Guiders Staff Room Part 3

We're back tonight. 6 newbies so we'll be back up to 30 girls. Just me and a parent volunteer tonight so keeping it simple with term planning (they always want a night walk, to cook pancakes on tins and an outing in the spring term so I'm going to try and shake something new out of them!), a few games, and some promise work as the newcomers from last term haven't taken their promise yet and it will give this terms' new girls a taste.

I would say the main difference between running Rainbows & Brownies is that our Rainbows only need one activity planned each week but the Brownies often need several, generally related to badgework. But they are much more independent at carrying out tasks.

We had our first meeting back at Guides last night, I got myself majorly organised over the Xmas holidays as me & the other leader are both expecting babies in the the next 3 months! Last year's accounts are nearly balanced & we've got a general plan taking us to the end of the summer term!

Last night we did a review of last term's activities, I wrote all the activities on pieces of paper & gave each of them 10 counters that they could vote with. The most popular things were when we made Yule Logs & when we went to the local pottery place to paint mugs.

New term begins next week. First one back is always games, pow wow, and chaos. Plus one of us tied up taking subs.

Agree, brownies are badge fiends, rush crafts, but find one that gets them and you'll run out of time. Expect explaining anything to take forever because they first have to do talking and listen, them ask daft questions, then come in with a dozen anecdotes that are only vaguely related. Good points... They're fun, can really get involved with my crazy ideas, and it's great watching the older ones develop and begin to lead the younger members.

Brownies want loads of badges, and take hardly any time to do activities, so they are always asking what comes next.

I need to finish off last year's accounts, thanks for the reminder!

I did email all my waiting list people who I can offer a space to on Monday, and have heard back from two of them - their deadline to respond is tomorrow, so fingers crossed the other three get back to me.

Question: how hard/different is it to go from running Rainbows to running Brownies? The Brownie leader and I are considering swapping units for a while, as Brownies clashes with her LO's bedtime, and babysitters are hard to get consistently (and expensive for Brownies to pay for).

What are the main differences and what would I need to consider? My own DD is currently one of the Brownies, though she's nearly 10, and a few of my ex-Rainbows are also in the unit so at least I'd know some of them.

I'm really, really behind on paperwork (especially accounts) so I'm trying to make myself do one Guiding admin thing every day. Today I've made up the blank termly planner (meeting tomorrow) and then I also need to pay for some badges that I forgot last term. Of course we are about a year out of date in our signatories because we can't track down one of the ex-signatories and one of the new people wasn't accepted by the bank last time we tried (about 6 months ago) so I have to find the cheque book, and post the cheque to be countersigned and then the signatory has to post it. Aaaargh.

Starting off as I mean to go on. Three guiding meetings this week.

Merry Christmas!

I was given The Guides of the Chalet School - a fill-in school story apparently written by a Brown Owl, writing about BGIFC in the 1930s. I'll be interested to see how it's all described!

Merry Christmas to all

Have been given an embroidery frame and a mountain of invisible thread. I think it's a hint to sort out the pile of badges

We're off now as well. Having four weeks off. I have a huge contingent of Baden Powell Guides this year. About 7, so half the unit. I only had one last year and she was mostly done and the year before I didn't have any.
Does anyone have any tips on making it run smoothly? The other units in the District also have several, so we could definitely work together for some things.
Next half term we will be doing craft badge and a Go for it and we need to get outside as well. We'll also have a sleepover.
I got some good news as well, my Queen's Guide has been completely signed off.

Our schools go back early but I'm going skiing the first full week of school so we won't start till the 2nd full week.

Last meeting this Friday. Debating whether to start back on 6th Jan or the following week...

One meeting to go..... and there will end our first year. Steep learning curve! Loving it though.

I don't know how it works exactly but I think sometimes girlguiding can give/help you access grants. It might be worth asking your DC about. Alternatively, can you move to a different venue with lower rent? Sometimes churches rent their halls for a pittance in exchange for your unit attending the major services and parades.

Hi all I'm wondering if you might be able to provide some advice.

I opened our Guide Unit in Jan 2014 and it's always been small, around 10-12 girls which is fine as it's a small village and we have a small room. It's actually been quite beneficial as we've been able to take SEN Girls in the area that were too intimidated by the bigger units.

However, this year we've lost a fair amount of girls, mostly due to school commitments and we've gone down to 7. This has put us in to real financial difficulty, I took my eye off the ball accounts wise due to be pregnant & we haven't paid hall rent yet this term & our account is at zero. We're currently fundraising & I think with a great deal of effort on my part and the other leader (also pregnant!) we can dig ourselves out of this debt but I can't see a way out of it long term.

If we continue in Jan, we're going to have to ask for annual subscription fee from parents in addition to subs & even then that will only just maybe cover the hall rent, not costs of activities.

We do have some Brownies coming up but not v many, I think it will be a real slog to keep our numbers around 10. We've tried bring a friend evenings, etc, but can't seem to get the numbers any higher.

I can't think of a way out other than fundraising to get our account settled then closing the unit at Xmas? I really don't want to, it makes me incredibly upset to think about, especially as we have SEN girls who really thrive there but with both of us leaders expecting babies in the spring having a very financially strapped unit is a big stress we realistically won't be able to manage?

Sorry for the long post, I'm just looking for some advice for the experts!

School events always win over guides. And they send the info out so late you can't try and de conflict.
I did have one year where every single guide came to our Christmas party instead of the school concert though. we held it in a local flatbread pizza place where they toured the kitchens and learned about sourcing local ingredients and food miles, then made their own pizzas and cooked them in the pizza oven.
Two years ago we lost half of district camp to a dance school end of year show. Including my own kids. If you pay that much for dance lessons, there is no choice about missing the show. The kids were gutted. I had planned the whole thing too. Ah well. I'm fairly pragmatic about it. They can't do everything and life is about making choices.

Rue take care of yourself.

Has anyone had to deal with girls only coming if there's nothing better on? Mine are Rainbows so it's more down to the parents, but so far this term I've had to cancel a meeting as almost all of them were attending a school event (our schedule was announced first!) and I've learned tonight that at least a third won't be coming to tomorrow's meeting either because of another school thing. I'm frantically putting together next week's craft so we can swap the programme and finish badge work the week after instead, but it's so demoralising to spend hours planning only to hear you've been dumped for a better offer :(

Ah here you all are!
We went to London for the Science night sleepover this week. T'was fab but I must remember that the tube is scary for rural girls (including me!) and we should take the circle line not the direct Piccadilly line route which was far too busy.
This week we have carol service rehearsal, making christmas crafts. Next week the service, more crafts, more carols. Last week before the holidays we're singing at al old-folks home. The carol service is a division thing that we don't usually join in with. I think we'll back out again from next year: hardly any of my girls have signed up and it's just a lot of work for only a few to participate.