Kristy Thomas, the club president, called the meeting to order. "That was awfully close," she said. Kristy is a fanatic about being on time. Every meeting must start at five-thirty - sharp! Five-thirty-one is not acceptable. (If you're late you get the dreaded Look from Kristy. You know that expression, if looks could kill? Well, her Look definitely could.) "I was finishing a great book and I lost track of time," I explained. "But I'm here." Before I go on, I should explain to you what the Baby-sitters Club is all about. We meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon from five-thirty untilsix o'clock . During that time parents who need reliable baby12 sitting can call and reach a group of sitters all at once. One of us is bound to be free to take the job. It saves them a lot of calling. We're very popular with parents around here.

The BSC was Kristy's great idea. It came to her one day when her mother was trying to find a sitter for her younger brother, David Michael, and not having much luck. Kristy told her idea to her best friend, Mary Anne Spier. Then they told their friend Claudia. Claudia told her new friend Stacey McGill, and the BSC was born. They put up some fliers around Stoneybrook and, almost instantly, the club was successful.

Business grew so much that they added another member, Dawn Schafer, who had recently moved to Stoneybrook fromCalifornia . Five sitters worked fine, but after awhile Stacey had to move away. (Although she eventually came back, at the time we thought Stacey was gone forever.) That's when Jessi and I were invited to join. We're junior officers since we're eleven and the others are all thirteen. We baby-sit only on weekends or during afternoOns (unless we're sitting for our own siblings), but that frees other members to take more evening jobs, so it works out well.

Recently, we've had another staff switch. Dawn went back toCalifornia to stay for awhile with her father and brother. (Her parents are divorced.) In her absence, Shannon Kilbourne is filling in. Before Dawn left,Shannon was an associate member, which meant she didn't come to meetings regularly. Instead, we'd call her up when we needed her to take sitting jobs no one else was free for. Now, she attends meetings.