Re: Convention - childcare, etc.

[Guest guest]

,

I would be happy to fill out the survey as soon as I receive it. I agree

that registration went much better this year as well. I too would agree

that leaders for smaller groups of children is essential. After all, we all

preregistered with our children's needs etc, so they knew ahead of time. I

think it would be unreasonable to expect individual cubby holes for each

child, but if a bag is clearly labeled (as ours was) I'm not sure it's

unreasonable to expect folks to read the label before they remove or put

something in the bag. I just thought they were a little more disorganized

this year.

I certainly think the childcare was adequate enough for 2 days considering

the importance of attending the seminars without children. I never felt her

safety was compromised. I will certainly take your advice about an

additional label on my child with her eating schedule. And I'll just check

on her more frequently and offer her food myself.

Thanks for listening and forwarding it on to !

Dayna

Convention - childcare, etc.

> Dayna - I forwarded your email to s, since it was so

> specific. MAGIC is really struggling with how to handle the

> dramatic increase in attendance of children (thanks to the RSS

> division). Childcare is very difficult to manage in a HOTEL, in a

> ballroom that is not set up for childcare. Having a professional

> company come in is hard enough, but they can't bring in their own

> setup (can bring toys, etc) but things like labeled cubbies, etc. --

> impossible. This year the registration, etc. seemed to go much

> better. But daycare costs us BIG time. And the field trip has

> gotten to be very difficult to manage, with children of such a

> variety of ages (ages 6 to 15+) and the kids that are older act in

> ways that may not be appropriate for the 6 yr olds, etc.

>

> MAGIC will be sitting and thinking very hard about all this, before

> we plan for next year. I am a firm believe that we NEED childcare --

> we simply can NOT have children in the presentations. And both

> parents really need to be in the sessions. But I will be honest

> that depending on the complaints we get about the childcare, if we

> can't make the parents happy with the childcare (considering that it

> costs us a MASSIVE amount of money on top of the $15 per child you

> pay), MAGIC may have to consider cancelling the field trip and the

> childcare.

>

> Katy and I would truly appreciate it if you could take the time to

> fill out her convention feedback survey with complete honesty, and

> make sure to add in information about whether you thought the

> childcare was essential to you, adequate, not adequate, etc

> (keeping in mind that it is only temporary 1-day childcare not

> childcare that your child will be in long-term at home). What

> suggestions might you give? My suggestion for the future is an

> assigned " leader " for each group of children, and then those

> children's belongings are together, and there is a chart on the wall

> for those kids. Parents can write notes for their child on that

> posterboard (Must Eat every hour).

>

> Another Hint that I still use with , even though she is 8

> years old. I put the blank name badge labels on her shirt when she

> goes to a camp, that says " Must Have Snack at 9am, 10am, 11am " . The

> camps have multiple counselors and I know that they can't remember

> the specifics for every child. This helps them remember. So maybe

> labels might be a suggestion as well? Anything else, make sure to

> write it down when Katy sends out the survey.

>

> Thank you for your help, so we can make the convention better.

> Salem

>

>

>

>

> > > > Hey, not that it really matters, but I have noticed a lot of

> > > > sickness on the list lately. I am thinking Emma picked up

> > > something

> > > > at the daycare at convention? She was there both days and now

> has

> > > > fever, runny nose etc....

> > > >

> > > >

> > > > Anyone else wondering?

> > > >

> > > > Beth

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

[Guest guest]

Dayna - I absolutely agree, and did send on your email to along

with one other one that had some really good ideas. We love it when

people give us feedback (well, constructive feedback that is, HA!)

We need to continually look for ways to improve things, while not

increasing our costs.... ha!!!! So we'll take any suggestions we

can get!!!!

Thank you, as always.

> > > > > Hey, not that it really matters, but I have noticed a lot

of

> > > > > sickness on the list lately. I am thinking Emma picked up

> > > > something

> > > > > at the daycare at convention? She was there both days and

now

> > has

> > > > > fever, runny nose etc....

> > > > >

> > > > >

> > > > > Anyone else wondering?

> > > > >

> > > > > Beth

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >