Learning patterns/Organize childcare during a Wikimedia event

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Organize childcare during a Wikimedia event

problemMore and more members of the community are parents

solutionOrganize childcare

creator• Sylvain WMFr

created on17:07, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

status:DRAFT

What problem does this solve?

During the organization of an international event, bringing a large number of participants, it is important to take account of all logistics matters.

One of the things we considered early on was childcare, because we think this is an important way of not leaving committed people behind: there are more and more couples of two Wikimedians with children. Indeed, from the beginning of the organisation of the Hackathon Wikimedia 2015, which took place in Lyon,we have had several requests concerning the acceptance or not of childrens. To the best of our knowledge, no Wikimedia event had childcare before.

What is the solution?

To meet this demand, the association Wikimedia France has set up a center that allowed parents to be able to free up time to code. It was open from 10:00–13:00 and 14:00–18:00 hrs. A room with games, and two nannies were present for the care of children.

Things to consider

• Analyze the need before the project.
• Conduct a survey to determine the number of children, their ages and the language spoken.
• A study of the various associations or babysitting business in the region where the event will take place.
• When selecting professional, make sure they meet the standards in force in your country (in France, it's one babysitter for every three children; a special diploma is required for children younger than a certain age).
• Also make sure that babysitters speak well the language spoken by the children.

Pros

• The tranquility of the parents
• Greater involvement of these
• A definite asset to attract participants

Cons

• Costs time and money.

When to use

• Big events with dozens of attendees

Endorsements

• Supports diversity of participants! Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 16:17, 16 July 2015 (UTC)
• I am happy to see and support this! I believe, too, that it will increase the diversity of participants. KLove (WMF) (talk) 16:31, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
• Good idea! Kippelboy (talk) 10:21, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
• During our project period of "Creating A Room of WikiWomen's Own", we use similar checklist of "Things to consider". We analyze the need before every event for the need of baby sitting service by online survey. By gather the need of childcare before the event started, we can really spend the right budget and find a suitable baby-sitter. Liang(WMTW) (talk) 16:50, 4 October 2016 (UTC)

See also

Related patterns

• Child room