Guiders Staff Room Part 3

My census was £31.75. This years cheque was a big increase in last year.

Got my email this morning too.

Had a really good night last night, all about rights and responsibilities. They all participated, even my new one that struggles with joining in/anything she doesn't want to do. Took a couple of short chats- "this is boring", "I understand you prefer some of the activities, but sometimes we have to do the less exciting badge work, if you don't join in then I can't give you the badge" and the "I want to do it on my own", "well in brownies we work in groups a lot, so come and join your six, lets see if we can help them decide whether a TV is a want or a need". Love her, I actually think she might have enjoyed herself at points last night. Especially with the spoon on a broom handle activity!

Thanks for the paper games 😊

Lucysmam I would charge the parents if the Guides who've left for the census you've had to pay.

YY I got my payment being processed email too, hurrah!

Welcome Liz :) census (it's not really called that any more...) is our annual membership fees. Mine is £28.50 per head girls and volunteers but it varies across the country depending on where you're based and how much it has to pay for. Near me (London):
£10 ish goes to HQ, this is the same for everyone and pays for salaried staff, central databases/websites, the HQ building, branding, resources sent out to all units (new programme stuff will be coming out this summer)...
£10 ish goes to my region (LaSER/London & South East) and pays for the same at a regional level
£7 ish goes to county and pays for the county office, county campsite The rest goes to my division and helps pay for our local Guide Hut.
District doesn't take any money but we write a cheque for £10 per unit to cover sundries that they need, we don't have our own premises so costs are low!

Hi everyone. I've just started as a unit helper at my daughter's brownies. The guides meet at the same time so I mostly help them so my daughter has some freedom from her mother! Enjoying it so far. Shocked at the census fees, what does that cover?

I would have had a picture of my census cheque going in the post this evening, only DS2 (age 3) was a bit keen and put it through before I took it! I have a lovely picture of a random postbox a la slightly blurred hand, though :o

I'm gutted though, my AL has resigned with effect from next week, so looks like we'll be back to a parent rota next term

Well, they're quite easily the biggest cheques I've ever written.

Pissed off to the max though - 3 Guides appear to have left, only one parent has let me know and of course that was after role management was locked so I've paid out £67.50 I didn't need to pay . It could be worse, I know some of you pay £30+ per girl but I worked hard to keep to budget so we didn't need the loan offered by Division & could have used that money towards costs for a trip to the York Chocolate Story we're planning

A lesson in inequality (fits nicely into the WAGGGS GATT badges/UN development goals and Brownies are right on the best age to get this).
Each six lines up beside a 'river'. The aim is to cross the river.
Each girl can get across the river standing on one piece of paper. If they aren't on the paper, they drown.
If they are have one each they can each float across if you toss a coin and they guess correctly, but the best way is to step onto an additional piece of paper.
Don't tell them how to get across except the rules.
Give one six a piece of paper per person plus 5. They can link together (hold hands), pass a spare sheet forward, all step forward etc
Give one six just one extra (they can use the same method above)
Give one six just one sheet each (they can do it if they split the group and two people come back for whoever was left behind).
Give one six less than the number of people. It will be impossible. Make them try. How many people will they lose into the river? How will they feel about the teams with enough paper? How will they feel about the team with lots more than they need.
It's fun because there's a logic problem element to it but also always invokes a fantastic discussion. Love this game!

Some games that just require mostly just a pen/paper:

Back to back drawing - they pair up and one has to describe what they're drawing and the other copy, and see if they end up with the same picture

Pictionary - I write a load of clues of random objects, films, etc, and put them in a cup and use a chair and bulldog clip for a makeshift easel!

Who am I? - I write a lot of famous people / characters on scraps of paper or post it's and the girls hold it to their head and have to ask each other Qs until they guess who they are.

Kim's game - take any junk from the cupboard!

Help! I've just been asked to provide cover for a brownie unit tomorrow because the leader's not well. Any last minute ideas that have little prep?

Yeah, Oliver Twist themed PH!

I'm wondering if I can tell the person I wrote the camp cheque to that she can't cash it till early April when the next lot of subs come in, as I also have to write the Census cheque...

Off on Brownie holiday at the end of the month.
Still chasing deposits, let alone balances, and think I've overspent. Grrr. Can I get away with feeding them gruel for 3 days? Hmmmm

Glad to hear that Groovee!

Last night we started our Space GFI - tried to make ice cream comets using a freezer bag of milk & sugar inside another larger back of ice & salt. It didn't work at all, after about half an hour of shaking they just have v cold milk!

Apparently there were a few 'lumps' when they poured it out but that was all. Oh well, that's what experiments are for!

Good news about the ren groovee

Sounds awesome 😊

Impressive! I hope you also got a lie in ;-)

What they don't know about 😉 there's another unit nearby that are going, I was chatting to one of their leaders after a thinking day service. But for me, like you say the logistics, getting there at a reasonable time, and not knowing what the weather will do. It's just that bit too far.

It's odd when they move up. I've only had three move up so far, dd1 being one of them. They leave quite a hole! Dd2 has just turned 9, so another year and a bit...

Inflagrante - ditto :-D
Shame as I know mine would love it but they'd need to leave school early or be really late arriving and at that time in Jan it could be 12 degrees or heavy snow. And I really don't fancy the latter with a bunch of kids!