no worries. if you found it helpful, perhaps someone else out there might as well.

another option that we explored but abandoned after the "the more we do, the more we're liable" talk was looking into what the local school district's policy is, and following that, but most school districts do have pretty strict guidelines, in addition to record keeping guidelines, which some shops may find too much oversight for not a lot of return in security.

On Sun, Feb 1, 2009 at 6:56 PM, Steve Klassen sklassen@mac.com wrote:

Wow, that is actually quite helpful advice. We never thought of the angle of 2:1 but it makes sense once you said it.Steve p.s. might be worth posting to the listserve but since it is your answer I will leave that to your discretion

On 1-Feb-09, at 7:12 PM, veganboyjosh@gmail.com wrote:

hi steve,

my original email got a few general responses, but i think the thread ended up officially hijacked.

we've got an attorney on our board, and some of the best advice he's brought to the table has been when he points out in cases like this that the more we try to cover ourselves, the worse things will be for us if something bad does end up happening.

for now, our policy is something to the effect of "youth involved in any activities hosted by or at community cycles shall be chaperoned by no less than two adults at all times." this is in addition to staff youth workers all being subject to a background check prior to working with any youth.

that's about as tight as we can make it without getting into background checks for every volunteer, or everyone comes into the shop, etc...

hope that helps.

josh.

On Sun, Feb 1, 2009 at 1:27 PM, Steve Klassen sklassen@mac.com wrote:

...

HI, Josh, did you get any responses to your query?We have had lots of challenges Our plan is to involve some interested people form Big Brothers to help us create a better setup for young volunteers Steve

Steve Klassen Bicycles for Humanity c/o Klassen Family Practice 303-1265 Arthur St. E. Thunder Bay, ON P7E 6E7 CANADA

work (807) 622-3737 fax- (807) 623-1969 paging (807) 623-7451 tbaybikes@mac.com

www.b4hthunderbay.org

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead

On 16-Jan-09, at 12:22 AM, veganboyjosh@gmail.com wrote:

we're hard at work on Community Cycles' shop manual, and we're wondering if any of you have any formal policies for shop volunteers and/or staff that you'd feel like sharing. i'm imagining something to the effect of "at least two staff must be present when kids are around..." or something like that.

on a somewhat related note, have any of you had any experience with someone--staff, volunteer, customer, etc--being inappropriate around kids, (aside from normal bad language..) that you had to deal with a parent for? i'd be interested in hearing about that experience...

thanks!

josh. _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit:

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