Housing Captain

Responsibilities of the Housing Captain

• Recruit host homes
• Prepare and assign lodging arrangements
• Facilitate specific needs of each team, setting them up with the
• Appropriate facilities

• Ask the IWT Coordinator for an initial bed count. Performance Team sizes will be approximate; you will receive a final list of names just before the beginning of the tour.
• Begin to recruit families to be host homes. Send host home applications to each participating church, and have them at Transform America, Local Link Training, Prayer Gatherings, etc. An application must be filled out by every potential host home.
• Contact Church Representatives and the IWT Office to collect applications on a regular basis.
• Go over each form carefully, eliminating those that are unsuitable due to geography, excessive pets, etc. Ask Hospitality Team members if they have been to any of the homes personally and can vouch for suitability according to the guidelines below.
• Call each potential host home to set up an interview. It is best to have these interviews in the home so that you can see where the rooms are, the bed sizes, etc, especially if it is a home that could not be vouched for by the Hospitality Team. In the interview, explain what is expected of them as hosts home, verify information from the application (especially pets and age/gender of children). Let them know that final housing arrangements will not be made until a couple weeks before the Tour when team lists are finalized. Do not make any guarantees that a home will be used or that members from a certain team will stay there.
• Map out and arrange available homes. An easy way to do this is with Microsoft Map Point or another similar mapping program. Have a team member create a spreadsheet with the information from each host home application and have the mapping program map it for you.
• Keep a running count of how many beds you have so that you know how many homes are still needed.

• Finalize the housing. We suggest waiting until this time to reduce the number of changes. See Guidelines for Assigning Host Homes below.
• Show the housing list to the IWT Coordinator for approval.
• Contact all host families to answer questions and inform them of when and where they will need to pick up their guests. Do not give names or teams of guests yet as some last minute changes may need to be made.
• Ask 2-3 homes that are not being used if they would be an alternative home in case a situation arises or a new team member arrives.
• Contact all homes, which are not being used to kindly thank them for their offer.
• Compile a housing directory and give it to the Special Services Captain to include in the welcome packets. Also give a copy to the IWT office.

• Schedule hosts to meet their guests at least an hour after dinner or the scheduled arrival time. This will allow for late arrivals and team meetings upon arrival. If hosts are unable to come at that time, please have their name(s), address, phone number, directions to their home and instructions for their arrival written out for them.
• If a team arrives late, contact the host homes and let them know not to come to the central location at the given time. Make alternate arrangements.
• For teams staying in a group situation, please have a contact name and phone number, address, directions to lodging location and instructions for their arrival written out for them.

• Update the housing directory as needed and submit it to the IWT Coordinator.
• Please have a representative from your team available at all times during the week with a pager and/or cell phone as a communications point, or to handle any circumstances that may arise.