Youth Exchange: A Guide for Host Parents
What the email from Rotary District 9660 is, and what you are agreeing to when you approve it.
On this page
Who is asking, and why
You are hosting a student on a Rotary youth exchange. Rotary is a volunteer community organisation, and Rotary District 9660 is the group of volunteer Rotary clubs across parts of regional New South Wales, Australia, who are responsible for that student's exchange while they are living with your family.
As part of keeping every student safe while they travel, the district asks a short chain of people to approve any trip the student wants to take away from your town. You are the first person in that chain, because you are the one who knows what the student's day-to-day plans actually are.
You do not need any account, password, or prior relationship with Rotary to do this. You will simply receive an email with a link.
The email you received
When the student you are hosting asks permission to travel, you are the first person emailed. The email comes from support@rotary9660.org.au and contains a link.
Clicking the link takes you to a simple page showing the trip details the student entered: where they want to go, when, and who with. You do not need to sign in or create any account.
Because this is the first email of its kind you have received from this address, it can sometimes land in Junk or Spam. Look there if you were expecting it and cannot find it.
What you are confirming
By approving, you are telling the district that, as far as you know:
- The trip details the student entered are accurate.
- You are aware of and comfortable with the student travelling as described.
You are the only person in the chain who can confirm this from first-hand knowledge, which is why you are asked before anyone else.
After you approve, the request is not finished. It still needs to be approved, in order, by the student's Club Counsellor, then the District YEO, then the YEP Chair. For overseas travel, the District Governor approves as well, last. Nobody can tell you exactly how long the rest of this will take, so if the trip is close, encourage the student to have submitted the request well ahead of time.
If something looks wrong
If the trip details shown to you do not match what you understand the plan to be, do not approve the request. Instead:
- Talk to the student directly first, in case it is a simple mistake.
- If you are still unsure, contact the student's Club Counsellor, whose details should have been given to you when the student arrived. They are your main point of contact for any concern about the exchange.
Declining is not final for the student's exchange, only for that particular request. It simply means the request goes no further, and the student can talk to you and submit a new one if needed.
What this does not do
- It does not check the student's plans against anything, other than what you and the later approvers confirm. There is no independent verification built into the system.
- It does not notify you again once the whole chain has approved, unless the student or their Club Counsellor tells you separately.
- It does not replace ordinary conversation with the student about their plans. Please still talk to them directly.
- It does not require you to do anything technical. If you can open an email and click a link, you can complete this.