BABY SITTING CO-OP
- Purpose:
- To enable parents to leave their child without concern for their welfare and without financial restriction. They should be free from a sense of imposing on the sitter.
- Membership:
- Membership fee is $5.00 (one time fee)
- If membership is terminated and 25 hours worth of coupons are turned in to the co-op your $5.00 is returned, if less then 25 hours are returned then there is no refund.
- Co-op Coordinator:
- Interpret rules and acts as an arbitrator
- Acquaint new members with co-op procedures. Gets them copies of the roster, rules, journal pages and blank medical release forms. The new member is responsible for filling out the forms, making two copies and sending one to the coordinator. The mother is then responsible for ensuring that a copy is handed to the sitter at each sit.
- Send any updated rules to all persons in the Co-op, including those on leave of absence.
- Keep membership list current and maintains waiting list.
- Check with members on usage of co-op.
- Organizes Co-op socials.
- General Rules
- Members arrange their own sitting time with other members. No mother has to use any particular baby-sitter and no mother has to baby-sit for any particular mother/child. No reasons for declining to use a particular sitter or for refusing to sit for a particular member are required. All decisions concerning the safety or appropriateness of any situation rests with the mothers involved.
- Socials will be held as scheduled by the co-op coordinator with input from co-op members.
- Children will be the sitter's main responsibility and will be under his/her constant care. Sitting will normally occur in sitter's home (rather than mother's), although other arrangements can be made.
- Sitter must provide the journal sheet for each sit.
- Sitter may not leave home, transport children in a car, or leave children in the car of another without written permission of mother, except in the extreme emergency.
- No spanking or hitting a child. Any discipline problems should be discussed with the parents.
- Any illness, however, minor, should be discussed with all members involved in a sit. A member is able to refuse to do a sit when any illness is suspected.
- A mother should contact and meet the sitter previous to the sit.
- When a member finds that she does not need the Co-op any longer, she should withdrawal her membership to make room for those on the waiting list.
- Any damage to property during a sit is the responsibility of the owner of such property.
- If sitting at the mother's home, sitter can bring her child(ren).
- All children shall have all their immunizations current.
- All of the information on the Sitters Information form must be filled out in full and should be handed to the sitter.
- Sits will be paid by using coupons. 25 Coupon hours are issued to each new member. They will consist of 17 hone hour coupons, 11 thirty minute coupons and 10 fifteen minute coupons. It is the responsibility of each member to retain their own coupons and try to keep them in usable condition. The coupons you receive for sitting are then yours to use.
- The co-op rules should be revised yearly with input form the co-op members.
- When needed, old coupons can be traded out for new coupons at the socials or via the Coordinator.
- The sitter and mother will use the "Journal" page to determine and agree on hours to be paid at the end of each sit.
- As a target, no member may accumulate more than 40 coupon hours or fall below 10 coupon hours. This will be an honor system. However, if the Coordinator notices a problem you will be contacted and discuss the situation and it could result in termination of your membership in the co-op.
- The co-op shall be used by co-op members only who are also members of MOMS Club of Burnsville, MN.
- It is advisable that members carry liability insurance, as covered by most homeowners or renters insurance policies, to cover the expense of injury or accident to other children in our home.
- Smokers are not permitted to smoke in the presence of another child.
- Guns must be kept in a locked gun cabinet. The mother must be informed if guns are on the property.
- The home should be reasonable child proofed.
- The sitter will not drink alcohol or take illegal drugs while sitting.
- Not group sits in which one family sits for more than one other family at a time.
- Neither the MOMS Club nor the coop members make any endorsement about the safety of any home nor any member's baby sitting ability.
- The coop may decline a member's request to join the coop based on home conditions or the assessment of the member's baby sitting techniques, but the fact that the coop has allowed a member to join the coop does not in any way indicate that the MOMS Club or the coop endorses the use of the home or member for baby-sitting.
- Rates
- Time is paid to the nearest 15 minutes.
- An overnight sit is from 8pm to 8am and counts as 6 hours unless night feedings are necessary. If the child wakes up during the night, the sitter will inform the mother and will discuss compensation.
- Sitting for 1 child will be paid at actual time.
- Sitting for 2 children of the same family will be paid at time and a half.
- Sitting for 3 or more children of the same family will be paid at double time.
- Time begins at the time that is agreed upon when filling in the journal form.
- At anytime the coupons may be sold to another co-op member for $1 per hour
- If sitting takes place on the following holidays the rate will be twice whatever the regularly rate is.
New Year's Eve
New Year's Day
Easter
Mother's Day
Father's Day
Memorial Day
July Fourth
Labor Day
Valentine's Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day