The Child Care Committee strives to provide supervised play in a safe and loving environment for children ages six months through pre-kindergarten in order to facilitate attendance by parents of young children at Meeting and other events. A paid child care worker and a meeting member or attender takes care of the Meeting's youngest children during the 11:00 a.m. Meeting for Worship each First Day, as well as occasionally during Business Meetings and special events held by BFM.

The role of the committee: We are currently a committee of four people. We met three times this year in January, May, and October on First Days prior to Meeting for Worship and stayed in touch between meetings through e-mail. Members of the committee are Susan Rich (clerk), Jane Chalmers, Louise Capon, and Elaine Sullivan. Our duties include ensuring that at least one volunteer from BFM is present in the child care room to assist our paid child care workers. We recruit volunteers by posting a sign-up sheet in the library and by making announcements after Meeting for Worship. We also arrange for a paid worker and volunteers to staff the child care room for special events such as classes, weddings, and memorial services. We check with the child care workers frequently on how things are going in the child care room and purchase supplies such as crackers, cups, napkins, and Play Dough.

As in previous years, we additionally acknowledged the valuable service provided by Peggy Scott and Maria Shaw by presenting them with flowers and a card during December. Peggy and Maria are warmly regarded by parents and children. They provide a comforting, familiar presence and are well trained and experienced in providing a loving and safe environment for young children.

Budget matters: The major expense incurred by the committee is monthly payments for the professionally trained staff in the child care room during Meeting for Worship. The payment is $66.40 for each First Day, for child care from 10:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Last year, the budget was $3,450 with a contingency allowance of $250 for supplies and for paying a professional child care worker during special events. Actual expenses were $3,633; however, only $86 was spent on supplies. This year, the annual budget is $3,700.00 plus a contingency fund of $250.00. The child care workers have been paid $66.40 per First Day since July 2001. Before that they were paid $56.90 (an increase of 16.7%). We would like to increase their wage to $77.50 for the next fiscal year beginning in 2007.

Child care during Meeting for Worship: During the period from November 2005 through November 2006, we provided care for 41 children who attended a total of 318 times. During the same 13 month period we had 33 different people (including committee members) volunteer to assist in the childcare room. Committee members (or their helpful spouses) volunteered 13 out of 53 First Days (one snow day and two holidays) or almost 25% of the First Days. In an effort to improve the quality of care provided, we will continue to encourage the volunteer to read stories to the older toddlers (e.g., 2-3 year olds) in the child care room. We hope to purchase some children's cassette tapes and religious educational books for toddlers to help improve the activities provided in the room this year.

Child care during special events: Requests for special events child care were few this year: there were 2- 4 children who attended child care during Business Meeting on two First Days this year.

Snacks: Each First Day, the Committee provides snacks consisting of crackers and water to the children. Recently, some parents objected to Goldfish crackers due to the food coloring content. Although some children are allergic to wheat, we have decided to continue offering either Graham crackers or Ritz crackers as a standardized snack. We recommend no small shape type crackers or cookies to avoid the risk of choking in the youngest toddlers. Parents of children with food allergies or other concerns will be asked to provide their snack separately. Although we have been concerned about the possibility that some of the pipes in the school contain lead, we were assured that there was no danger in drinking the bottled water from the hallway cooler.

Numbers of Children: The paid workers are licensed to care for a maximum of 5 children per adult. A number of factors have led to an increased number of children in the child care room, ranging in ages from 6 months to 6 or 7 years. We recently have had a number of babies born at BFM, and older children (e.g., Kindergarten age) have been dropped off occasionally before First Day School, as well as during summer months, leading to up to 13 children in the room at a time. One solution to the problem of over crowding has been moving preschoolers (ages 4-5) into First Day School with Cynthia Ogden, the teacher of the Kindergarten and First Grade class, who graciously opened her class to our 4 year olds on a trial basis. We will bring the issue to the Religious Education Committee after the trial of the 4 year olds being in the K to First Grade class.

With the increased numbers of younger children in the room, the Child Care Committee would like to propose a change in the child care room policy to limit attendance in the room to children from six months to age three years. If the Meeting adopts this change, we would work with the Religious Education Committee to recruit another teacher for a preschool First Day class if parents of the four- and five-year-olds wish us to. Or we could recruit another teacher for a preschool First Day class. Alternatively, we could consider hiring both the child care workers for every First Day and splitting the child care room into two groups.

Volunteer Recruitment: Over the past couple of years, we have discussed the difficulty in recruiting volunteers for the child care room. In keeping with BFM's child safety policy, all volunteers in the child care room must have attended Meeting at BFM for at least six months. Recruitment strategies have included having each BFM committee sign up for a month to be responsible for volunteers as well as our current strategy of having each of the four child care committee members responsible for one First Day each month to ensure there is coverage if there is no volunteer or if they don't show up. This year, we have encouraged parents of children in the child care room sign up to volunteer in the room as well as publicizing more about the need for volunteers in the newsletter and at the rise of meeting. There continues to be difficulty in recruiting volunteers, particularly during the summer months and around holidays. We would like the Meeting to consider requesting that parents volunteer in a manner similar to a co-op day care.