Chaperoning Tips

·  Bring power strips to charge player cell phones in the chaperone’s room. We needed three strips with 6 outlets each to accommodate the different size chargers of the 10 girls.

·  Bring basic over-the-counter medications including Advil, Immodium AD and Tums. Ask parents to give consent (or not) for administering the medications before the kids depart for the tournament. (We had several requests for Advil and one for Tums/Immodium. We needed to get in contact with the parents before handing out any meds, despite a seemingly ‘emergent’ need. It would be helpful to get this before leaving town).

·  Place all players’ cell phone #s in a group text. It was helpful to text the girls important information since we knew a text would be seen.

·  Place all parents’ cell phone numbers in your contact list. When communication (emergency or otherwise) is needed with a parent, it was nice to have their cell phone # easily accessible.

·  Keep your chaperone door slightly open during all free time. The girls not only saw this as an easy way to know we were available for their needs, but it also allowed us to hear all things happening in the hall.

·  The girls liked to prop their own doors open with the metal locking bar (similar to a chain lock), allowing them to go between rooms. It was convenient to use, however every time they walked out of the room, the door slammed very loudly onto the bar. After hundreds of door slams over a weekend, this got very old and was disrespectful to other hotel guests. A door jam would work much better (or even placing a shoe or sock in the doorway to prevent the door from closing).

·  Be sure to have a key for each of the player rooms. We did not use them to go in without permission, but found them helpful for the (nearly every time) the players left their rooms without a key.

·  Research and make a reservation for dinner for at least one night. The girls loved dressing up (and taking lots of pictures). We made a reservation for 32 people which included players, coaches and parents. Because of the size, we needed to do this about 3 weeks in advance.

Things to consider doing:

·  Service project to be done in hotel during downtime (e.g. making no-sew fleece stocking hats or blessings bags for the homeless).

·  Door signs with each player’s name for their hotel door (they loved this).