Guiders Staff Room Part 3

Oh I forgot to say we have a camp to go to!

I think I said the Rainbow leader wanted to do her licence, was told no at an organised camp but the one I've been to before requires a licence. But there's another county one locally that doesn't.

I've sent round info to parents and asked for a deposit in 2 weeks which will be tight for the payment but hopefully they will be keen.

I have found a cheque from a parent that was dated last July . I can't bank it, can I?

Thanks Rue, I have a list of exactly what I need to add now, it's just really frustrating.

I do Rainbows, usually my girls just need a look, or a is that a nice thing to do/say type comment, very rarely sit out. I don't know what was up with them yesterday, the majority are usually really lovely.

No DC but lots of experienced local leaders supporting me.

Our subs are now paid exclusively by standing order. If it comes out of a parent's account and doesn't make it into ours, then we can all dispute it with the bank, otherwise it's simple.

Oh Sparkly :(

What's up with your ALQ evidence? Can we help?

What section are you? If behaviour is horrible, what sanctions do you use? I have Rainbows, usually I only have to make them sit out for 5 mins or so if they misbehave/don't listen/etc, but I appreciate older ones are more tricky! I've only had to threaten to suspend one once - I spoke to her mum at pick up and said that if the behaviour continued she wouldn't be welcome the following week, and perhaps she needed to consider whether she wanted to do Rainbows.

Can your DC support you?

PS - yes, it's for the badges. Always the badges :o

Thanks for all the ideas! I will let you know how it goes!

Our subs paying was awful last year & I had disputes with a couple of parents who said they'd paid when I had no record of it. I suspected perhaps they had sent the girls in with £25 that hadn't quite made it to me!

So last term I started a system where if they don't pay it by the third week of the term (or get an agreement to pay in instalments) I send them home... funnily enough I've never had to use it & they all paid on time!

I also have a duplicate book for receipts so parents can't argue. This term I haven't been so strict b/c I appreciate people might not be able to pay until Jan payday, but next week my outstanding ones will be getting a letter!

We've got a Sponsored Danceathon fundraiser next week to get our subscription payment covered as we are a bit skint as a unit at the moment!

Pfft. Someone remind me why I do this? It's for the badges isnt it?

My girls were horrible tonight, all answering back and attitude, parents aren't any better, everything is far too much effort, I'm really ill, I'm pretty sure county are inventing new training for the fun of it, my LQ evidence sill isn't good enough and I'm feeling underappreciated.

Sobs into wine glass.

I have just done up a template for a "plan, do, review" on weekly meetings, as we are supposed to operate that way. I've filled it in for the 1st 3 weeks as I was the leader in charge, but it's other leaders for the next 4 meetings, and not everyone is keen on paperwork and form filling (although 1 of those is the 1 that's pushing that we have a note of the meetings and outcomes, what worked etc)!. I can but try....

Our Cubs are mad into "Zombie Apocalypse" at the moment (Blind Man's Buff). But there are a few who don't like it and it's hard to shout down the mantra that starts up once we mention "we'll play a game before the meeting ends". I was going to do "Ship, sea, shore" or "port, starboard, bow, stern" (same thing effectively - it might be different versions of "Corners" to learn bits of boating terminology?) but got shot down. I need to build my list of games for them - they usually need some kind of running and there are 25 in total! Although the key game (1 blindfolded has to listen for the sound of a set of keys being taken from under their chair, walked around outside the circle and deposited again - if they point correctly to the traveler, they win, if traveler returns safely, they win - traveler winner becomes the blindfolded person, otherwise Leader chooses a new person) works well, as does "snatch the bacon" sometimes (but we've had issues about rules with that one and which crack on the floor is the right one to cross).

We make parents give any money in envelopes with the Cubs name marked on it - so we don't have to remember offhand who gave 1 of us this money?! Especially if it was to 1 leader and it's handed on to another (as generally 1 minds most of the money). I am just after setting up a spreadsheet to track money though, as we had no system in the Troupe (although the Group overall has a good system - but the other Troupes don't tend to look for term subs like we do - to cover art materials, electronics, badges and all sorts ourselves rather than having to seek Group funds which takes time and there are huge pressures on those for boating needs).

The good news is that the bank balances and if they all pay subs promptly, we can actually pay our census on time... perhaps...

OH God I have wasted all afternoon doing our accounts - although I have £11.07 in the tin at the year end (31/12/16) the spreadsheet shows i have -£58.73 cash balance - an impossibility! so where is my missing £58.73...

I wouldn't mind but I'm a bloody trainee accountant and last week a sodding parent told me I should get an accountant in because I couldn't remember her giving me £10 at some point near the end of term last year and I have no record of it...

It also means I have nothing prepared for tonights meeting as I thought the accounts just needed checking over

Chopsticks game could work - thank you. And I've never played million pound drop, so I'll see if I can figure that out :)

You could do like the chocolate game, where you sit in a circle and whoever rolls a 6 has to put a hat, gloves and scarf on, but instead of using a knife and fork to cut it you could use chopsticks as its already in small pieces.

One thing I'd planned was million pound drop using chocolates as money to use up a tub of heroes I'd been given for christmas. We played it in a division meeting last year and it worked really well!

Thanks, Groovee - that is a good idea. I also finally thought to check GFI chocolate and there is an idea in there to create a board game, so we could do that. Or, if we have less time, I could just take in snakes and ladders boards and get them to play using chocolates as counters - that might be a quicker fill-in idea.

Can any of you lovely Guiders give me some ideas as to what I could do with a box of chocolates...? Apart from scoffing the lot myself, of course!

I bought two boxes of chocolates (Celebrations and Heroes) to get wrappers to use in a chocolate wrapper clock-style Kim's game. But there are plenty of spares and I'd like to use them in an activity, rather than just give them out as a treat. Normally I'm very good at dreaming up ideas but this has me stumped for some reason.

I've had a slightly mad plan (too complicated to detail here) and our R&B leaders are thinking about it... I feel a bit better.
We pay £50 per month but that's for all 3 sections, and that's only if we use the hall for every meeting.

Carnival style games (ping pong balls into a bucket, beanbags into a hoop, that kind of thing)

Corners, with the names of differemt festivals (corners can be adapted to all themes, it is my go to game)

Or as they have masks, follow the leader, each girls gets a chance to lead in a bit of dancing round the hall as if they were in a carnival.

My rent is about £200 a year (we pay per week we actually use it so it can be less if we are going out a lot). Census is £23, which I thought was a small fortune til I saw what other areas are paying!

You could play fruit salad but give them all a festival to be rather than a fruit?
Similar with duck duck goose (carnival carnival christmas or something :o )
Hedgehogs, but get them taking part in different festivals in between hiding under the - eg move like you're in Mardi Gras, move like Santa, move like you're tossing a pancake... (I know not everyone has the moving around in different styles bit in their hedgehogs, but we do and my favourite is move like statues!).
I'm all outta ideas now :o

Re rent, this reminds me how lucky we are not to pay any! We are open-sponsored and the church where we meet doesn't charge us any rent. They have 8 uniformed groups meeting there, with the same arrangements, they see it as part of their community outreach or something I think.

Hello can I ask some advice? I am leading rainbows this week but usually I am more of a 2nd in command! We are making masks as our roundabout is festivals, we normally do games after a craft but i would like games ideally around festivals and masks etc. Any ideas? Thanks!

It was but then I adjusted my thinking that we had to cost less a term than one or two weeks of most other extracurricular activities.

Did a proper budget and put my subs up to £35 and I stopped making do and running round giving up my weekends fundraising.

Parents are happy, I have my life back and no more sleepless nights woryjgn about census. Now subs are a real reflection of running costs. The pressure within guiding to keep subs artificially low does a disservice to a pot of leaders.

Jeepers! What sort of place is it? That's tough for you

My rent is £1250