Then we tell the parent that we'll call right back. Next, Mary Anne, the club secretary, checks the record book. (It's different from the notebook.) The record book is kind of an amazing thing. In it, Mary Anne keeps track of all our schedules: Claudia's art classes, my dance classes and rehearsals, Mal's orthodontist appointments . . . you get the idea. Then, when a call comes in, she only needs to take a quick peek to see which of us is free. In the record book is a lot of other stuff besides our schedules. It has records about all our clients: names, addresses, phone numbers - and also stuff about the kids we sit for, like who's allergic to what.

    Anyway, once Mary Anne finds out who's free, it's usually a simple matter to decide which of those sitters gets the job. We rarely squabble over jobs, since there's always enough work to go around. Then we call back the parent and confirm the job. And that's it! Well, not quite. I forgot to tell you about the treasury. Stacey, the math genius, is in charge of that. As treasurer, she can tell you in about three seconds exactly how much money we have available.

    Where does the money come from? Well, it's like this. We keep all the money we earn on jobs - that's ours. But every Monday, we pay club dues. (Not without a lot of complaining, I might add - we hate to part with our hard-earned money.) The dues are used for club stuff, like paying Kristy's brother Charlie to drive her back and forth to meetings since she lives too far away to walk now.

    We also use the money for the occasional pizza bash or for sleepover munchies. (We're not all business, all the time!) And we use some of it for supplies for our Kid-Kits. Kid-Kits are yet another of Kristy's great ideas. They're really just cardboard boxes, but we've each decorated our own with all kinds of stickers and sequins and stuff. The boxes are stocked with things that kids love - crayons and books and puzzles and paper dolls . . . stuff like that. We bring them on any job where they might come in handy.