Babysitting Group

I was reading a post at The Cozart’s blog about starting a babysitting co-op. I’ll write more about their model next week. One thing I got from the post is that you don’t need a complicated system to keep track of your babysitting co-op. It can be as simple as giving all of the members tickets that they can use like cash.

So you’ve found a group of families who are interested in joining your babysitting co-op. Now what?

The first thing you need to do is call a co-op meeting. At this meeting you have two objectives:

1. Get the details of everyone joining your co-op,
2. Establish the co-op rules.

If this is the first time that some of your co-op members have met each other then I would recommend adding a social component. It’s important that your co-op members feel comfortable with each other and they trust the other co-op members to look after their children.

Tip: Make sure you introduce everyone as they arrive.

Right now some of you are probably thinking that your co-op is informal and you don’t need rules. This is a big mistake. Having co-op rules will make your life a lot easier as everyone knows where they stand. If your co-op is points based then you might be able to use the following rules as a starting point:

1. Membership

   1. Founding Members

      1. Any family at the founding meeting can become a co-op member.
      2. Each founding family is given 20 points.

   2. New Members

      1. New families can join the co-op at any time providing at least half of the families in the co-op agree and none objects.
      2. New families are given 20 points when they join the co-op.

   3. Leaving Members

      1. Families may choose to leave the co-op providing they have at least the 20 initial points,
      2. Their points, less the 20 initial points, will be distributed evenly with the other co-op members.

   4. Fees

      1. There is an annual fee of $10 per family per year to cover the cost of running the co-op.

2. Meetings

   1. An annual general meeting will be held each year to elect a secretary.
   2. Regular meetings will be held every 2 months to discuss any issues.
   3. The secretary is responsible for:
      1. Organizing and chairing all co-op meetings.
      2. Collecting annual fees.
      3. Keeping financial records for the year.
      4. Maintaining the co-op book.

3. The Book

   1. The book is the official record of the babysitting co-op and is used to track all babysitting that occurs within the co-op.
   2. It is the responsibility of the families providing babysitting to make sure that it is recorded in the book. Any babysitting that is not recored in the book did not happen.
   3. The book may be inspected by any current co-op members at any time.

4. Babysitting

   1. Any family can ask any other family to provide babysitting.
   2. Families may decline to babysit without providing a reason.
   3. All babysitting is to be provided at the childs house unless otherwise agreed.

5. Points

   1. Between 6am and midnight each half hour, or part there of, is worth 1 point
   2. Between midnight and 6am every 15 minutes, or part there of, is worth 1 point
   3. Points are not dependent on the number of children

NY1 has put up a video of their weekend feature about babysitting co-ops offering a creative alternative to child care. It contains a few of idea about how to save money on babysitting.

So you’ve read what a babysiting co-op is and you want to start one. What now?

The first step is to find other families that might be interested in joining. Finding them is easier than you expect. Start by trying:

1. Friends and family with children
2. Parents in your mothers group
3. Parents in your playgroup
4. Parents of your children’s friends.

Your group will work best if the members all live close to each other. Try to limit travel time to less than 15 minutes. If the members are too far apart then the group may fragment into sub groups or fail because no one wants to travel.

Once you have a list of families you need to call a meeting. For a successful co-op you will want a minimum of 5 families so invite a few extra in case some decide to not join. As part of the meeting invitation you should provide a basic explanation of what the co-op is and how it works. This will make the meeting easier as everyone will have a common understanding.

At the meeting you will need to answer questions about how the co-op will run. Prior to the meeting you should prepare by writing down the rules for your co-op. My next post will cover how to prepare for this meeting.

By the end of the meeting you should have a list of 5 or more parents who will become the founding members of your babysitting group.

I came across this article about a week ago. Being part of a babysitting co-op is more than just swapping babysitting duties. It provides:

• friends for your children to play with,
• a support network when you need advice,
• people to trade toys and equipment with
• people you can borrow equipment from

The article includes cost saving ideas such as sharing parties.

Babysitting co-ops use a points base system. Using points has a number of advantages. First you don’t need to provide babysitting to families who babysit for you. Here’s an example with 3 families where each family provides 5 points worth of babysitting for another family.

• Family A => Family B (5 points)
• Family B => Family C (5 points)
• Family C => Family A (5 points)

Secondly you can adjust the points to take into account factors such as the number of children and the time of babysitting. A good example of this is doubling the points value after midnight to discourage parents from staying out too late.

When you start your co-op each family is given an initial number of points. This allows the families to use babysitting before they provide it and is essential to getting the co-op running. Points are then deducted from the family that uses babysitting and added to the family that provides it.

To keep the co-op running you will want to impose a minimum and maximum number of points that each family can have. This is to prevent two extremes:

1. The family who spends more points than they could reasonable earn.
2. The family who babysits for everyone but rarely uses points just in case they need them.

Both of these can be fatal to your babysitting co-op.

Paying for babysitting can easily add $50-$100 to your night out. That’s if you can find an available babysitter that you trust. Babysitting co-op’s are formed by a group parents who exchange babysitting services. This means you have a pool of trusted babysitters available and all it will cost you is time babysitting other children.

Families in the co-op earn points by providing babysitting for other families which they spend when they require babysitting. Because the co-op is a closed points based system you don’t need to provide babysitting to the person who babysits for you.

I’ll cover the maths behind your babysitting co-op in the next post. Don’t worry, it’s not very complicated to understand and even easier to do.

At Zoombug we’re working on an application to help you manage your babysitting co-op/group. Development is underway and the application will enter public beta shortly. Until then we going to be blogging here about

• What a babysitting co-op is
• How to start your babysitting co-op
• How to run your babysitting co-op
• Development of BabysittingGroup.com

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