Our first two months compared

We're midway through our second month as a childcare swap group.   I've been looking at September and October's calendars and noticing how far we've come already:

-There were eight total requested childcare swaps for the month of September, two of which went unfilled.  There are 15 scheduled or completed swaps for the month of October and so far only one has gone unfilled.

-From September to October, our group has grown from four to eight families.

-There were no whole group get togethers in September, but we scheduled one for October!

-Our October calendar has been much more fluid than September, with members adding last minute care needs and using our group email to get them filled, deleting care from the calendar when no longer needed, or multiple members offering to cover the same time slot and ending up with a playdate!

-In September most group members emailed or texted me and the group about care needs and ability to provide, and I did most of the calendar editing.  In October our group members seem to have gotten comfortable with the calendar doc and are doing their own posting!

This seems like pretty good progress for a month and a half!  I'm excited to see the group continue to grow and evolve.

Getting To Know You

Even with our small group, we don't all know each other well.  Our kids are different ages.  We are at different stages in our parenting journies.  Some of us are parents of more than one child (one group member has four kids!), others are parents of just one (five of us in that group).  In order for us all to feel comfortable watching each others kids at each others houses, we need to know each other a bit better.

So we've scheduled a potluck brunch for all of us.  The kids can run around and interact and the parents can chat and get to know each other.  It was really a challenge to find a date and time that worked for everyone - even though we've been emailing about making this happen all month, our scheduled date isn't until the first of November.  I hope that this will also be an opportunity to talk as a group about some ideas and norms of the childcare swap, such as:

-How much information does the care provider need?  Emergency contacts?  (Yes!)  Insurance info?  Allergies? (Yes!)  Preferences?  Could we make a document within our group that held all this info so parents didn't have to re-write/type it each time?

-How do we share our success with our larger community of parents without making this group open to everyone?

-Successes/challenges/ideas with the group so far?

I'm looking forward to our get together!

Ideal group size?

Our little group now includes eight families.  We mostly know each other, but have agreed to schedule a 'playdate' to get to know one another better.  Just finding a time when we are all available is a struggle.  I'm thinking that a group of about 10 people would be ideal.  As it is, we've only had one care need go unfilled this month, and the calendar is booked with at least three childcare swaps per week till the end of October.  But I do wonder, having had a sick baby for the last four days, if a couple more people would be ideal - if nothing else but the possibility of an emergency switch of providers if need be.  But I  know MANY more people who are interested in participating in something like this, and I don't want word to get out accidentally or have people feel as though they've been left out of an 'exclusive' group.  I'm thinking it may be time to announce our success, provide a template, and let others create their own swaps.  Parents could choose to be part of one group or multiple groups, but each group would remain small.