Guiders Staff Room Part 3

I see we took a bashing again on chat last night...

Welcome Mayhem and Ginger

Ha ha, that sounds hilarious! Must remember that one. This time last year I was just finishing my LQ, the joy I felt at handing it in.

Dp took his beavers to metro bank last night, they had a great time. Apparently they do a programme for brownies linked to the number fun badge

Ooh I just stumbled across here by accident! I'm a Guide leader too, just happened to be finally finishing the laminating before Guides tomorrow.

Slightly petrified of what tomorrow will bring, I'm fairly new to the section so doing mod 1, and tomorrow is the first night I'll have planned and run with them. We have 35 guides at the moment, and half of them are taller than me. Much different to the 9 Beavers I had last year before moving!

Can't wait to do chocolate roulette with them though. Just need to make sure I have enough time tomorrow to actually chocolate coat a load of sprouts and grapes!

Hi Dippy, my sister is a cub leader, we have an arrangement about helping each other out on trips, camps etc but I couldn't deal with her cubs every week, I'm not sure how many she's actually got, it feels like hundreds and they make at least 4 times as much noise as my girls. She only had 2 girls but always has stacks of boys waiting, they are the first 2 that group have ever had (not deliberately, just none had ever signed up before)

Welcome Mayhem, my top tips would be have a few 5 minute fillers up your sleeve at all times (stuck in the mud, corners, the sun shines on, chinese whispers etc. there are loads of suggestions on the facebook group) and find yourself an enthusiastic young leader or Guide to help you, my young leader started out as a shy little Guide helper 3 years ago and with a tiny bit of support she is now so good we have other leaders trying to poach her off us.

Welcome Mayhem, and Biddy. Dp is a beaver leader (and pyromaniac )

Delegation is good. Join the challenge badge group too, it's full of ideas for meetings even if you don't do the badge- next week we're doing a sock week!

My 3 newbies are loving it, so I'm back to 24. Well, except there's one that hasn't yet made it back, but we know about that (health related), plus the steady two or three missing each week. Not the same ones, but always two or three down. Loving the new term back, had a parent running part of the agility badge last night- just as well we met in a large hall.

I keep meaning to pop in and say Hi, I am a Cub Scout (mixed pack) leader in Ireland but grew up as a Guide, Young Leader, then Scout and Guide Club in Uni, became a Venture Scout Leader in a mixed unit (when they were aged 18-21!) from that, but didn't find any new Unit when I moved for work at the end of Uni (getting married, buying house, starting career - all kinda put paid to that).

So in 2015, I had my first night in a tent after 17 years!! And have since ended up buying our own tent that DD and I have taken on a girlie adventure (DH refuses to camp anymore!). And I have enjoyed the Cubs so much that the existing Section Leader has decided to step back and put me in charge! At least we have 5 Leaders for 25 Cubs, and we do generally operate as a Leader Team pretty well (including that each leader does a week when they are in charge - they plan the meeting, organize whatever is needed, send the weekly email to parents and run the session - not a strict rota but fairly evenly shared and allows the various different skills to be spread out, so the guy who has all the contacts arranges a visit to a local rescue organization, while the guy who is great at all things "traditionally scouty" (knots, knives, lighting fires etc) does those types of sessions, while another who loves creativity does electronics or woodwork or arranges a local artist (and parent) to give the Cubs an art class - and I get things like overnights, first aid, safety.....and LOTS and LOTS of paperwork!).

Anyway, that's me - I'm currently trying to get us a bit more organized to do badges better - as we spend a lot of the year on the water (Sea Scout Group) or hiking/geocaching etc as we meet on Saturdays, so we don't do as much in the Den as some other Units do. And we make use of our great parents to have lots of interesting sessions which unfortunately don't quite cover badge syllabus.....

Also how do I find/get on the Facebook group.
Thanks Groovee 😉

Delegation - will remember that.

It's a far cry from the control freak lunatic leaders I encountered as a young guider in the 90s!

Ladies
I'm new on this thread so be kind to me.. I appear to have volunteered to save my daughters rainbow unit from closure. This means my self imposed Guiding break of 8 years is now over. I did 15 years before I stepped back due to me having babies.... I have a vague idea how to run a unit and the pitfalls!

Anyway I assume you are a knowledgable lot so.

Hints, tips, advice, words of wisdom, encouragement please. What's Guiding like in 2017?

Reassure I am not making a catastrophic mistake.

Thank you

Oh good grief.
I'm going to wait one more meeting (we started back a bit late) and then maybe one further one and ask any who haven't returned, then if no message I'm going to remove them. Not going to pay census for non-returners thanks!

Why can't parents ever tell us that their daughters are not coming back? We've got 7 non-returners after Christmas and only 2 parents have bothered to get in touch (not including the parent who is an ex-guider!).

Ah I see what you mean Maud, sorry, I totally misunderstood what you were saying, yeah the policy is simplistic.

No, I don't think it's simple at all, Sparkly, it's the policy that I think is simplistic. And that's the last thing I shall say about it.

Evening all, happy lurker here.
I haven't a clue about rights and wrongs of trans in guiding but suspect we will deal with it smoothly if/when needed. Thinking day is giving me a total headache not least because the bonkers old leader is hosting and still doesn't talk to me because she asked me to take over 1 of her 4 units and I did mainly because parents hated her ringing at 6:30 am and 11:30pm to remind them of things !
Anyway think we making swaps this week so glue guns ready

See I'm not sure on that one Maud, I have a few trans friends and I don't think for any of them it has been a case of just saying they are either sex or just liking stereotypical girly or boyish things, its been much more complicated and far tougher on them than that.

I took different things from that trans thread. I too don't think that units will be invaded by teenage sex pests, but I am saddened that GGUK is buying into the narrative that small boys who like "girlie" things must actually be girls. That's reinforcing the stereotypes we want to challenge. I also think it's selling our girls and young women short to say that all it takes to be a girl or woman is to say one is one.

But, leaders are resourceful and pragmatic and they'll work it through.

Oh crumbs! That was either brave or foolish!

I've just said something on a thread about "non-binary" that there must be a lot of "non-binary" Guiders and cue someone leaping in to complain again about trans women/girls in Guides.