Monthly AP Meetings

[Anonymous]

We are considering an AP who does not drive. This works for us since we are in DC proper but I realized the monthly meetings our AP must have with her community counselor could be tricky. Her counselor is based in Bowie, MD, which would be a one hour drive each way for us. That would be four hours spent driving if it was a long meeting and we had to drop her off, drive back home, and then pick her up. Can anyone provide some insight on how these meetings work in the DC area? Our AP would be with Au Pair in America. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are considering an AP who does not drive. This works for us since we are in DC proper but I realized the monthly meetings our AP must have with her community counselor could be tricky. Her counselor is based in Bowie, MD, which would be a one hour drive each way for us. That would be four hours spent driving if it was a long meeting and we had to drop her off, drive back home, and then pick her up. Can anyone provide some insight on how these meetings work in the DC area? Our AP would be with Au Pair in America. Thanks!

That is very odd. APIA has neighborhood clusters for all LCCs in DC. There are no LCCs in Bowie that serve DC residents...

[Anonymous]

I agree with PP. there must be a cluster closer. There are lot of au pairs in DC with APIA.

[Anonymous]

That's good to hear. I hope so! It's not a huge deal but would be a bit of a drag for us and our AP if she had to travel far for those meetings.

[Anonymous]

You can drop her off and pick her off. It's will be 4 hrs but only one a month. Drop her off and hang out in Bowie while is time to pick her up.

[Anonymous]

You can pay for an uber. it's once/month

[Anonymous]

Yeah I think paying for an Uber will be our solution if it ends up being far away.

[Anonymous]

1. Ride with another AP, offer to split gas.
2. Pay for her Uber.
3. Drive her yourself, and make arrangements to do something fun with kids if it works with the schedule.

Definitely contact Apia and ask for a LCC who is closer. They’re required to be a maximum of 100 miles away, so it works technically, but there are enough in the dc area that you shouldn’t have a problem getting it switched.

[Anonymous]

Bad idea to let them put you in a cluster where the other APs arent in your neighborhood - will make it harder for your AP to make friends. I'd push here - its worth it/important.

[Anonymous]

That's a good point. I hadn't thought about that. Any idea why she wouldn't have been placed with her closest counselor? I'm new to the program.

[Anonymous]

Suspect they dont have as many au pairs in PG county and so are trying to even out the number of families the LCCs are handling. Push back!

[Anonymous]

I would definitely inquire more about this. The LCC should be having meetings near where the au pairs are located, not near where she lives.

[Anonymous]

We are in DC and our AP is with APIA. Our LCC is in Chevy Chase.

[Anonymous]

Hopping on this thread - our LCC holds all the monthly meetings on a weekday morning at a coffee shop (I guess the thinking is that the kids are in school then). Is this common? I thought the meetings were supposed to be on weekends so they could do fun outings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hopping on this thread - our LCC holds all the monthly meetings on a weekday morning at a coffee shop (I guess the thinking is that the kids are in school then). Is this common? I thought the meetings were supposed to be on weekends so they could do fun outings.

Ours rotates around between weekends and evenings, so that more girls can come if they have different schedules. That said, I’ve hosted for 7 years and none of our au pairs have gone to more than 3-4 meetings and it’s been totally a non-issue. They check in with the lcc if they miss the meeting and she doesn’t seem to care.