to vote.
We spent a long time discussing recruitment. The outcome of that discussion is:
- Kate will contact her 3 families.
- Jen will contact her two (or was it 3?) families.
- We will strong-arm Gina mercilessly until she submits to the heavy hand of the co-op!! 8-) Joking. (Partially.)
- We will all be looking for more people. I will judiciously post to Astorians, Why Leave Astoria and Queens Mamas, but would encourage you all to post ads to your parenting networks.
-New recruits will be invited to the next meeting, which is Jan. 16, MLK day, again at Jen's house.
We are going to rejigger roles and responsibilities. We will fold the secretary duties into the the leader position, which will now be a 3-month position. We will pay this person 4 points per term. We will adopt formal bylaws and enshrine them on our blog at the next meeting.
Celia will finish out the year as secretary, and I will finish out the year as Blogmeister and Leader.
Starting in January, Jen will assume Facilitator duties and Michael Anderson (Ginny's husband) will assume the role of Blogmeister. (Blogmeister will be reduced from 6 points per 6-monmth term to 4 points per 6-month term.) We will determine the rotation for the rest of the year at the next meeting.
Next steps are for us to vote and if it is unanimous, I will officially invite her. Please see my separate email with the link to vote.
We spent a long time discussing recruitment. The outcome of that discussion is:
- Kate will contact her 3 families.
- Jen will contact her two (or was it 3?) families.
- We will strong-arm Gina mercilessly until she submits to the heavy hand of the co-op!! 8-) Joking. (Partially.)
- We will all be looking for more people. I will judiciously post to Astorians, Why Leave Astoria and Queens Mamas, but would encourage you all to post ads to your parenting networks.
-New recruits will be invited to the next meeting, which is Jan. 16, MLK day, again at Jen's house.
We are going to rejigger roles and responsibilities. We will fold the secretary duties into the the leader position, which will now be a 3-month position. We will pay this person 4 points per term. We will adopt formal bylaws and enshrine them on our blog at the next meeting.
Celia will finish out the year as secretary, and I will finish out the year as Blogmeister and Leader.
Starting in January, Jen will assume Facilitator duties and Michael Anderson (Ginny's husband) will assume the role of Blogmeister. (Blogmeister will be reduced from 6 points per 6-monmth term to 4 points per 6-month term.) We will determine the rotation for the rest of the year at the next meeting.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Meeting Minutes for Sept. 19, 2011
Present: Eric, Celia, Jen, Ginny (secretary), Katey, Laura (leader and minutes writer)
Absent: Kate TT (fined two points)
1. We discussed Karen's departure from the group and a stupid accounting error that I, Laura, did. The upshot of that was that we used 10 points from the bank to balance out Karen's points. All members agreed to this, and we will also disperse the remaining points from the bank next time we can do it without fractions.
2. The question "how is the co-op working for you?" on the table. There have been a lot of changes for families and the group itself (people leaving and returning from work, children going to school full-time, etc) and with Karen's departure it seemed like a good time to recalibrate. Answers ranged from "it could be better" to "too unclear to tell right now, ask again later."
3. Given that there is room for improvement, it looks as if we will be not starting a recruitment drive so much as asking around. Recruitment is headed up by the Leader, but as we're a co-op and these things are dynamic based on you and who you know, we should all be scouting potential victims and chatting them up subtly. If you know anyone who you think would work well in the group, and whose children would, please let them know and refer them to our public website for interested potential members. http://babysittingcoopinfo.blogspot.com/ Potential recruits named were Abigail, the Dads, and Allura. Start networking/chatting! Workable geography is helpful - Jackson Heights is, sadly, probably a bit far.
4. Basic reminders to everyone went about responding to sit requests in a timelier fashion, as we've all be dragging a little on it. Please remember to leave a comment in the sit request when you are responding "undecided" so that it's clear you've responded.
5. We postponed any major conversations or decisions about reducing our "administrative costs" by eliminating a secretary, but we did basically all agree that our goal wouldn't be to be to ditch the person who oversees/cheerleads/facilitates so much as merge that position in with the Leader's. Laura promised to have more concrete proposals on the table by the next meeting. That is good, because after Ginny finishes her term at the end of October, we have no more secretaries scheduled. If we follow precedent, it will revert back to oldest-serving member first, so the new cycle would be two month consecutive stints in this order: Eric, Celia, Jen, Katey, Kate, Laura (I can't do it between Eric and Celia b/c I will still be leader then.)
6. Small note: please remove Karen from your buddy list in 30boxes, to avoid confusion.
7. The next meeting is slated for Monday, Nov. 21, which is Thanksgiving week. Please note it in your calendars now, as it will likely be a busy time for us all.
Absent: Kate TT (fined two points)
1. We discussed Karen's departure from the group and a stupid accounting error that I, Laura, did. The upshot of that was that we used 10 points from the bank to balance out Karen's points. All members agreed to this, and we will also disperse the remaining points from the bank next time we can do it without fractions.
2. The question "how is the co-op working for you?" on the table. There have been a lot of changes for families and the group itself (people leaving and returning from work, children going to school full-time, etc) and with Karen's departure it seemed like a good time to recalibrate. Answers ranged from "it could be better" to "too unclear to tell right now, ask again later."
3. Given that there is room for improvement, it looks as if we will be not starting a recruitment drive so much as asking around. Recruitment is headed up by the Leader, but as we're a co-op and these things are dynamic based on you and who you know, we should all be scouting potential victims and chatting them up subtly. If you know anyone who you think would work well in the group, and whose children would, please let them know and refer them to our public website for interested potential members. http://babysittingcoopinfo.blogspot.com/ Potential recruits named were Abigail, the Dads, and Allura. Start networking/chatting! Workable geography is helpful - Jackson Heights is, sadly, probably a bit far.
4. Basic reminders to everyone went about responding to sit requests in a timelier fashion, as we've all be dragging a little on it. Please remember to leave a comment in the sit request when you are responding "undecided" so that it's clear you've responded.
5. We postponed any major conversations or decisions about reducing our "administrative costs" by eliminating a secretary, but we did basically all agree that our goal wouldn't be to be to ditch the person who oversees/cheerleads/facilitates so much as merge that position in with the Leader's. Laura promised to have more concrete proposals on the table by the next meeting. That is good, because after Ginny finishes her term at the end of October, we have no more secretaries scheduled. If we follow precedent, it will revert back to oldest-serving member first, so the new cycle would be two month consecutive stints in this order: Eric, Celia, Jen, Katey, Kate, Laura (I can't do it between Eric and Celia b/c I will still be leader then.)
6. Small note: please remove Karen from your buddy list in 30boxes, to avoid confusion.
7. The next meeting is slated for Monday, Nov. 21, which is Thanksgiving week. Please note it in your calendars now, as it will likely be a busy time for us all.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Update
Hi all,
Just a brief note to let you know that the running totals have been adjusted to reflect your payment to the secretary for July and August. Monthly non-users were billed (Katey, 2 points for July; Eric, Katey, and Kate 2 points each for August.) Our bank is almost up to twenty, so you know what that means, time for a new car! No, seriously, I think we should think about emptying it out and giving everyone some points. Let's discuss at our next meeting. Katey, unless you've read the meeting minutes for the last two meetings, you might not know that we have a rule in which you are fined if you miss 2 meetings, so unfortunately i had to dock you two points for that too.
Totals are here.
Thanks go to Kate for her quick turnaround time on sit report verifications, reporting on manual override stuff, and non-use. Ginny, you're secretary---possibly, hopefully, our last one ever----for Sept and October. (I'll get in touch with you separately.) We're still having a casual experiment in self-assignment, but try to keep an eye on things as backup for now, since we haven't officially decided to bite that particular bullet.
Have a great back to school season, everyone!
- Laura
PS next meeting is Oct 17th, Jen's house.
Just a brief note to let you know that the running totals have been adjusted to reflect your payment to the secretary for July and August. Monthly non-users were billed (Katey, 2 points for July; Eric, Katey, and Kate 2 points each for August.) Our bank is almost up to twenty, so you know what that means, time for a new car! No, seriously, I think we should think about emptying it out and giving everyone some points. Let's discuss at our next meeting. Katey, unless you've read the meeting minutes for the last two meetings, you might not know that we have a rule in which you are fined if you miss 2 meetings, so unfortunately i had to dock you two points for that too.
Totals are here.
Thanks go to Kate for her quick turnaround time on sit report verifications, reporting on manual override stuff, and non-use. Ginny, you're secretary---possibly, hopefully, our last one ever----for Sept and October. (I'll get in touch with you separately.) We're still having a casual experiment in self-assignment, but try to keep an eye on things as backup for now, since we haven't officially decided to bite that particular bullet.
Have a great back to school season, everyone!
- Laura
PS next meeting is Oct 17th, Jen's house.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Meeting Minutes for July 18, 2011
Meeting Minutes for July 18th
Present: Eric, Celia, Jen, Kate T, Karen, Ginny, and Laura
Absent: Katey TT. Fined 2 points and she missed out on great guacamole and wine.
1. Michael has agreed to be blogmeister, yay! Laura and he will coordinate the handoff of power offline.
2. The new continuous updating point system is working well but it is incumbent on sit loggers not to put non-numerical information in any of the fields or it messes up the system.
3. In a long-term effort to reduce administrative costs, we discussed various options for eliminating a position, or re-jiggering current roles and responsibilities and reducing points accordingly. We determined to think about this over the next few months and come up with some concrete proposals for consideration and the next meeting. One valuable suggestion was that before we adopt anything, we try it out on a one or two month trial basis before adopting it. Next meeting I will have at least two options for your study; please feel free to come up with your own. It may be useful to refer to our core rules.
http://thebabysittersclub3000.blogspot.com/2011/02/core-rules-draft.html
After the meeting, it occurred to me that if we make any changes to point payments, not everyone will have had a chance to earn points under the old system. If we decide to opt for self-secretarying, we should consider letting the current system cycle through all the members so that it will have been fair to everyone.
5. When you are hedging on a sit request, please leave a little clarifying info in the comments section indicating how interested you are in the sit, or when you will be able to give a firm answer... stuff like that.
4. We decided that non-babysitting actions, like cat sitting, schlepping, driving, etc would best be handled off-line.
5. Karen suggested a great, low-cost way to get everyone to a farm for our semi-annual outing, so planning for that is in the works.
I lost the notes I took, which, despite their chickenscratchy appearance, are usually pretty helpful to me, so if I forgot anything please let me know.
Present: Eric, Celia, Jen, Kate T, Karen, Ginny, and Laura
Absent: Katey TT. Fined 2 points and she missed out on great guacamole and wine.
1. Michael has agreed to be blogmeister, yay! Laura and he will coordinate the handoff of power offline.
2. The new continuous updating point system is working well but it is incumbent on sit loggers not to put non-numerical information in any of the fields or it messes up the system.
3. In a long-term effort to reduce administrative costs, we discussed various options for eliminating a position, or re-jiggering current roles and responsibilities and reducing points accordingly. We determined to think about this over the next few months and come up with some concrete proposals for consideration and the next meeting. One valuable suggestion was that before we adopt anything, we try it out on a one or two month trial basis before adopting it. Next meeting I will have at least two options for your study; please feel free to come up with your own. It may be useful to refer to our core rules.
http://thebabysittersclub3000.blogspot.com/2011/02/core-rules-draft.html
After the meeting, it occurred to me that if we make any changes to point payments, not everyone will have had a chance to earn points under the old system. If we decide to opt for self-secretarying, we should consider letting the current system cycle through all the members so that it will have been fair to everyone.
5. When you are hedging on a sit request, please leave a little clarifying info in the comments section indicating how interested you are in the sit, or when you will be able to give a firm answer... stuff like that.
4. We decided that non-babysitting actions, like cat sitting, schlepping, driving, etc would best be handled off-line.
5. Karen suggested a great, low-cost way to get everyone to a farm for our semi-annual outing, so planning for that is in the works.
I lost the notes I took, which, despite their chickenscratchy appearance, are usually pretty helpful to me, so if I forgot anything please let me know.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Discussion thread for meeting on July 18th
Hi. I suspect a lot of people won't be at the meeting on July 18th because of summer vacations and whatnot, but who knows, perhaps our new draconian enforcement of the old "you miss my meeting, you pay me hard cold babysitting points" rule will instill the fear of Gozer into everyone.
Here are my proposed discussion points:
1. Simplyfing/elminating the cat sit scheduling procedure.
2. Getting Michael, Ginny's DH, on board with being blogmeister.
3. Getting your feedback and input on the running totals thing.
4. Reducing the blogmeister points.
5. Fruit picking excursion! That's the whole entire #1 reason I wanted to be leader, we're supposed to do a social thing every 6 months and let it be juicy!
6. Whatever else you want to talk about. Leave a comment in the comments if you want add your topic to the agenda.
Here are my proposed discussion points:
1. Simplyfing/elminating the cat sit scheduling procedure.
2. Getting Michael, Ginny's DH, on board with being blogmeister.
3. Getting your feedback and input on the running totals thing.
4. Reducing the blogmeister points.
5. Fruit picking excursion! That's the whole entire #1 reason I wanted to be leader, we're supposed to do a social thing every 6 months and let it be juicy!
6. Whatever else you want to talk about. Leave a comment in the comments if you want add your topic to the agenda.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Point Standings for May 2011
Hi all,
Totals for May are here. It was a moderate month, but I think June - August will probably slow down a bit. Everyone paid Katey 2 points for being secretary. Next month gear up for big payments to me and to Jen.
Eric 25
Laura 2
Celia 22
Jen 2
Katey D 15
Katherine TT -32
Ginny -8
Karen 0
Bank 7
Heads up: starting in July, Jen and Katey will give up their respective leader and secretary crowns. Kate TT is the next secretary, but we don't have a leader selected yet. In three years, I have never been leader, since I took over the blogmeister role, and I'm happy to volunteer. But I leave it up to you guys, I'm easy either way, whomever you decide is fine.
The link to May's spreadsheet is here.
Totals for May are here. It was a moderate month, but I think June - August will probably slow down a bit. Everyone paid Katey 2 points for being secretary. Next month gear up for big payments to me and to Jen.
Eric 25
Laura 2
Celia 22
Jen 2
Katey D 15
Katherine TT -32
Ginny -8
Karen 0
Bank 7
Heads up: starting in July, Jen and Katey will give up their respective leader and secretary crowns. Kate TT is the next secretary, but we don't have a leader selected yet. In three years, I have never been leader, since I took over the blogmeister role, and I'm happy to volunteer. But I leave it up to you guys, I'm easy either way, whomever you decide is fine.
The link to May's spreadsheet is here.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
REVISED Point Standings for April 2011
Hi all,
I reviewed my totals from yesterday and found a dumb error I'd made, my apologies. I've recalculated and the new numbers are below:
The corrected spreadsheet can be found at this link. Sorry for any confusion.
I reviewed my totals from yesterday and found a dumb error I'd made, my apologies. I've recalculated and the new numbers are below:
Eric 19
Laura 4
Celia 21
Jen -1
Katey D 2
Kate TT -22
Ginny 7
Karen 0
Bank 7
The corrected spreadsheet can be found at this link. Sorry for any confusion.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Point Standings for April 2011
Hi all,
Calculations for April are finished. No manual overrides or non-use charges or admin fees this month. Jen was a babysitting machine and earned almost 50 points this month, a record as far as I know! Katey, this includes your last-min cancel that you logged a couple of hours ago for 4/20.
Next month Katey starts as secretary. I will be out of town and pretty busy this month so I will rely on recent ex-secretaries to help her out if she needs it and I'm unavailable, k? For this reason I will also miss the meeting on May 16. Enjoy the springtime, everyone!
To misquote Lost, here are the numbers:
Spreadsheet archived here for your review.
Calculations for April are finished. No manual overrides or non-use charges or admin fees this month. Jen was a babysitting machine and earned almost 50 points this month, a record as far as I know! Katey, this includes your last-min cancel that you logged a couple of hours ago for 4/20.
Next month Katey starts as secretary. I will be out of town and pretty busy this month so I will rely on recent ex-secretaries to help her out if she needs it and I'm unavailable, k? For this reason I will also miss the meeting on May 16. Enjoy the springtime, everyone!
To misquote Lost, here are the numbers:
Eric 27
Laura 4
Celia 21
Jen -1
Katey D 2
Kate TT -22
Ginny 7
Karen 0
Bank 7
Spreadsheet archived here for your review.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Point Standings for March 2011, filed Apr 5
Yo Coopahz,
Busy month! Only a couple of notes:
The secretary's interweb tubes broke down so I am filling in on that score, but I think everything was filed properly.
A couple of notes:
When filling out the number of hours in the sit report form, please don't add anything besides the number. No need to write "hours" or hrs - i just have to take those out later.
Katey failed to use the co-op this month. This is your official grace month, next time I'm goin' Johnny Law onya butt.
Eric, I didn't pay you my 2-point secretary fee, but everyone else did.
No one worry about Jen's neg balance, because she's going to get some leader points at the end of her term in June.
Link to the whole spreadsheet is here.
Busy month! Only a couple of notes:
The secretary's interweb tubes broke down so I am filling in on that score, but I think everything was filed properly.
A couple of notes:
When filling out the number of hours in the sit report form, please don't add anything besides the number. No need to write "hours" or hrs - i just have to take those out later.
Katey failed to use the co-op this month. This is your official grace month, next time I'm goin' Johnny Law onya butt.
Eric, I didn't pay you my 2-point secretary fee, but everyone else did.
No one worry about Jen's neg balance, because she's going to get some leader points at the end of her term in June.
Eric 5
Laura 28
Celia 37
Jen -49
Katey D 10
Kate T -12
Ginny -7
Karen -2
Bank 7
Link to the whole spreadsheet is here.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Meeting minutes for March 2010
Minutes from Co-op Meeting March 21st 2011
Present- Karen, Jen, Laura, Celia, Eric (by Phone)
At Karen’s Apt.
Author of these minutes: Jen V
1. We read over the core rules and they were ratified!
We are so much better than congress!
2. There is some dispute as to the meaning of the manual override clause.
To explain the thinking behind its creation, I will give a few examples:
a. A certain anonymous child was having a hard time being left at night with sitters and would cry and shut itself in its room. There were one or 2 people that the child was more comfortable with, so the parent choose to use them for a night sit
b. Another child was being left to be put to bed for the 1st time by someone other than its parents. Again, there were a few sitters the child felt more comfortable with so the parent chose one of those.
c. There was a very long play date sit, so the parent wanted a child that their child would be happy playing with for an extended period of time.
Some members understood it to mean that if more than one person accepted a sit, that you could decline the most negative and choose the next negative. In this scenario-if 4 people said yes, and you declined the 1st 3 most negative to go with the 4th, you would be considered to have used up all of your manual overrides
Other members understood it to mean that you could choose whom you wanted for up to 3 sits per year.
One suggestion was to have a VIP sit where you could choose a sitter-one or 2 per year as well as a Manual Override where you declined the 1st person and went for the 2nd in line 1 or 2 x per yr.
We recognized the potential for abuse in this in that certain members could only request each other and the rest would be shut out for sits.
We were unable to come to a conclusion on this and will think about it and discuss it at next meeting. Karen is going to draft up a new side-sit bill for discussion.
3. Members are reminded to respond to sits in a timely fashion.
Secretaries (and/or people who are self-secretarying) are reminded to assign sits in a timely fashion. EG: Please put in the comment section in caps-SIT ASSIGNED TO ____.
Secretaries, please ask the undecided via email to respond ASAP.
If you are the requestor and have not heard back about your sit, it is acceptable and even encouraged to send an email to the secretary as well as any potential sitters (either yeses or undecideds) asking who will be doing the sit.
4.Please cancel sits in a timely fashion as well.
To do so, please put CANCELLED in the title of your request.
You can also delete it from 30 Boxes by right clicking on the title and pressing delete.
(If you don't have a mouse with right click, you need to get one. Seriously, how do you live?)
Also let the secretary and any potential sitters (yeses or maybes) know via email. They may have been reserving the time for you in their calendar. They can now put this time to good use by watching kittens on YouTube or doing something ”just one more time” with their kid/s.
5. Updates or Edits to your sit do not go out to everyone as an email. They can only see it on 30 boxes. So please send an email to the secretary about your update/edit, or if it is a big change, delete/cancel the sit and send out a new one. Note in your sit that this is an update of the previous sit.
6. Please file a sit report in a timely fashion. Not all secretaries have a lot of hair that can afford to be pulled out when they are tracking sits at the end of the month.
It was decided that if neither sitter nor sittee discuss filing the sit report that it can be assumed to be the default responsibility of the sitter.
However, if the sittee wants to file it, by all means go ahead.
7. If you are a potential sitter on a sit, it's a good idea to check 30 boxes to see what’s going on with that sit.
8. If the sittee is late picking up their kid/s they can work it out with the sitter as to whether any/how many bonus late points will be assigned.
I also think it's a good idea if you think you might be late to ask in advance if it is possible to the sitter to watch longer.
When you are making your initial sit request, make realistic estimates about traffic and public transportation to give your sitter a realistic ending time.
9. It was suggested for safety/privacy reasons that we not use children’s full names on sit requests, but only initials, or the parent’s name.
10. The leader should sent out a reminder to the members about meetings.
They are the 3rd Monday of every other month.
The next meeting is May 16th.
11. Since there are only 6 meetings a year it is very important to attend them.
Each member is allowed to miss one meeting a year w/o penalty. After that, a penalty of 2 pts will be assigned. (This is an old rule that we have been failing to enforce for some time.)
There was also some discussion of having some of the 6 be business meetings and others be social gatherings. We can discuss this more at next meeting.
12. We are looking at an outing for the spring.
Suggestions were Queen’s Farm, Aquarium, Berry Picking, and Queens’ Botanical Gardens/Flushing Eating Adventure.
13. We decided to forget the Skype idea for the moment. Speakerphone works just fine, and why should you be required to get dressed if you are not leaving the house.
14. Finally, we learned that Ginny is a puppeteer. Very Cool!
Present- Karen, Jen, Laura, Celia, Eric (by Phone)
At Karen’s Apt.
Author of these minutes: Jen V
1. We read over the core rules and they were ratified!
We are so much better than congress!
2. There is some dispute as to the meaning of the manual override clause.
To explain the thinking behind its creation, I will give a few examples:
a. A certain anonymous child was having a hard time being left at night with sitters and would cry and shut itself in its room. There were one or 2 people that the child was more comfortable with, so the parent choose to use them for a night sit
b. Another child was being left to be put to bed for the 1st time by someone other than its parents. Again, there were a few sitters the child felt more comfortable with so the parent chose one of those.
c. There was a very long play date sit, so the parent wanted a child that their child would be happy playing with for an extended period of time.
Some members understood it to mean that if more than one person accepted a sit, that you could decline the most negative and choose the next negative. In this scenario-if 4 people said yes, and you declined the 1st 3 most negative to go with the 4th, you would be considered to have used up all of your manual overrides
Other members understood it to mean that you could choose whom you wanted for up to 3 sits per year.
One suggestion was to have a VIP sit where you could choose a sitter-one or 2 per year as well as a Manual Override where you declined the 1st person and went for the 2nd in line 1 or 2 x per yr.
We recognized the potential for abuse in this in that certain members could only request each other and the rest would be shut out for sits.
We were unable to come to a conclusion on this and will think about it and discuss it at next meeting. Karen is going to draft up a new side-sit bill for discussion.
3. Members are reminded to respond to sits in a timely fashion.
Secretaries (and/or people who are self-secretarying) are reminded to assign sits in a timely fashion. EG: Please put in the comment section in caps-SIT ASSIGNED TO ____.
Secretaries, please ask the undecided via email to respond ASAP.
If you are the requestor and have not heard back about your sit, it is acceptable and even encouraged to send an email to the secretary as well as any potential sitters (either yeses or undecideds) asking who will be doing the sit.
4.Please cancel sits in a timely fashion as well.
To do so, please put CANCELLED in the title of your request.
You can also delete it from 30 Boxes by right clicking on the title and pressing delete.
(If you don't have a mouse with right click, you need to get one. Seriously, how do you live?)
Also let the secretary and any potential sitters (yeses or maybes) know via email. They may have been reserving the time for you in their calendar. They can now put this time to good use by watching kittens on YouTube or doing something ”just one more time” with their kid/s.
5. Updates or Edits to your sit do not go out to everyone as an email. They can only see it on 30 boxes. So please send an email to the secretary about your update/edit, or if it is a big change, delete/cancel the sit and send out a new one. Note in your sit that this is an update of the previous sit.
6. Please file a sit report in a timely fashion. Not all secretaries have a lot of hair that can afford to be pulled out when they are tracking sits at the end of the month.
It was decided that if neither sitter nor sittee discuss filing the sit report that it can be assumed to be the default responsibility of the sitter.
However, if the sittee wants to file it, by all means go ahead.
7. If you are a potential sitter on a sit, it's a good idea to check 30 boxes to see what’s going on with that sit.
8. If the sittee is late picking up their kid/s they can work it out with the sitter as to whether any/how many bonus late points will be assigned.
I also think it's a good idea if you think you might be late to ask in advance if it is possible to the sitter to watch longer.
When you are making your initial sit request, make realistic estimates about traffic and public transportation to give your sitter a realistic ending time.
9. It was suggested for safety/privacy reasons that we not use children’s full names on sit requests, but only initials, or the parent’s name.
10. The leader should sent out a reminder to the members about meetings.
They are the 3rd Monday of every other month.
The next meeting is May 16th.
11. Since there are only 6 meetings a year it is very important to attend them.
Each member is allowed to miss one meeting a year w/o penalty. After that, a penalty of 2 pts will be assigned. (This is an old rule that we have been failing to enforce for some time.)
There was also some discussion of having some of the 6 be business meetings and others be social gatherings. We can discuss this more at next meeting.
12. We are looking at an outing for the spring.
Suggestions were Queen’s Farm, Aquarium, Berry Picking, and Queens’ Botanical Gardens/Flushing Eating Adventure.
13. We decided to forget the Skype idea for the moment. Speakerphone works just fine, and why should you be required to get dressed if you are not leaving the house.
14. Finally, we learned that Ginny is a puppeteer. Very Cool!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Stats
I've recently enable Stats on blogger, which means I am able to track how many hits our blog gets a day, a week, etc. We had about 15 hits last month, but half of those are mine and Michael's, since we're working on some new stuff.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Point Standings for Feb 2011, published 3-1-11
Very busy month. No one had non-use issues. Everyone seems to be getting the hang of things very nicely, though at the March meeting we will have lots of stuff to talk about. LMK if you have any questions or concerns.
Eric: 3
Laura: -21
Celia: 33
Jen: -13
Katey D: 4
Katie TT: 8
Ginny: -4
Karen: 0
Bank: 7
The link the the whole chart is here.
Eric: 3
Laura: -21
Celia: 33
Jen: -13
Katey D: 4
Katie TT: 8
Ginny: -4
Karen: 0
Bank: 7
The link the the whole chart is here.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Core Rules, Procedures, Roles, and Responsibilities
The Babysitter's Club 3000 Rules and Procedures
Introduction
That's the name of our babysitting co-op, which was formed in 2002 by a small group of parents in Western Queens. The name is based on a popular kids' book. Originally, we were based on the book The Smart Moms' Guide to Babysitting Co-ops, but we have evolved a lot since then. Our numbers have fluctuated through the years from as low as 3 families to as many as 10. We trade in points - you sit for someone's kids, you receive points, and if someone sits for your children, you "pay" points to the sitter.
We keep request sits, schedule sits, and keep track of points on our own private blog, so members need to have some basic web-savviness. We meet every two months to discuss our co-op's status and make sure everyone's happy. We do require members to participate at least once a month, and to occasionally assume some co-op responsibilities.
It is worth noting that this is a co-operative, and as such power and responsibility are shared, and the nature of the group is derived from its members. The rules are fungible and in perpetual evolution, but collective wisdom, common sense and pragmatism seem to work best.
Roles and Responsibilities
Secretary
- Facilitate sits: Responsible for monitoring sit-requests and reports, encouraging people who haven’t replied to do so, requesting that unfilled sit reports be updated, and assigning sits.
- Verify sit report accuracy: Must ensure that the calendar's events match up with the sit report. Must be comfortable with looking at a spreadsheet (no need to know how to use it) and operating a sit report form.
- Each member awards the secretary 2 pts per term. Every term is 2 months (Jan-Feb, Mar-Apr, etc.) Points are awarded mid-term.
Blogmeister
Six months (if possible)
- Maintains the co-op blog and makes updates when necessary.
- Assists members with set up and/or any difficulties using the blog/calendar feature.
- Calculates and posts monthly totals.
- Must be comfortable with Google Docs, Calendar, Labs, Blogger, and spreadsheet logic.
- Each member awards the blogmeister 6 pts every six months. Points are awarded at the end of the term. Term runs from Jan-June.
Leader
Six months
If a person leaves the group or is unable to fulfill their job duties, they should resign from the position for pro-rated points and the group should come up with a new rotation.
- Oversees general policy and recruitment
- Coordinates occasional playdates/get togethers
- Leads the co-op meetings, keeps minutes, and helps provide/update content for the co-op blog
- Updates the co-op membership information, including medical authorization forms, to pass along to the blogmeister
- Each member awards the leader 2 pts every six months. Points are awarded at the end of the term. Term runs from Jan-June.
The schedule of rotation is maintained in our 30boxes calendar system.
Sit Procedures and Accounting
The sit requester sends a sit request to the secretary, or requests a sit through our online calendaring system, 30boxes. The secretary or requester solicits responses from the team and assigns the sit. Typically, the sit is assigned to the available member with the most negative balance. The secretary "assigns" the sit by alerting the relevant parties via email and noting who was assigned the sit in the calendar entry on 30 boxes. Then the sit happens. The sitter and the sittee discuss who should file the Sit Report (note that the sitter has a vested interest in filing) which goes into an online Google Spreadsheet linked to the blog called the Sit Log. The secretary follows up and ensures that the sit was recorded properly. At the end of the month, the secretary reviews all the sit requests and verifies them against the Sit Log. The Secretary also notes who didn't use the co-op that month (vis a vis the monthly Non-Use Form) and who used the "manual override" (more on these below.) Once the Secretary gives the ok, the Blogmeister calculates everyone's monthly totals and posts them to the blog.
The "charges" for sits and related events are as follows:
- 1st child for 1 hour = 4 points
- Subsequent additional children are 2 points per hour
- Night sits entail a 2-point bonus for the sitter. Night sits are defined as those which start after the child's bedtime. Note that multiple sleeping children only count as one child.
- Last-minute sit cancellations (those that occur within 24 hours of a scheduled and assigned sit) cost the canceller 2 points.
- Members are required to use the co-op by either having at least one sit a month, or at least request a sit twice. The cost for non-use is 2 points (every member gets a grace month once a year.)
- Occasionally it may not work for a sitter or sittee for the "most negative" member to do the sit and the sittee may request a different positive responder. In that case, the member can invoke the "Manual Override" use up to 3 times a year without penalty. After that, Manual Overrides are 2 points each.
- The group maintains a "bank" of "extra points" that sometimes accumulate (for example, if a member leaves the co-op with a surfeit of points that cannot be evenly divided amongst remaining members - the remainder would go to the bank.)
- Cat-sitting requests and assignations can be made on an ad-hoc basis. Other occaisonal discretionary point transfers come up from time to time, and these should be handled through the secretary and the Optional Point Transfers section of the Sit Report. For example, the co-op as a group can also decide to award extra points from the bank for service beyond the ordinary.
- There is no limit on the number of negative points that a member can amass, but at -30 mark, the secretary and/or the leader should work the debtor to come up with a plan.
- All new members start with a zero balance.
Membership
- New members must be unanimously agreed upon by existing members.
- There is no fixed upper or lower limit on membership, but experience and precedent have guided us to the belief that the co-op really needs 5 families to function well. Occasional "recruitment drives" should be determined on an ad-hoc basis. The leader should organize the group's efforts on this behalf. There are previous recruitment materials available on the blog, under the tag "recruitment."
- There is no established geographical area that the co-op "covers," but rather is based on what is a "reasonable" travel time for a member.
- Members are required to attend bi-monthly meetings which are held on the third Monday of the month at 8:30 pm. The leader should take notes at the meetings and either post them to the blog or forward them to the blogmeister. While it is understood that occasional conflicts will arise, regular non-attendance should be penalized. The leader has the authority to dock a non-attending member 2 points.
- All new members should be included in the Participant Directory, which should include the names of children, insurance companies, etc and so should be maintained in a private manner yet to be designed (lb to fix.) Included with this should be medical authorization forms and safety checklists (also currently private pdfs.) The leader should ensure that new members have filled out this information via the Member Info Form and work with the blogmeister to keep it accessible but protected.
- If for any reason the group feels that a member is not working out, I dunno. I guess they should have a gladiator match. Good luck with that, we have no experience in kicking people out!
Recruitment Tools for Leaders
NOTE: THiS PAGE IS UNDERDEVELOPMENT FROM LAURA.
PDF FLYER
Here's a website for them to read all about us. Please keep THIS website, our most personal private secretest one, under your hat.
http://babysittingcoopinfo.blogspot.com/
PDF FLYER
Here's a website for them to read all about us. Please keep THIS website, our most personal private secretest one, under your hat.
http://babysittingcoopinfo.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Point Standings For Jan 2011, filed 2-2-2011
Hi all, gotta be quick but it looks like everyone's getting the hang of things. See you Sunday and let me know if you think anything is kerploee. The spreadsheet where you can see the math is here.
Eric -14
Laura -1
Celia 35
Jen -13
Katey D -2
Kate TT 18
Ginny -6
Karen -16
Bank 7
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Very late December 2010 Point Standings
Hi all,
I do apologize for the lateness of my December point standings. It was a peculiar finish to a peculiar season, and I procrastinated as I developed several other projects at the beginning of Jan 2010. Plus I was waiting to see whether Karen re-joined, so that I could consolidate my tinkering.
Anyway, the points are calculated up and we are up to date as of any sit recorded, Jan. 9.
Some reminders/comments:
- I awarded myself blogmeister points (at long last) and charged the OLD members only. New members, you will be charged 6 points for my blogging in June. Secretary points will be awarded mid-term next month.
- (Discussion point for meeting) No leader points were awarded or deducted since we spent most of the term in hibernation mode.
- We will need to re-adjust the projected secretary and leader schedule at the meeting on Monday. Review terms and job descriptions.
- Effective immediately (that we have a secretary), we should be noting non-use, monthly overdrive, and last-minute sit cancellations.
- I have ended the practice of maintaining "Eric's List." Some background: once, Eric bitched and moaned about how he didn't like how I presented the numbers in terms of seniority in the group as opposed to presenting the monthly numbers from most positive to most negative. I explained to him, patiently, as one speaks to a small child, that my method was more conducive to working from my spreadsheet tool. He disparaged my coding abilities, so I indulged his request. Now that we have started a new year, I've decided to save myself this insanely laborious step. Sorry, Eric. (Oh wait. I'm not really sorry.) 8-)
I do apologize for the lateness of my December point standings. It was a peculiar finish to a peculiar season, and I procrastinated as I developed several other projects at the beginning of Jan 2010. Plus I was waiting to see whether Karen re-joined, so that I could consolidate my tinkering.
Anyway, the points are calculated up and we are up to date as of any sit recorded, Jan. 9.
Eric: -15Feel free to review the spreadsheet here at this link.
Laura: 2
Celia: 15
Jen: -11
Katey D: 0
Kate TT: 0
Ginny: 8
Karen: 0
Bank: 7
Some reminders/comments:
- I awarded myself blogmeister points (at long last) and charged the OLD members only. New members, you will be charged 6 points for my blogging in June. Secretary points will be awarded mid-term next month.
- (Discussion point for meeting) No leader points were awarded or deducted since we spent most of the term in hibernation mode.
- We will need to re-adjust the projected secretary and leader schedule at the meeting on Monday. Review terms and job descriptions.
- Effective immediately (that we have a secretary), we should be noting non-use, monthly overdrive, and last-minute sit cancellations.
- I have ended the practice of maintaining "Eric's List." Some background: once, Eric bitched and moaned about how he didn't like how I presented the numbers in terms of seniority in the group as opposed to presenting the monthly numbers from most positive to most negative. I explained to him, patiently, as one speaks to a small child, that my method was more conducive to working from my spreadsheet tool. He disparaged my coding abilities, so I indulged his request. Now that we have started a new year, I've decided to save myself this insanely laborious step. Sorry, Eric. (Oh wait. I'm not really sorry.) 8-)
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