Commentary
When sponsoring an overnight event off parish grounds, every attempt should be made to secure hotel rooms that enter and exit into interior halls. The hotel/institutional rules should apply for the number of persons per room or cabin.
On occasion, a coach or other adult leaders in ministry may wish to host an overnight gathering at his/her private home for the members of a particular CYM team or group. Such team or group gatherings are prohibited unless the appropriate number of cleared adults is present and the sponsor of the gathering is a parent of a team or group member.
In cabin settings, every attempt should be made to house adults in separate quarters than the youth. When this is not possible, adults should be housed together (for example, in a group by the doorway) away from the youth participants. Guidelines for volunteer checklists and all chaperon policies apply. [Note Well: Young adults between the ages of 18 and 20 who are not considered chaperons must be housed apart from youth participants.]
In hotel settings, room checks (or bed checks) should be done by two cleared adults of the same sex as those rooms being checked (i.e., women chaperons checking female participant’s room, etc.). The most effective way is to knock on the door and ask the young people to present themselves (make themselves visible to the adults standing at the door). If an adult must enter the room, two adults should enter together and one should keep the door open while the other checks the room.
When staying overnight in an hotel, rules about coming out of the sleeping rooms after curfew should be clearly outlined and discussed with the participants. Adult leaders must know the participants well enough to know whether the young people can be trusted to stay overnight without wandering the halls of the hotel. Using tape on the doors to ensure the young people remain indoors sets the wrong tone for the trip. It assumes unacceptable behavior will take place it leaves open the possibility that a young person could innocently open a door, break the tape, and suffer the consequences. If adult leaders are not confident that the young people will stay in their rooms, an adult should be posted in the hall until such time that adults are confident that the young people are asleep.
CYM makes no requirements that either tape on the doors or a hall monitor be used.
Other options include hiring a security guard, discussing security procedures with the hotel staff, outlining the consequences of leaving a hotel room with the participants, and having a plan in place to follow through on those consequences. In most cases, a conversation about expectations and mutual trust of the young people is sufficient. If it is not, those young people should not be attending a trip that extends overnight.
In private homes, overnight gathering of teams or youth groups are prohibited unless the coach or other adult leaders in ministry have children on the team or in the group.
In all cases, FSGC and simple common sense are a good rule of thumb. If the coach is a male and the team consists of female team members, it is inappropriate for such a gathering to occur without the presence of other cleared female adults, regardless of whether the coach is a parent.
It is reasonable for a team member to host his/her friends for a private party, but this would not constitute a gathering of the team unless the coach was present and team related activities take place. If the coach is a parent and his/her own child wishes to host an overnight gathering, any responsible parent would ensure the safety of the young people by having more than one adult present in the house. Such a gathering becomes a team activity when a coach, who does not have children on the team, arrives at the gathering or when the gathering becomes an addendum, of sorts, to a practice (gathering a team to watch video of a previous competition, for instance).
All adult leaders in ministry are reminded that because of their role as Church Personnel, they have the responsibility to behave in way that is beyond reproach and always in the best interest of the young people.
Related Policies
5.21 Under no circumstances should an adult be housed in the same hotel/motel room with a youth under the age of 18, unless that youth is the child or ward of said adult. 1968
5.22 Adult leaders in ministry, including coaches, who do not have children on the team or in a particular group are prohibited from sponsoring overnight gatherings for that team or group in a private home. This rule applies to coaches in season and off-season.