Cohousing-L Mailing List: Childcare, and employment legalities

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

First a general response to the ideas recently raised (thread called 
Giving and Taking) about the whole group paying for childcare. 

One of RoseWind's "values" given in our statement of principles and 
values, is that "the particular needs of the youngest and oldest" be 
attended to. In practical terms, we know that some of our single moms of 
preschool kids just won't be at the meeting if they don't have childcare 
(and it's often very hard to find, in general). We value their 
participation, so we want to provide childcare. We have a great kid room 
in the common house, and fields around it, but three year olds definitely 
need supervision. 

Passing a hat doesn't work, because almost none of us carries cash around 
home, and that includes the common house. It also doesn't say that we, as 
a community, care about the kids and parents with kid responsibilities. 
It would be like saying it was voluntary to kick in for the 
handicap-access stuff. 

But here's a new wrinkle, and one RoseWind is dealing with currently:

If we hire a babysitter, are we an Employer? Social Security, Workman's 
Comp, withholding tax, etc? A baseless claim by a construction worker, 
though it was never decided that we were responsible for his lack of 
insurance/expired license/etc has nonetheless kicked in an IRS audit, 
which will scrutinize any hiring we have done. A homeowner may hire, for 
example, a kid to mow her lawn "off the  books", but not an organization. 

And what if this babysitter falls and breaks his neck? Or fails to keep a 
kid from breaking his neck? Where does the liability buck stop? You think 
it can't happen, but it does. Our worker thing, even though we were more 
or less "cleared" cost us about $20,000 in legal fees etc, wiping out all 
our reserves, and slicing thousands from our common house construction 
budget. 

We WANT to pay for childcare, and are happy to include it in the 
operations budget, but do not know HOW to do it without legal traps. It 
has been suggested that a parent pay the sitter, and we "reimburse" the 
parent. Does that do it? Or is it utterly transparent, in terms of 
liability or a tax audit? And what about childcare for a meeting where 
the child(ren) to be cared for are those of a visitor, a workshop leader, 
a potential buyer?

Does anyone have any ideas or experience about how to do this and be 
LEGAL?


Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com

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