Minister of Minors ( was Re: [Ponte Alto] Chronicler job )

Mon Oct 18 09:12:12 PDT 2004

Greetings,

Yeah I know.  I can't spell and I love my reply button.  Delete the message to Lady Siobhán if uninterested.  Or fill her and me in on any other aspects of the possition of MOM that you may know and understand.

Thanks All.

YIS,
Lady Maria-Therese de Normand
Seneschal, Ponte Alto

Mary Bowles <mariatheresapontoon at yahoo.com> wrote:
Greetings Siobhán,

Wow!  You have some very good questions.  From what I could gather from the Atlantian Chancelor or Minor's Webpage and most especially the childrens corner section, http://kmom.atlantia.sca.org/KMOM_Policies/Guidelines/guidelines.html. Atlantia handles the childrens corner and therefore your running of it like a babysitting service. 1 adult for every 5 children.  Parents must sign themselves and the child in. The Corner co-ordinator must be 18 and any helpers 14 years or older in age. The parents are required to be reachable at all times and if they are not and become a persistant problem you can disallow there use of your services.  I will back you up on this.  No parent should be off site while the child is in your care this is in the rules we in Atlantia have online. Also Atlantia requires two childminders at all times. Currently it is not allowed under our present guidelines for one adult to be left alone with the children at any time.  If a child has to go to the bathroom the
 parents are called to deal with them. An adult and a helper are specified in the Atlantian guidelines for chancelors of minors. 

Uhm let see what else.  The supplies are provided by the MOM, but if it becomes to much to supply on your own, you may, and this is common enough, ask the event coordinator (autocrat) to supply funds for the corner, or ask the barony to supply a small fund for the upkeep of supplies. As Marseli is my roommate I kind of know there's not all the much spent on the kids corners, but then to, there are always great idea's that pop up for which we don't have money and really want to do.  Either way can be applied in that case.  

The Barony of Ponte Alto holds four events a year in which we might need the MOM.  At past events we have had anywhere from two to ten kids.  Ponte Alto itself has four children that are regularly seen at events but that's about it.

Forms are other paperwork are online and the only other requirements would be to make the meetings or send a proxy/report via me. File a quarterly report and an event report, sending copies to me.

Thanks for addressing these very pertinent issues.  I hope I've been clear--knowing that I ramble--If there are any other questions e-mail me and I'll try to answer them as quickly as possible. I like your ideas for the Webpage and I think you have some very good ideas.  I hope this position appeals to you and would like to see you as MOM.  So let me just say in conclusion that because the parents are on sight, and because the MOM's work in teams the legal ramifications for you and therefore Ponte Alto are minimal.  Parents are leaving children at a drop off service, kind of like at a church. Where they are on site and can be reached if a child gets hurt.  One of the things I'd advise if you serve food, not that serving food is your responsibility, is to find out if there are any allergies to be watched for. From my experience as a Nanny years ago, food allergies are quite common in under 12.

I hope this helps you make up your mind in favor of being Ponte Alto's MOM.  The Barony will be meeting on the 31st as I goofed and didn't arrange things at the last meeting for the pryor week. My bad. But if you would like to send in any e-mail annancement or greetings I will pass it along to the populace. :)

Thanks for offering your services.  I really appreciate it.

Yours In Service,

Lady Maria-Therese de Normand
Seneschal, Ponte Alto

l e storey <lestorey at yahoo.com> wrote:

Greetings, Lady Maria-Therese!

I'm still very new to the local SCA structure & such, but I do
recognize "Seneschal" as someone who is very much in the Know about the
Barony! That + your post about the chronicler position leads me to I
suspect you are a person I need to talk to about "officially" taking
over the Ministry of Minors / Childrens Corner -- I ran into Lucia at
University, but otherwise haven't had much contact after Chalice with
any Pontoons!

I have some questions that I suspect you may be able to answer --
largely about what the role entails from the Seneschal / Barony
perspective, as well as things like whether there is a budget for
materials, and so on. I want to make sure that I fully understand the
social & legal expectations of the position before I take it on
"officially." (E.g., from my understanding it's illegal for parents of
kids under 16 years of age to leave them with someone who isn't a legal
guardian. I'm going to look into this further, as I certainly want to
understand any legal liabilities I personally may be open to, as well
as the Barony and Society in general.)

I'd also like to get a web site space for the Corner, so I can
hopefully get some support & feedback from parents & Pontoons wrt to
"classes", materials, etc. (E.g., I'd love it if some of the Barony's
talent came by to sing/tell story/share craft/etc with the kids.) So a
page or two on what the Corner is all about, what we would like in
terms of donated materials, etc. as well as specific information either
on the event flyers and/or linked from the event flyers would be nice. 
(E.g., I have some Plans for ADATR that would be neat to add to the
flyer)

And I can imagine that you may have a sense of how many kids there are
in our barony, how many usually show up at events, and so on.

I also had the good fortune of meeting Baroness Molly (Dun Carraig) at
University -- she's done a =lot= with Minors in the past, and will
undoubtedly be a great resource for developing the Corner.

I'm planning on doing the Corner again at ADATR, and have already spent
far too much of my own money on Chalice :-) so the budget question in
particular is one I'd like to know about!

And I do still have the box of goodies from Marsaili ... there are
plenty of crayons, etc. but other interesting craft supplies are
dwindling!

There are also some larger "social" questions that I ran into when
running the Corner at Chalice -- in particular, the parents of the
children did =not= come to get them for lunch (I ended up feeding them,
with Sorcha's help & donated raisins), did not check on them, etc. I'd
like to understand from an SCA / Ponte Alto perspective what is
appropriate behaviour on the part of the parents, and what recourse I
have (with the support of the Barony, Society, etc) should I encounter
Troublesome People. I have read through the Kingdom & Society
rules/laws on the Minors activities, so I know that there is an
established "one strike" rule ... but I'm not sure how that compares to
"in the field" practices.

Anyways :-) That's a good (if rambling) start to my questions,
concerns, etc wrt to the Min of Minors. As buried somewhere in the
above text, I am planning on doing the Corner at ADATR -- some
questions (like whether the kids can be left alone with me) will need
to be addressed before/at ADATR, whereas others can happen
"organically" as time allows.

FWIW, I'm not sure atm whether I'll be able to attend the Baronial
meeting this month, assuming it will be on 31 Oct. I have folks in
from out-of-town, and will have to play that "by ear" that weekend. I
may be able to call in, if someone has a Blackbe rry or similar with
speakerphone, should there be any specific questions etc. 

YIS,

-Siobhán
cell 703 338 6812 / home 703 241 8570

--- Mary Bowles wrote:

> Greetings to the Barony at Large (and small) ;),
> 
> The job of Chroincler is now open. Unless Mistress Ann would like it
> back again. :) But that is doubtless since she was solisiting for
> this office three months ago. Keeping that in mind, if you are
> interested in taking notes at Barony meetings, and publishing and
> online and hard copy (5 prints) of your local groups newsletter
> please E- your Seneschal at mariatheresapontoon at yahoo.com ASAP. I do
> not want to have to be Chronicler too. So please put me out of my
> misery and apply now. You don't want to see me beg. It could get
> ugly. :)
> 
> YIS,
> Lady Maria-Therese de Normand
> Seneschal, Ponte Alto
> 
> ; Angel Ludwig wrote:
> hey pontoons,
> 
> I am sorry, but I have to bow out of the chronicler position. 
> 
> I have had a few too many life things happen in the last few months
> to be able to keep up with
> everything and this is one of the things that is slipping. I would be
> willing to fill-in or help
> out on a case-by-case, but I just can't keep up with it full time.
> I've already notified the
> Seneschal and turned over my files to her. 
> 
> Thank you all for the help I've received.
> 
> Angel
> 
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