Child Care during Rehearsals

[trikellymck]

Hi Everyone,
I am new to this forum and I am the VP on the board of our local community band. I know there are a lot of people out there that can not join a community band because of child care problems. What I want to know is if there are other community bands out there that have child care services and how have you set them up?
We rehearse at a church, so we think that it wouldn't be a problem to have a room where someone could watch children.

thanks,
Kelly

 

[pete]

Most of my musical life was rehearsals in church. Heck, the Mesa Philharmonic rehearses at one of the churches I attended. The church has better acoustics.

You've got two issues: a) would the church provide room(s) for childcare and b) will there be an insurance requirement? While I might think that having CPR and Red Cross certs are good enough, a church might think a bit differently. You'd really hate it if little Johnny smacks himself into a wall and his parental units decide to sue both you and the church. At the very least, you should ask the facility manager.

 

[Gandalfe]

I think in most churches there is an insurance requirement for band room rentals. If you are not paying that you are lucky. Doing the babysitting might end up in waking the church up to insurance requirements and cost the band a lot of money.

 

[Steve]

Though it would be helpful. There were a few times I had to bring some of my children along to College bands in a college setting (the kids just were quiet for the most part - Nintendo DS) and jazz band in a church - kids were play with each other or Nintendo stuff.

It certainly would come in handy to parents especially if it was no cost.

 

[SOTSDO]

Handy, yes...

...but there is always someone around willing to "game the system" by claiming child abuse or any one of a myriad of "actionable issues" that (in a just and perfect system) may not prevail in the long run, but will (in the short run) cause no end of hurt for the organization that innocently provided the service. It's not the honorable way of making a living, but the world is full of less than honorable people, and occasionally they bump up against the rest of us.

This threat (of having to provide the defense, not the actions of the childcare folks themselves) is why businesses and employers opt out of providing such arrangements. It's an inconvenience for most, but less of a chance to take for the group that would ultimately have to bear all of the costs of such a course of action.

In short, the actions of a very, very few end up spoiling things for the very, very many. And, let's not forget that while there have been some cases of people crying wolf where no such wolf exists, there are also many, many cases where there was a real problem in the first place, cf the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church's recent struggles.

To say that organizations should stand up to such bullying is an easy (and popular) course to take as well. But, that's just talk and empty assertions - once the gamer/bully starts in on the innocent provider, all of that talk never translates into action (like paying a portion of the legal bills of the defense). Instead, those who were so quick to call for standing up are suddenly nowhere to be found.