Recommendation for Au Pair Agency

[Anonymous]

"And I think it's important to consider the size of the cluster your AP will be in and how many clusters of APs with that agency there are in your area -- the bigger the potential friendship pool for your AP, the easier a time s/he will likely have in finding supportive friends."

I'm a PP who said size of cluster doesn't matter, so I am curious about this. Do you all find that your APs are only friendly with people in their cluster? Our AP is friends with APs from four agencies and multiple clusters. Actually, not one of his good ffriends is in his cluster. He is very FB connected so maybe this is why? In the case of all of our APs from the past 3-4 years, their friendships haven't had anything to do with their cluster, so i am curious about whether this is typical or unusual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"And I think it's important to consider the size of the cluster your AP will be in and how many clusters of APs with that agency there are in your area -- the bigger the potential friendship pool for your AP, the easier a time s/he will likely have in finding supportive friends."

I'm a PP who said size of cluster doesn't matter, so I am curious about this. Do you all find that your APs are only friendly with people in their cluster? Our AP is friends with APs from four agencies and multiple clusters. Actually, not one of his good ffriends is in his cluster. He is very FB connected so maybe this is why? In the case of all of our APs from the past 3-4 years, their friendships haven't had anything to do with their cluster, so i am curious about whether this is typical or unusual.

Yeah, my AP got all her friends from FB (local) and school (not local). Not one from cluster meetings.

[Anonymous]

We used APIA last year but this year have switched to InterExchange. I felt like the candidates available through InterExchange were substantially better. Also did not have a good experience with the LCC from APIA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is Great Au Pair a "brokerage" for all the agencies? We are using them and are on our first au pair who is a rematch from another family, and we love her, but we really dislike the LCC and the agency. What is involved if we wanted to switch agencies when/if we extend the au pair?

What are your issues with the agency and the LLC? We are thinking of using them and would love to know. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Bump.. Looking for more information on Great Au Pair. To the PP who has an issue with the agency - can you elaborate. Anyone else have experience with this agency?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bump.. Looking for more information on Great Au Pair. To the PP who has an issue with the agency - can you elaborate. Anyone else have experience with this agency?

I am the PP who use GreatAP.com but goes through my agency to bring the girls over. I personally don't have any specific issues with GreatAP, I think their web site is great and I have found 2 Au Pairs through them. I don't think I would use them as an agency without vetting their coordinators. They have only been approved as an agency about 2 years ago, and since then I have received 2 emails to join them as a coordinator (they have amy email since I use the site). That's a lot of people to find, vet and train to take care of the program throughout the country. And I suspect being so new, they probably have small clusters and inexperienced LCC at this point. It simply seems to young to take a chance, but perhaps I could be convinced after speaking with someone in their head office. I would specifically want to know who is interviewing candaidates in their home country, and what the rematch pool/process is like (amongst many questions).

FYI- what I do when I find a great candidate on a third party Web site is that once we have agreed to match, I basically pay for her to register with my agency. Sopme agencies have actually agreed to transfer the AP files over which speeds up the process. I have also considered switching to the AP's agency (if they are already registered, which most are if they want to come ot the US), but so far the pricing and experience of my local LCC have always lead me back to InterExchange.