The primary Rotary document for the introduction to how the Host family and Inbound student interact is "A Guide for Host Families" (Rotary Youth Exchange publication 749EN09.pdf). This publication covers: Rotary and the Youth Exchange Program, Requirements of the Host Family, Youth Exchange Students, Roles of the Host and Sending Districts and Youth Protection.
 

Beginning mid to late summer many of you folks will begin the Hosting process. For some of you who have hosted before, the beginning part of this journey will be quite familiar - others, not so much. And with that in mind, here are additional documents to read and think about before and during your Hosting experience.

    (1)    The first two documents are the District 5000 Rules and the Parental Permission to Travel forms. All Inbound students and their parents sign these forms in order to be able to come on exchange to our District. It's unlikely that they will remember pretty much of anything that's on these forms when they arrive here. So we'll go over the forms again when we do the orientation process. We had two students return during 2015-2016. They started out well, but then they began to do things to test the system. Emotional immaturity played a large role in the disappointing result.

    A major lesson that we learned is that when problems begin to occur, the Host family, club YEO, Counselor and student need to immediately face the problem and work together to come to an understanding of what was agreed to, what is allowed and what is not allowed.

    (2)     It is quite likely that the student will be a little overwhelmed and tired when they arrive. Sleep, food, perhaps an email or two to the parents as well as where the bathroom and bedroom are may well be enough for the first day. But then the basic mechanics of living with you need to be resolved - hence the "First Night Questions" in different languages. Please choose the one that seems most appropriate for your situation. You might be surprised to know that a number of the students from Europe can probably understand 2-3 different ones!

       (a)   First Night Questions - English / French

       (b)   First Night Questions - English / Spanish

       (c)   First Night Questions - English / German

       (d)   First Night Questions - English / Italian

       (e)   First Night Questions - English / Portuguese

       (f)    First Night Questions - English / Danish

       (g)   First Night Questions - English / Japanese

       (h)   First Night Questions - English / Korean

       (i)    First Night Questions - English / Chinese

     If you cannot find the language pair that you need in the above listing, please go to http://www.yeoresources.org/Pages/FirstNightQuestions.html and choose your desired pair.

    (3)    The "Introductory Letter to School Template" is new to the District for 2016-2017. I got it from a Texas Youth Exchange website and it seems like a useful thing. I thought that the Host family and student might work on the letter together. When they're done, enough copies should be printed so that each of the Inbound student's new teachers get a copy. Here are two examples of what such letters might look like: "Beatriz 2011" and "Marie 2007".

    (4)    Rotary ID and Insurance ID cards - Each Incoming student gets a Rotary ID card with the name of the Host family and contact information as well as their CISI BOLDUC Medical and Travel Insurance cards. They should carry both with them at all times. Please see about laminating each card as best you can for durability.  The District YEO will be sending copies of each of the cards to each Host family and YEO. The students may also have been given business cards by their sponsoring district or multi-district but we shouldn't count on that. Each time a student changes Host families, they should get a new Rotary ID card. That may be an option on the YEAH Portal in which case the club YEO can issue the new card. If not, contact me (DCH) and I'll create a new card for the student and send it to you (Host and club YEO)

    (5)    For YEO's - After the student actually has arrived, please go to the YEAH Portal, open up the student's file by selecting "select a future inbound student" and choosing the student's name, go to the bottom of the student's page and click on the "arrival confirmation" button.

     (6)    Host Family Testimonials - Here are two testimonials from past Host families on the Mainland explaining why they feel that the Host family experience is so valuable to both the student and the Host family: "Suzanne Flammers" and "Bernie Sattlewhite". Other examples of Host family experiences can be found on www.youtube.com by choosing the search term "Rotary Youth Exchange Host".