Inbound Host Club Financial Obligations and the Guarantee form

When a Rotary club chooses to Host an Inbound student for a school year, it should understand beforehand that there are financial obligations that the club will be undertaking to the amount of $2500 - $3000 during the course of the year.

 

First of all, the student receives a monthly allowance. The amount of the allowance is entered into the Host Club Guarantee form. Amounts may vary from club to club and District to District, but the usual amount is $100 per month. The clubs also assume a total financial responsibility on the order of $2500 for student support during the course of the year in order to have Jerry Tambe (SCANEX Responsible Officer) complete the DS-2019 form for obtaining a SEVIS number for the Inbound student. 

 

There are a variety of ways that the student can receive his/her allowance. Through the years, the Rotary Club of Poipu Beach would issue the monthly check directly to the student.  The student can then endorse the check and cash it at the club's bank.  (most Inbounds would not have their own bank account for check cashing purposes.) Other clubs may have other approaches. 

 

One type of expense for the year might include traveling to Honolulu for the Inbound Orientation meeting in August 2016. For the 2016-2017 year, the Inbound Coordinator Summer Escajeda ( s.escajeda@transmarine.com ) and I (DCH) will be trying something different to save the clubs money. There will be two different sessions, one for the three Inbounds on Kauai (to be held on Kauai) and a second for the four Inbounds on Maui and Hawaii Island to be held in Kona on Hawaii Island. The only down side to this is that the students don't get to meet one another all at once. On the Mainland, there are mid-year trips scheduled that take a long weekend and involve all the students from a given district. Perhaps all the clubs could work together on such a project for this 2016-2017 District year.

 

There will be travel, board and lodging expenses for each Inbound student to attend the District Conference on Maui in May 19-21 of 2017. Students generally have their Conference registration fees waived. Summer and I will see what sort of package can be obtained for each student. Estimated expenses could be in the order of $500 - $800.

 

Clubs are expected to pick up the cost of the student attending RYLA in the February 2017 time period which could be in the order of $100 - $200 depending on the venue.

 

We also suggest that the clubs also pick up the $10 fee that's required for each member of the Host family 18 years or older, as well as the same fee for Volunteers.

 

By Federal law, clubs are not allowed to compensate Host families. But I suggest that when there are costs such as bus fares to attend school, that the club should consider picking up such expenses. These costs could be about $200-300 for the school year.

 

We need to be able to contact our students by phone and vice versa. This has been a subject for discussion on the Yahoo YEO group. Here are a variety of answers on the subject "Cell Phones for Inbounds".

 

At the end of the year, there is an optional train trip across the Mainland that the student may choose to attend. The cost for the 2016 trip is $3100. This trip can be funded in a variety of ways:  the student's parents can pay the whole cost;  the student can hold a variety of fund raisers during the course of the year with club support to pay all or a portion of the cost;  and the club can have a partial scholarship to help defray train trip costs.