(no audio) - I'll introduce myself. I'm Valerie. I am a parent. I have two kids, Micah and Calvin. So one's named Sprouts and one is named Z. And then I have one husband named James. (laughter) - Why, why? - Yes, and we've been at Brandy's for a really long time.

We've been at Brandy's since I was in high school and I'm 36 now, so it's like a long time. So it's really cool. We never ever had a seat next to Z. We had seats before because there were only like 20 people and we have like four kids, but it's really crazy that we have this now.

And he's in that bathroom a long time. (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) (laughter) - I'm Jenni, I'm married to Brian, and I have one child, his name is Uriah, and he is in the Feeds magazine.

- I said I've been here for like a really long time. - I remember when I first came, you were in overalls. (laughter) Well I'm not saying that she was like that young, but she was literally in overalls. (laughter) And it's all coming back. - I started coming, like fresh things, not from during the holidays.

So I was 19, that was a long time. (laughter) (chatter) (chatter) (chatter) - Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for the privilege of being able to serve the body of the brain, or dying. Really having a heart for our children, a desire, Lord, to see them grow, to come to this state of knowledge, and what your son did in our birth in particular.

God, I pray that that will resonate with us more on a daily basis, God, that will shape who we are, and shape how we are doing ourselves. Our trajectory, really, for the rest of our lives. I pray that that would shape us, Lord, in our service to our church.

Lord, that you would help it to be grounded in you and in your work. And Lord, I pray that as we cover safety, Lord, oftentimes it can seem like a logistical matter, but I pray, Lord, that you would help us, Lord, to really convey with the Spirit why we go over these principles, Lord, and how we desire to serve the body best, Lord, by instituting these policies, God.

I pray that you would help us, Lord, to be a blessing to our church, Lord, in making sure that these policies are held and adhered to. And I pray, God, for all of the people here in this room who have hearts of service, or that they desire to be rendered in you.

I pray that they would continue to walk low in you, God, that they would really do their best, Lord, in their walks, God, and to be intimate in hellish in you, so that that would bleed through their service, God, that the children would be able to see who they are, Lord, and how they desire the Lord to emulate them in whatever way.

So, would you be with Val and yourself today as we present this, God, to them? I pray that you would be with us in Jesus' name. So, first, we just wanna thank all of you guys for coming, and we will try and get through it as quickly as we can, okay?

The first thing we really wanna go through is just the stewardship of children, and all of us as volunteers have a particular responsibility for these kids. And, I mean, we have kids, but we really see them as gifts that God has entrusted to us, and we entrust those most precious gifts to you guys, who are volunteering with them, or maybe watching them.

And so, it's really a ministry. The goal of having these children is that they would know Christ. That is the end goal for us as parents, and we hope that that is the end goal for you guys as volunteers, is that you would love our children just as Christ loves our children, just as we love our children, and that it's really setting an example for them of just being a Christian, of what a genuine Christian looks like, and whether that's playing with them, whether that's teaching them, and whatever context that you are, that is our goal, is that they would see Christ in genuine faith in each one of us.

So that means it's not just like you're just babysitting them, but there is an overarching purpose as to why you're there. So it's ministering to the children, praying for them, supporting and encouraging us as parents, who are primarily responsible for their discipleship. So ultimately, it is our responsibility as parents, and you guys are really coming alongside and helping us in that goal, and so we really do appreciate that as parents.

We hope that you don't ever feel like we just take babysitters or anyone who's working with our children for granted, but that is such an important thing for us as parents, to entrust you with them, and that is something we're working together for. And really seeing our children as worshipers with an eternal destiny, either heaven or hell, and that they are souls to be cared for, and that in the end, we want them to know Christ, we want them to be saved.

So just really having that kind of perspective going into whatever service that you may have with our children, just want to put that on there first. Okay, so there are a lot of procedures that we're putting into place, just because there are just so many people that are volunteering.

Like I'm looking at you guys, and I really don't know most of you guys, and you guys are the ones who are watching our kids. So in one sense, as a parent, that's really scary, because you guys are the ones interacting with them, but I don't know who you are.

And so we're trying to put these procedures in place just to make things safer, just so that we know at least people are members, people know what kind of safety procedures across the board as a church that we have. So the basic general screening procedures, there are two types now.

If you are a general, like one-time special events, which includes like one-day conferences, or our retreats, or VBS, family ministry events, Reformation Night, Bible study, babysitting, things like that, it's like one time, you're not doing it consistently, like seeds or sprouts or your staff number, then this is the general procedure now.

You have to be a church member for at least one year, you have to fill out that general application that is online, and you have to attend the safety training, which we're still deciding how often you have to retake that but somewhere between three to five years. And the process is different than if you are a current SO staff teacher or volunteer, like in the ministry.

So if you happen to already gone through the process of being a SO, like teacher or volunteer, then this is probably like, you were definitely already like in, right? But if you were the other way, it doesn't work the other way. So you would have to go through a more rigorous process.

And that would be, you have to fill out, oh, oh, oh, okay. And this is just for in general, like there are kids, like youth group volunteers that will happen to join at certain times. So you as a volunteer should know, okay, if I happen to be like babysitting, and I know that this person is babysitting with me, either they are a church member, they have to have followed all those previous requirements.

And if you know they haven't, they should not be with the kids, okay? So you cannot recruit them to babysit for Bible study or whatever it may be, unless you know that they meet these three requirements. And if you're not sure, then you should ask Pastor Mark, you can ask Jane now, you can ask me, you can ask Jen and I, because they have to have these requirements where they are not allowed to babysit children, they cannot be volunteering.

The same goes for youth and youth group volunteers, and they have to fill out a permission form by their parents, and then they have to be supervised by an adult at all times. So if you have a youth group volunteer with you at Reformation Night or at BDS, they have to be with an adult.

They can't be just by themselves. And especially for junior high or children junior high, they should have a parent with them. And they cannot have any kind of supervisory role, and they can't take any minors to the bathroom. So just so that you know that if you happen to be in that situation, and you're like, oh, they're in my team, like for food team, or they're in my team for like, we're playing a game, and they're like, oh, I'm gonna take this kid to the bathroom, they're not allowed to, okay?

So just so that you know that. Then if you ever wanna become part of the SO staff, teacher, TA, or volunteers, you have to be a church member for one year, if they have a more rigorous application. You have to fill out a background authorization or reference check form, and have, and Officer Joe does all of the reference check, background checks, and he keeps them very safe and very secure, 'cause he's an officer.

And there's a safety training, and there's CPR training for any nursery leads in any of the three areas. They also have to renew their commitment every year, update their application, and re-sign the background authorization form, so that if at any time we feel like there's something weird, that we can back her up.

Okay, so that's just a final thing. (audience laughing) And just for your personal, you know, peace of mind, all information is confidential, nothing is disclosed. Nobody knows what's on those, except for who needs to know those things, and usually, unless Officer Joe sees something like that, like, okay, this is a concern, then he will tell the proper pastor or leader to, you know, to do their own care.

Okay, so I'm gonna go into the children's health and background form. So this is a form, or a questionnaire, that we have all students within our ministry, within our SOAR ministries, right, that's seeds, sprouts, and vines, fill out. And it must be filled out either electronically or in paper form, okay?

I think for seeds, we have it all in Google Docs. (audience laughing) Well, we transitioned to that right now. So the only times that we have it in paper form for our students now is if they're a newcomer or they're just a one-time visitor. And so that's how we keep them now.

Now, it's really important that we know what's in these forms specific. I know, at least to our ministry, a little bit more stringently than others, because we need to know, okay, do they have any kind of allergies, right, food restrictions that are tied to that, any type of medical conditions, you know, that they may have where they can't, you know, play on the ground, they might get in their head, it's not good for them.

You know, any kind of diaper preferences, you know, or bathroom preferences. Some parents will not let our volunteers take their child to the bathroom, and that's okay, because that is their preference. You know, we want to respect that. We can have their contact info if we should. We need to let them know, you know, about an emergency or anything that might have cropped up that they would probably want to know about.

And we want to also make sure that if there's any discipline issues, some parents like to deal with the discipline directly rather than have a teacher or one of our volunteers to do that, and that's perfectly fine. You know, each family has their way of, you know, raising their children, we want to respect that.

So it's really important, and you're gonna hear me say, if you guys are volunteering for seats, you'll hear me say all the time, check the sticker on the back, does it say it's okay? Did you check to see if there's any type of allergy to meat or egg or peanut butter, all those things.

We keep all that in mind, even when they sit down at snack time, so they're away from people that might have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, right? 'Cause some parents don't know, right? And then that happens, so something to consider. - And something, if you're babysitting, 'cause I know there's a lot of people who are babysitting this time around, if you're there, you should probably ask the parents or whoever to have them pack their own snack, or have someone post on their Facebook to pack their own snack so that you don't have any issues with this, like, allergy, like, what they can or can't eat, just like, each child has their own, like, stuff.

- So arrival and departure procedures for our seats ministry, which is our nursery ministry, we have everything by electronic stickers, so whenever you see the kids come in, or you see the kids running around, sometimes they'll have this big white sticker on the back, right, that's impossible to take off.

I know parents have told me they've laundered it, and it's like forever, per box, stickers, right? But we have that for them, and then Sprouts, they actually have to physically sign in, their children have to sign their children out as well. We do make sure that we check to ensure that we have that information, Sarah is really vigilant about making sure if there are any parents that have been coming out for a while and we haven't filled that out, we need to make sure that that's filled out so we know how to care for the child.

It's also important that children are only released, right? On the sticker you'll see at the absolute bottom, and you'll see on the sign in and out sheet for Sprouts, who the child can be released to. So we're pretty hyper-vigilant about that, I think the only time we allow our leader to take them to their parent is if it's taking a really long time, we don't know what's going on, and it's only the head person, so it would either be Melissa Long, or it would be Sarah that would take the child directly to their parent if something should happen.

A security camera, so in case you guys don't know, we have security cameras in the main sanctuary, we have them, one's right behind you, we have them recording 24/7 in our church, because this kind of came from our old office that pretty much had an open door all the time, and then we found that there were some people that weren't attending their trip that were coming in to use our restroom, right?

And then suddenly certain things would go missing, so we put those in place just to make sure there wasn't any kind of vandalism or theft, but also mainly for the safety and security of our children, right? So you'll see them in the main sanctuary and also in the ministry areas.

And then the healthy childhood policies, so we have this posted actually at the front of each ministry welcome area, and we do that just to notify parents that should you see that your child is sick, that we will let them know, or just to abide by that policy in general.

So we always say, we wanna make sure that we let them know, because sometimes they have a lot of kids, and they may not always know the exact health condition of each child they have, right? So sometimes, I know for us in SEEDS at least, we'll see a child that has really bad runny nose, and we're not sure, but we check with the parent and we'll text them or we'll call them, be like, "Hey, do you know if they're okay?" Sometimes they have no idea, or they just pop a fever in SEEDS.

That's happened. Or suddenly their kid is laying on the floor napping, and then we realize later they had hand, foot, mouth, right? And so this stuff happens, right? We don't know what they interact with outside in their environment when they're in the playground, or when they're interacting at daycare, or whatever might be the case.

So that's stuff that we want you to look out for, and we want you to be able, not to feel like you can't tell the parent, 'cause you don't wanna disturb their worship. There's that element too, but they're also gonna wanna know if their child's sick. They're gonna be like, "I have to worship.

"Please tell me my child's sick later." You know what I mean? They're gonna wanna know that. So it's really important that you keep an ear out for that, that you have an eye out, and that you inform the parents as soon as possible. - Yeah, and you want to make sure if there is like, really like they're sick, like whatever context you're in, babysitting, whatever, and you see if it is sick, you need to tell the parent, because you don't want to infect everyone else that's there.

And so it's like really gross. (laughing) Right, so. - 'Cause we have 60 kids in nurseries, so when you infect one, right, it spreads like wildfire. - So the two caregiver rule. This is a very important one, okay? It means that at least two qualified adult caregivers should be present in each classroom, studying, whatever it may be, at all times.

And this consists of one male and one female, or two females. It is never two males, ever. It is never one male. It is always two people, one male and one female, or two females, okay? And we consider adults to be the age of 18 or older. Just putting it out there.

Okay, and this is just because, just as a caregiver for your own protection too, that you're not ever alone with a child, and you're giving someone ever reason to question why you're alone with that child. So especially if you are babysitting in someone's home, always have two people. If you're in Sprouts or Seeds or wherever you are, even if you're just playing with them, don't be alone with them.

Just always have someone else with you so that they are, it's just safer that way, okay? And then you always have backup too. If you don't know what you're doing, or something emergency happens, there's two of you. So one can save the child, one can go or get help, or whatever it may be.

It's just safer in pairs, okay? So this also has to do with the restroom procedures, because these are also important. So for Seeds, diaper change must be authorized by a parent. So if a parent did not say that you could change their diaper, you cannot change their diaper without asking their approval, or if I'm saying, "Here, change my diaper," you need to make sure that they've authorized it.

For Sprouts, for older kids that are kindergarten age or older, who can go to the bathroom, they can go to the bathroom by themselves, they can pull their pants down and all that stuff, it's one female or one male can take them, but you have to leave the door open, like a jar.

So you can't just be in the bathroom closed, so if you're in this bathroom, the door has to be ajar. They can go and use the restroom by themselves, but the door has to be slightly open. And again, you have to have authorization from the parent. If they need help, you have to have gotten permission in order to do that.

And if they didn't, then you need to go and call that parent to come and assist their child. Youth group students, again, do not take children to the bathroom. Okay, so use of seeds and sprouts bathrooms. In each area, there are seeds and sprouts, there are bathrooms specifically designated for seeds and sprouts.

Male volunteers and teachers are not allowed to use those bathrooms while sew is in session. So I think there's like signs around here, so it's between like 10 or something. No male volunteers are allowed to be using that. You have to use the sanctuary or upstairs bathroom, upstairs cafe bathrooms.

And non-sprouts adults, so like even me as a parent, are should not be using those bathrooms, okay? So if you see a parent wandering in here, like, "Oh, I gotta go pee," just run to the other bathroom. They're not allowed to be in here. All right, so I'll go ahead and go over the accidents that might happen within the ministry.

Sometimes there's injuries that occur. Some kids get a little bit feisty and they start running around and then they bump into each other's heads, right, when they're running around the room. This has happened, you know? And so any type of injury, no matter how minor or major, we always wanna make sure that we have an injury report form filled out, okay?

You'll find that in the binder, and if you don't know where that is, you can go ahead and talk to the lead within your ministry and they'll go ahead and direct you to that form. We always make sure that we fill that out in its entirety and we give a copy to the parents so that they're aware of the situation and we keep a copy for our ministry.

And we do that because you never know what could happen from two people colliding, right? I've had kids collide and then it turns into a worse issue later, or I think I've actually, I'm not gonna spout this, I think, like, you know, I've had a couple of cousins collide and one of their teeth, like, hit their other cousin's head, right?

And it was, like, really, like, frightening for me, you know? So you wanna make sure that you let the parents know right away, right, because they need to go and seek treatment for their kid's mouth or for the head, you know, if it got hit really hard. Even with, you know, little things, minor things, you don't know if it'll grow to bigger things, so it's really important.

Now, if they have, like, this little cut and they're like, oh, I need a band-aid, I don't want you to write a major report for that, okay? They might have already had that, right? But if it's something that happens within our ministry, and, you know, we need to let the parents know and just make sure that parents know.

Okay, so going over first aid and emergency procedures. So if you don't know where the first aid kit is located, make sure that you ask your ministry leader, because each ministry has it somewhere within that room or within that space, okay? It's important for cuts, or not for cuts, I'm sorry, for cuts or anything that requires any type of first aid, so make sure that you know where that is.

And we also have emergency procedures posted in every, I think at the front of every ministry area. So if you don't know where that is, make sure you take a look at that 'cause it really varies yourself with that as well. And we have an AED, actually, for people who don't know, we have a defibrillator.

In our church, it is actually, right when you enter into the main sanctuary and you see that table right in front of you, and you turn and there's that drink stand that everyone puts their drinks on, right? The AED is right next to it. It's a big, it's not big, actually.

- Yeah, it's like a red box. - It's kind of a small, red box. - Yeah. - And so if you ever need to use a, you need the AED defibrillator, you can go ahead and get it off that wall there, okay? All right, so church boundaries. So in general, just so you guys kind of know where kids are not, where kids are and are not allowed, they are not supposed to be in the kitchen at any time because we've got knives in there, we've got sharp objects that we don't want them interacting with, right?

Kitchen or alleyways because we don't have a lot of visibility there, right? They should not be in those areas. We want them to stay within the building as much as possible, whether that's at the cafe area or any type of general area where there's a lot of people, especially you, right, as a parent, if you are a parent, right?

It's important that you're there. It's really important that if you are going to have your child's piece of playground that you make sure that they are being monitored by an adult, whether it's a friend of yours or yourself, make sure that you have an adult there with them. We absolutely do not want children riding in vehicles, and we'll get to that in a bit with the field trips and the liability form in the next slide, but make sure that they are not riding in your vehicles, especially alone with you, okay?

And make sure that you're staying in view of people at all times, like you said, that two-caregiver rule, that should be something that if I know that I'm alone with the child, even though I've been at church forever, right, I want the accountability just like I want the accountability for everybody else, right?

So first thing I do is I make sure that another person knows I'm either in there or with me, and then I notify the parent, hey, I'm here with your child, 'cause there are times when I come into a room and I'm like, oh my gosh, you're young, right?

And where's your mom, right? And that happens 'cause the kids love open space, right? They will go, right, where they can go, so make sure that you always stay in view of people and don't leave them unattended, make sure you notify their parent right away. - Yeah, and right now, it's like there's a lot of kids like running throughout the building, sometimes they're out like right in front of here, so if you just happen to see a kid by themselves, like just as a, you know, helpful adult around, like ask them where their mom and dad are and try to return them back to their parents, because ultimately, it is responsibility of parents to keep track of their children, but the reality is that they are oftentimes running around by themselves, but they shouldn't be, okay?

So just, I guess, help them out, help us out, and yes. - Well, for the seats, kids, I've asked the parents to leave their stickers on their back so that when they're running around, if you don't know who their parent is, their phone numbers are on that sticker, so you can text the parents.

- Okay. All right, and last thing I wanna go over is field trips, all right, in general libraries. So field trip waivers must be completed before any child or student, specifically, are allowed to go on any type of excursions, and especially if they're gonna ride in any vehicle, stand in place for a trip to them, okay?

We definitely ask for you to use caution when giving students car rides. I always say make sure you have authorization and permission from their parent, you know, or at least notify them, let them know, hey, these people are riding in my car. I think it's really important that we keep ourselves accountable to that.

Do not, try your best, I know emergencies arise, right, try your best not to be alone with a student in the car, because that is something that we don't want to have happen. Like, instead of the caregiver role, make sure that we have that accountability, or if you're the driver, that there's a group of students with you, there's none of this one-on-one interaction, okay?

And then also make sure that, you know, one thing that we require is that you prove liability for an assignment and we want them to not be put on these rides. - Okay, so character and conduct. All right, so we kind of touched upon this in the beginning, but, so there's that kind of character and conduct, but there's also just, you know, general conduct with kids.

All teachers and volunteers must wear their name tags while serving. So this is within, like, on church on Sunday. You'll notice that this SO ministry has orange name tags, and that's to identify that they are serving, that they're supposed to be there. And so if you are serving within one of these ministries, you should always be wearing your name tag while you're there.

Use appropriate language and discipline with the kids. Again, the whole point of this is we are trying to show, you know, the love of Christ to them, and, you know, there are times when they are not behaving, they are, you know, sinful children to, you know, they're gonna be fighting, or they might talk back, they might do something, you know, whatever it may be.

But we're not yelling or speaking harshly, and just really explain to them why they're being disciplined, exemplify forgiveness, and to just pray for them, and really use that as a ministry opportunity to, you know, just talk about, you know, and then, like, sharing the gospel with them. There's many times when, you know, my kids have, like, done something, fighting over something really lame, and then, you know, it's a really good time just to talk about, you know, selfishness, or pride, or just, you know, loving someone else, and those kinds of things.

So, really use those things as opportunities for ministry. And, again, like, just politely ask all non-volunteers to remain outside of ministry rooms during service, which a lot of times happens that people wanna come in because they're like, "The cute kids, "and I wanna play with them, "and I know that one," or, you know, whatever it may be, but they are not allowed in these rooms while the ministry is happening, or going on during service, so just tell them they can go play with them.

Okay. All right, so I wanna go into the thing that no one ever wants to talk about, but it happens, and I'm just going to preface this with the fact that, you know, all of the things that we have in place are in place for a purpose, but we cannot perfectly protect our kids from everything.

They will get hurt, and things will happen. That's all under God's sovereignty, but all the things that do happen that are bad, and evil in the world, they are a result of our sin, and they do happen. I really like this quote. I was reading this book called On Guard, Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse at Church, and it's by Pastor Deepan Briju from Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

And it says, "Keep in mind, though, "that no adult can perfectly protect their kids "from evil in this fallen world. "Even homeschoolers who spend the majority "of their time at home or at church "can't avoid the long tentacles of the internet "and social media that reach beyond the walls of our homes "and into our children's lives.

"The sad reality is that no matter how careful we are, "some of our children will be abused, "and it will likely happen right under our noses. "We'll be fooled, and we'll hate the fact "that we were not with it enough to catch the perpetrator "before he or she did harm.

"A realistic perspective on life in a fallen world "is not that we can perfectly protect our kids, "but that with wisdom, carefulness, and planning, "we can reduce the risk." And that's really why if we're doing what we can, we can put all these procedures in place, we can put policies, but if things will happen that are out of our control.

And so, just putting that out there before we talk about inappropriate relationships with students, it does happen, and in our church history, this has happened. And so, I'm putting it out there that if you are working with youth group kids, if they're older and you can have deeper conversations with them, but they are still children, they are not adults, and your goal as a person who's working in ministry with them is not to create this deep relationship with them necessarily, but it is to be a minister, to be a teacher, to be a light to them, and so not to abuse that kind of relationship.

And again, the whole thing is not to be alone and create environments where possible things could happen, so have another adult with you, just like as Jennai said, as an accountability. Always touch appropriately. Teachers, volunteers may not request a child to remove garments other than jackets or shoes. Physical affection such as hugs or kisses do not solicit them from the kids, even though a lot of times we do, because we may know their family or their parents, but within the context of the church setting and you are caring for them as a caregiver in the church, refrain from doing that, 'cause then other workers or people, volunteers, might think, "Hey, that's okay, I can do that too, "because she's doing that or he's doing that," but really, within this context, we should not be doing that, so don't ask for hugs, don't ask for kisses, and don't ask for them to sit in your lap unless they just, really don't want to be back into you and they sit on your lap, which is a lot of times that happens.

Or even piggyback rides or wrestling, which is what a lot of kids seven through 10, "No wrestling, I'm gonna wrestle you," but just refrain from those kinds of things, if possible, within this environment. If you think it's okay and their parent's okay with that outside of it, then sure, okay, be cautious and wise about it, but within this context of church, just refrain from that.

Reporting inappropriate behavior or abuse. So, on one end, it's possible that as caregivers, people can possibly use that role in that relationship, and I'm saying, we're putting this out there 'cause it happens, if you Google search, like right now, church molestation, there's a bunch that just happened. Saddleback Church, it just happened a few months ago, like their youth pastors and volunteers.

The same procedures that I based all the things on for Rock Harbor, a pastor there was molesting children at that church, and that was like five years ago. It happens, and it's sad, and that's the reality of it, and so I'm just putting that out there because it does happen, and I don't want us to be unaware and caught off guard 'cause a lot of people prey on the fact that in churches, we trust one another, and that's a good thing, but we don't, yeah, I don't know, you don't understand, okay.

So, I don't want it to be like we create this environment where we're like always questioning, oh, this could be, but I don't want us to be naive either that it doesn't happen, okay, and that it could happen not only from other people, but even in people's own homes, okay.

So, any behavior that indicates that a child may be inclined, or any, that someone is inclined to abuse, molest, or otherwise harm any child, especially when under the care of the church, or any indication that a child under the care of the church is being abused, molested, neglected, or harmed by someone, first see if that seems like innocent, okay.

Just, you know, just might be inappropriate, but they don't know, so just privately, you know, talk to the person, encourage them, hey, remember that safety training, you know, we went to, like, not to be alone, or not to, you know, just, you know, just out of love, out of just, you know, care for that person, you know, you can approach them, and if you continue to see, perhaps, a pattern of behavior, then, and there's reasonable suspicion, then report it to the appropriate lead, like Sarah, or Mel, or Pastor Mark, or Matt, or just, you know, an appropriate pastor that you think that you can trust with that information, and what to do.

All right, so special restrictions. All right, these are just special instructions for, like, if you're working for BBS, or Reformation Night, especially Reformation Night is coming up, like, these kids are crazy, they're, like, running around, like, everywhere, so students should always be supervised, and they shouldn't be, like, running around outside, or anywhere in the building, like, by the playground, too, like, by themselves, so if you see that they are, grab a parent, or, you know, make sure that someone is out there with them, and for Bible study babysitting, which we talked about, if you need a replacement, contact Pastor Mark, and make sure that whoever is replacing you has met the requirements, and if there's just not enough people, I just spoke with the Pastor Mark and the staff, is that the parents of that Bible study group need to find, or, like, babysit, okay, so if there's only one of you that showed up that day, and you need someone, then you need to tell, like, the lead of that group, and tell them, we need somebody, one of you, to be with us while we're babysitting, because that's our responsibility as parents, yes, Laura?

- Sorry, I have a question, so regarding the Bible study babysitting, is that the responsibility of the host, Bible study host, to ensure that that policy is being followed? - Yeah, so Pastor Peter and Pastor Mark are gonna email all the Bible study leaders, but yes, they can, it's, you know, and whoever, I guess, is, like, kind of leading that Bible study babysitting, like, thing, is, like, finding volunteers and stuff like that, like, you should probably coordinate with that person and make sure that they know, yeah.

Again, keep the two-adult policy, especially for bathrooms, and if there's not, yeah, enough babysitters, ask parents to rotate it. And don't ever feel bad about that, because, you know, like, we wanna protect our kids, too, and we don't want it to be, like, also, if you're babysitting, like, such a, like, you're by yourself with, like, 12 kids, which would be, like, terrible.

(audience laughing) That's in, like, one little room. So, you know, don't do, don't be like, I'm gonna be a martyr, no, like, (audience laughing) do this, but, you know, get another parent in there. It's one week, it's okay, put it on a rotation if you have to, but that's our responsibility as parents.

Um, okay, that was fast, was that good? Okay, good. (audience laughing) Yes! Okay, all right. Phew, that was so terrible. (audience laughing) All right, so basically, there's two things you need to do. Make sure you sign it onto that clipboard, and make sure your email address is there, 'cause if you did not get this in electronic form, I can send it to you.

And so, give us back the paper copy if you don't want it, but if you really, like, love it, then go ahead and take it home with you, or else just leave it on the side. And then the other little slip of paper is the teacher acknowledgement form, so read that and sign it, and then put it back on the table.

If you don't sign it, that means, and I literally kept all of these from every training, so if you don't sign it, that means, like, I did not know you were here. And then you're gonna have to redo this, which you usually don't have to, so, like, for, like, five more years.

So just make sure you sign it and turn it in on the table before you leave. And if you have any questions, comments, suggestions on how to improve our safety, like, you guys are there, like, on the front lines doing stuff, so if you see something that we're missing, then let us know, you know, 'cause we're always trying to improve.

We're trying to figure out what we need to do better, so if you have a suggestion or anything, just, like, let us know what we can do to. I know for, just to speak to that, too, I feel like, in general, I've noticed our church is not really big on speaking up, but we want you to.

I know that Sarah and I, we've been able to get a lot of great suggestions from our volunteers and implementing them to great measure, so I really, we really appreciate it, and we want our ministries to get that. Okay, so does anyone have any questions? - Yeah, so two child, or not two child, two adult policy to go to the restrooms, so, 'cause in the home groups I've been in so far, they normally have, like, a room where the old kids are and the restroom's outside, so, and so far, when I've done, like, the restroom thing, somebody had to stay in the room with all the kids, while one child had to go out to the restroom, so would you have all the kids follow you to the restroom then?

- Well, it's two, so it's one female that can take them. - Okay. - But, so, just basically, never have a male take them by the toes. - Okay. - Yeah. - Yeah. - But if it's one male, one female, would the male stay in the room with all the kids?

- Um. - So what I suggest is just keep all the doors open, so you go to the bathroom and to the room that you guys are babysitting in, just keep it open, because really, what you're helping them to do is put them on the toilet, but you can kinda step back and let them do their thing, but also keep watch in both.

- Great. - Yeah, any other questions? - That's a really good question. - So you only, like in here, we only need to leave the door ajar if we're physically going into the bathroom. - Yeah, but they can, yes, the kids should know themselves. - They can do it by themselves, you just open it.

- Okay. - And Steve's is different, 'cause we keep our bathroom door open at all times, we have a door stopper, so it's open at all times. - It's never closed. - And our male volunteers have only step in there if they're clean. - Poor male volunteers. (laughing) - We love you guys.

- Okay. (laughing) - It's a good thing, 'cause we don't have to open to the bathroom. - They do love it, they're like, "Somebody food!" (laughing) - One of the little ladies wants to step out. - Yeah, any other questions? Yeah, do we need to fill out a application for volunteering, like for Reformation Night or VBS?

- Yes, for VBS, for Reformation Night, yes, we do. So, if you don't, did I send the link? No, Jane sent the link, I think, right? - Oh, maybe I wasn't on that. - Okay, I'll send the link out to everyone for Reformation Night, just in case, and then, yeah, you need to fill one out.

- Okay. - All right, thank you so much for coming. - Thank you guys so much. - Thank you. (applauding) (chattering) (chattering) (laughter) Have a good year.