2009 Annual Report
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 child care professional and a meeting member or attender takes care of the Meeting's youngest children during the 11:00am 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 six people. We met three times this year in January, May, and December 2009 and stayed in touch between meetings through e-mail. Members of the committee are Susan Rich (clerk), Sarah Thomas Gulden, Jane Thurber, Ellie Szanton, Abigail Allen, and Lily Conrad. Our duties include but are not limited to ensuring that at least one volunteer from BFM is present in the child care room to assist our professional child care worker. We ensure that the child care space provides a safe and nurturing environment with appropriate activities to occupy the children while their parents attend Meeting for Worship. It is our responsibility to ensure that we abide by the policies stated in our agreement with the Sidwell Friends School child care center.
We recruit volunteers by making announcements after Meeting for Worship and using a computerized sign up system. We also arrange for the child care professional 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.
Peggy Scott and Maria Shaw, our child care professionals, continue to be 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. As in previous years, we additionally acknowledged their valuable service by presenting them with flowers and a card during December. This year, we decided to present the child care workers with a monetary holiday bonus.
Child Care Space: We continue to enjoy use of the lovely, colorful new child care room in the basement of the Meeting House, which we have occupied for more than a year without any concerns. The agreement below is currently in place for our use of the child care room.
- The Child Care Center is licensed by the Child Care Administration of the Maryland State Department of Education. We are expected to follow the regulations mandated by this department to keep our [SFS] license.
- There will be one caregiver for each three infants (8 weeks - 23 months) and no more than 6 infants total. There can be no more than 10 pre-school aged children (24 months - 48 months) in the space provided.
- The SFS Center opens for the regular program each school day at 7:30 a.m. and the space must be clean and all equipment that has been used must be sanitized. All equipment must be returned to its labeled storage space. If any equipment is broken or damaged, it must be replaced by a new item. Linens, eating utensils, art supplies and food are not provided by the SFS Child Care Center.
- The office area is not to be used. All files are private and not open for inspection.
- The SFS Child Care Director will meet to have orientation training before the space can be used by another group on the weekend. The Director and SFS administrators of the program reserve the right to cancel this agreement if the terms are not followed.
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 $77.50 for each First Day, for child care from 10:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. and $100 for early child care on special occasions such as Business Meeting or Committee Meetings plus First Day. During July 2008 through June 2009, the budget was $4500, including $4250 for paying the child care professionals and $250 for supplies. Actual expenses were $4177.50 and $158.35 for supplies. For the current year, the total budget is $4500 and actual expenses from July 1 through the end of November have been $1727.50.
Child care during Meeting for Worship: In keeping with Maria and Peggy's licenses as Day Care Professionals, they are each licensed for no more than a total of 5 children per adult in the room and no more than two infants under the age of 2 per adult. Attendance in the room is limited to children from 6 months to 59 months. Parents of children who have turned 5 years old are requested to enroll their children in the First Day School K-1 class. Due to the SFS child care agreement, we will be able to accommodate no more than 16 total children (10 preschoolers between ages 24 and 59 months and 6 infants between ages 6 months to 24 months). During the period from November 2007 through December 2008, we provided care for 34 children who attended a total of 203 times.
Child care during special events: Requests for special events childcare were limited to early care on a few First Days for Business Meetings, Adult Religious Education classes, or Committee Meetings.
Volunteer Recruitment: 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. It is important for volunteers to enter their names in the Sign-In book at the top of the daily log, so that we know who has actually been with us. Most did, and of course we know who said they would volunteer. Assembling that information, we had 31 different people (including committee members) volunteer to assist in the childcare room. One person (a parent) volunteered three times on the spot. Four people volunteered twice. Volunteers ranged in age from some of our oldest members to two young people (Elyssa Grimm and Maya Schumaker). There was no volunteer on a number of First Days; however, there were only between 1 and 4 children present on those days. The infant room was rarely used (children 6 to 24 months old); people seem to prefer to bring sleeping infants to Meeting.
The big change this year was a switch to a computerized sign-up system, rather than relying on either committees or a bulletin board, cutting down on parents who were asked to stay at the last minute. We actively solicited from the total pool of adult members and attenders of more than 6 months time. People who were willing to have their names placed on a volunteer roster, to be alerted when we were in need of a fresh set of volunteers, signed up on a private part of the BFM website. Webmaster Bernie Benson had found a computer program for us that would allow us to sign up, knowing what weeks were already taken, which were still available, and - in case of a need to switch assigned days - who had taken each day. Ellie Szanton, our volunteer coordinator, publicized the new system, worked with Bernie to open new rosters of dates, educated new volunteers in the system, acknowledged and reminded volunteers, and identified untaken dates. This new system has greatly helped to shift the burden of volunteering from parents of our young children, most of whom had hoped to come to Meeting.
Snacks: Each First Day, the Committee provides a standardized snack consisting of Graham crackers, Ritz crackers, and water to the children. Our policy is to serve crackers as a 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.
Child Care Registration: We have continued registering children for the cooperative child care by having parents fill out a form at the front of the Log Book in order to better anticipate numbers of children we will have on a regular basis. We remind the Child Care Professionals to request parents of new children to complete the forms before leaving their child for the first time.
Committee Members Responsibilities:
- Committee Clerk: Susan Rich has stepped down after four years as clerk of child care in December 2009. Abigail Allen has graciously agreed to take on the role of Child Care Clerk, including the responsibilities of setting the meeting agendas, preparing the minutes, and writing the Annual Report (with assistance from Jane Thurber for finance). Abigail will remain the main contact for setting up child care for special events (Business Meetings, Committee Meetings, Weddings, etc.).
- Supplies: Sarah Gulden and Lily Conrad will purchase bulk supplies from Costco for 2010 (Play Dough is generally purchased from Target or Walmart. Lily has agreed to the duties from January to June and Sarah from July to December. They will be responsible for checking in with Peggy and Maria monthly or the child care professionals will call Lily or Sarah if supplies are needed.
- Committee Treasurer: Jane Thurber will continue as Committee Treasurer calculating and sending Peggy and Maria's hours to the BFM Treasurer every month for their pay checks. She will review the financial information with Dean Pruitt prior to each of our Child Care Committee Meetings and present the data to the committee, as well as to assist Abigail with the financial information for preparation of the Annual Report.
- Volunteer Recruitment: Ellie Szanton will continue working on volunteer recruitment until she moves to Baltimore later in 2010 (mid-year) including group e-mail list, quarterly e-mails to the volunteer list indicating months that the roster is open for signing up, and occasional announcements at the rise of Meeting for Worship and in the monthly newsletters. She agreed to reach out to others in the Meeting to assume this role when she leaves and would train them in the system.
Clerk, Child Care Committee
