14 moms, 12 babysitters: You've got three minutes
ADRIANA BARTON
Globe and Mail
January 27, 2009

VANCOUVER — On a weekday evening at a Vancouver hair salon, more than a dozen fashionably dressed women are drinking sparkling water and chatting above the peppy soundtrack as they wait. But they aren't here to get their hair done - they've each paid $50 to cruise for babysitters.

Across the brightly lit room is a motherlode of sitters, all female and mostly college students, with oodles of experience in wiping baby bottoms and soothing cranky tots.

The moms and students are about to get face time in an event that melds the babysitter interview with speed dating.

Standing in parallel rows, they talk for three minutes until the whistle blows. Then the mothers rotate to meet the next potential match. And the next.

… babysitter speed-dating mixer in Vancouver. Admission is $50….

"It's pretty fast and it's pretty furious, because I try to keep it within an hour," says Amy.., who runs the event through her business,….

Launched last year, … is the first Canadian version of a phenomenon that has taken off in the United States in the past five years.

Incarnations south of the border range from San Diego-based…, offered in .. U.S. cities.

A .. spokesperson says the service will start up in Canadian cities some time this year. …

In Vancouver, all five … events to date have sold out.

Even in the economic downturn, Ms. … says, reliable child care is in short supply….

Ms. K.. says she's having trouble finding good after-school care for her two daughters, aged 4 and 6 - even though she's willing to pay upward of $20 an hour.

A three-minute interview is hardly enough to assess a babysitter's qualifications, Ms. K.. says, "but it's better than an e-mail exchange."

Some moms at the mixer describe the search for sitters as a competitive sport. "You keep your cards close when you find a good one," says …

In transient cities such as Vancouver, parents often lack the family and social connections that used to yield babysitting leads,…."

Ms. .. rounds up babysitters by posting ads at colleges, universities and on electronic job boards. She checks résumés for babysitting experience and general coherence. Although she does not do background checks or call references, Ms. …says, she does talk to each babysitter by phone and weeds out the weakest résumés.

The rest she compiles in a booklet called the…, which she distributes to parents at the start of each event. The mothers sign a waiver saying they won't share the list.

…Among them is.., a student at …College who says she plans to work in child protection after completing a diploma in social work. With more than three years of experience as a nanny under her belt, .. says she'll charge $15 an hour for babysitting more than one child, even if they are asleep. "It's what I'm used to getting," she says….