+WBGamers Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this. I am in Michigan and am a volunteer rep for Youth For Understanding (YFU). YFU fosters exchange students all over the world. We have a 16-year old male German exchange student that enjoys geocaching. I'm wondering if there is a family that would be interested in being a host family. Exchange students come with health insurance and their own spending money. You provide a roof over their head, 3 meals a day, and make sure they have transportation to school. The exchange students become a member of your family and share in chores and family activites. It is a wonderful and rewarding experience. If anyone would like more details on YFU or this geocaching student. please send me a private message. Quote Link to comment
+BlueDeuce Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this. I am in Michigan and am a volunteer rep for Youth For Understanding (YFU). YFU fosters exchange students all over the world. We have a 16-year old male German exchange student that enjoys geocaching. I'm wondering if there is a family that would be interested in being a host family. Exchange students come with health insurance and their own spending money. You provide a roof over their head, 3 meals a day, and make sure they have transportation to school. The exchange students become a member of your family and share in chores and family activites. It is a wonderful and rewarding experience. If anyone would like more details on YFU or this geocaching student. please send me a private message. Our school recently picked up seven, yes seven foreign exchange students. Not bad for rural Iowa and not the first time. We are very big on reaching out and supporting any student. We just don't do it via some off-topic geocaching forum. Quote Link to comment
+Sol seaker Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 This is off topic, is it not? Don't we talk about everything under the sun in here? Well, so what's the problem? Sure, go ahead and ask in here all you want. Quote Link to comment
+The Blorenges Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 I don't have any problem with the topic, it seems to me the OP is just trying to place the student with a host family who also enjoy geocaching. Where better to look for lots of possible geocaching hosts than on a geocaching forum? But as it's definitely "geocaching related" perhaps it would be acceptable in the main forum? Would it be seen as "solicitation" as it mentions a specific organisation? MrsB Quote Link to comment
+TheAlabamaRambler Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 Looking for a prospective host family here is perfectly legitimate. It makes sense to try to place students in homes where there are common interests. I am quite sure that should someone say they are interested the placement organization would fully vet them before things progress any further. That said, when my family decided to foster children here in Alabama the vetting process was amazingly shallow. It seemed to me that they had so few folks who wanted to do it that they didn't want to investigate too deeply at risk of losing candidate families. That was over a decade ago however and I understand that they have improved and tightened their host recruiting and supervision practices. How does the YFU investigate prospective host families? Quote Link to comment
+WBGamers Posted August 20, 2012 Author Share Posted August 20, 2012 Looking for a prospective host family here is perfectly legitimate. It makes sense to try to place students in homes where there are common interests. I am quite sure that should someone say they are interested the placement organization would fully vet them before things progress any further. That said, when my family decided to foster children here in Alabama the vetting process was amazingly shallow. It seemed to me that they had so few folks who wanted to do it that they didn't want to investigate too deeply at risk of losing candidate families. That was over a decade ago however and I understand that they have improved and tightened their host recruiting and supervision practices. How does the YFU investigate prospective host families? YFU is a well-respected and established non-profit organization that was established in 1951. YFU has an outstanding reputation and does full background checks on host families. The welfare of students is my number one job. Our web site is http://www.yfu.org. In the US, go to http://www.yfu-usa.org/. Quote Link to comment
knowschad Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 I don't have a problem with the thread being posted here, but I am concerned that it won't get the coverage that it would if moved to the main Geocaching forum. Since it is geocaching related, I would think that it would be fine to be posted over there where a lot more people would read it. Quote Link to comment
+BlueDeuce Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 I meant we don't look for perspective students in a geocaching off-topic forum. The exchange 'service' is a bit more formal than that and for good reason. I don't care about the thread itself. Geesh. Quote Link to comment
knowschad Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 Geesh. If that was aimed at my posting, you should know that mine was not aimed at yours. Geesh! Quote Link to comment
+BlueDeuce Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 Geesh. If that was aimed at my posting, you should know that mine was not aimed at yours. Geesh! No, not you. Everyone else. Quote Link to comment
+WBGamers Posted August 20, 2012 Author Share Posted August 20, 2012 I don't have a problem with the thread being posted here, but I am concerned that it won't get the coverage that it would if moved to the main Geocaching forum. Since it is geocaching related, I would think that it would be fine to be posted over there where a lot more people would read it. Which forum do you recommend? All the forum descriptions seem to be very specific to their topics, which is why I posted here. Quote Link to comment
+TheAlabamaRambler Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 (edited) ...YFU is a well-respected and established non-profit organization that was established in 1951. YFU has an outstanding reputation and does full background checks on host families. The welfare of students is my number one job. Our web site is http://www.yfu.org. In the US, go to http://www.yfu-usa.org/. I crawled around the website a bit looking for the answer before asking the question, and it does state that host families are examined and qualified... it does not say how, other than the rather nebulous phrase 'background checks'. I ask how the background check is done merely out of curiosity, not to imply that your organization is in any way less than stellar. Edited August 20, 2012 by TheAlabamaRambler Quote Link to comment
knowschad Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 I don't have a problem with the thread being posted here, but I am concerned that it won't get the coverage that it would if moved to the main Geocaching forum. Since it is geocaching related, I would think that it would be fine to be posted over there where a lot more people would read it. Which forum do you recommend? All the forum descriptions seem to be very specific to their topics, which is why I posted here. Well, your question is geocaching-related in my opinion (for what little that may be worth) since your reason for even bringing it to the forums at all is because the student is interested in geocaching. I would have put it in the Geocaching Topics forum, and if the mods disagreed, they could move it to whereever they thought it should be. But Geocaching Topics is by far the busiest forum here. The Geocaching and Education forum also would seem appropriate, but again, I'm not sure how much exposure it would really get there. However... don't create a new thread in another forum. The mods don't like that. You could, however, hit the "Report" button and request that a moderator move your topic, though. Quote Link to comment
+The Cheeseheads Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 Moving to the geocaching topics forum. Quote Link to comment
+Robespierre Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 Republican or Democrat???? :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment
+jellis Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Depending on where the Student will end up. If it is Michigan it should go in the Regional section. If anywhere then yes this is the spot to do it. I know once cacher who may do it in my area but you would have to PM if they are going to California. Quote Link to comment
+OZ2CPU Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 MEGA nice you got the time, space, money and heart to help students out.. Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Republican or Democrat???? :rolleyes: Now that the thread is in the general topics section it's only a matter of time before it drifts into a discussion that we're talking about a "German" geocacher. Quote Link to comment
+WBGamers Posted August 21, 2012 Author Share Posted August 21, 2012 Depending on where the Student will end up. If it is Michigan it should go in the Regional section. If anywhere then yes this is the spot to do it. I know once cacher who may do it in my area but you would have to PM if they are going to California. The student is targeted for Michigan, but if a host family elsewhere is interested, it can be arranged. Quote Link to comment
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