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Policies for choir hosting (children's choirs)Date: July 28, 2010 by Tara Postigo
The training choir (4th-6th grade) I direct is participating this year in a festival that would include being hosted by unfamiliar families for one night. Our executive board has raised concerns about this idea due to the age of these children. They requested that we look into the policies of other youth choir organizations. Do you have any policies you would be willing to share? I would appreciate the opportunity to get a copy of any handout you may give host families during your tours. It would be helpful to have concrete examples to present to our board to help generate formal policies of our own.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to some feedback!
Tara Postigo
Replies (5): Threaded | Chronological
on July 29, 2010 5:34am
Hi Tara - I have traveled with my all treble boys choir for the past 30 years all over the world and throughout the US. They are the same ages as the children in your group and sometimes we travel more than once a year on a lengthy tour. I do not ever do home stays mostly because I want to be able to have the entire group [35 boys] ready for a change in schedule i.e. extra rehearsal, ice cream run and the like. It is not so much for worrying about the safety of the boys, but that is a consideration too. It is much more expensive to do it this way, but peace of mind is, as they say on TV, priceless.
Many of the other larger boychoirs in the US and even in Europe [although not so common] do homestays all the time. The most well known boychoir here in the US, The American Boychoir uses homestays [billeting] almost exclusively when they travel and we have housed them on numerous occasions. We homestay other boychoirs when they come through our area as well. In talking with the directors, they say they have really never had an incident of inappropriate behavior from a host family. They always have at least two boys stay together.
In the end, it is up to you about what you feel you can live with. If you know the person you will be visiting or who is hosting the concert, you might feel better about sending your children out for an overnight homestay, just be sure you always have them in at least pairs. . . never alone. We have families here in Texas that can house up to four children at a time [you know everything is bigger here in Texas!] And to protect us, we never house only one chorister.
Please let us all know what you ultimately decide as I think this will be interesting to many of us that work with children's choirs and travel.
Best from Texas,
Bill
William R. Adams, Founder
The Fort Bend Boys Choir of Texas
wra(a)fbbctx.org
on July 29, 2010 9:01am
William,
Thank you for your response. I appreciate the feedback. I will contact the American Boychoir staff to see if they have a written policy regarding home stays. I have already reached out to some youth choir directors via e-mail regarding this topic. Perhaps I will follow up to this posting with my findings:). I do think the information could prove useful for all in our field! Thanks again,
on July 29, 2010 2:51pm
Ragazzi has both hosted choirs and been hosted. The boys love the homestays as they are offered by families who also have children who sing. We had a wonderful time last year in Arizona with both the Tucson and Phoenix boy choirs. This year we traveled to Montreal and were hosted by the Laval Boychoir and then the Charlbourg Boy Choir. The kids love it. We do insist that there are never less than two boys assigned to a home and we ask that they each have their own bed. It is really an enriching experience that builds the boys' sense of being part of a larger musical community.
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Thank you for your response. I should mention that the home stays are not with random families. This festival is being hosted by a girl choir whose membership would be opening up their homes to our choir.
Having said that, I do agree that this ultimately becomes a question of liability.
Tara