Guiders' staff room - tea, wine, chat and optional dancing around the toadstool

I got everyone a loom (3.50 off ebay) for pack holiday this year and it was brilliant: I'd never had a 'go off and do your own thing' activity before and we always got through tons and tons of crafts stuff. They went off in their social groups and wove their bracelets for ages. really good filler, lots of fun and for the first time we leaders had a sit down and cup of tea together in the daytime (rather than in shifts) as there were a couple of periods where everyone was just off in their rooms chatting and weaving.
Loom bands and french skipping: the two great discoveries of pack holiday 2014!
Our stay away is in June and we have a day out with all the brownies from the country and then our dividion (about 130 girls) and leaders are camping (OMG!) at a local activity centre: then getting up for eggy bread, high ropes and raft building.

Doing our Big Brownie Birthday Stay Away tonight. Sleeping at Deep Sea World in Fife with 73 brownies and 13 leaders.

Yes, it was the potential cost of buying the looms that deterred me. I will look at YouTube.

The works sell them for about 99p. You can buy looms too. But my girls used pencils or each others fingers. You tube has video's but your young leaders may know what to do. I gave each six a bag of them and left them to get on with it.

Amazon have quite a lot.

Talk to me about loom bands, about which I know nothing. Are they like scoobidoos? Would I need to buy loads of kit for them?

No, Scotland doesn't do half term. We finish in 4 weeks time for summer anyway.

The loom bands went fine as most of the girls knew what to do from watching you tube. They could have had them for hours. Definitely something for a pack holiday filler!

how did they get on with the loom bands Groovee? DD wants to try them but they look a bit complicated to me.

Are you not on half term this week, Groovee?

Deep Sea World sounds like fun!

I did loom bands tonight after we made our fathers day crafts. It was complete silence. The girls loved it.

2 sleeps til we go to Deep Sea World for a sleepover for the brownie stay away!

DD's pack is rejigged regularly to keep a spread of ages between the sixes. She has been in all four sixes in her 2 and a bit years (though still has her original badge). The sixers are the eldest four (annoyingly for dd who is fifth eldest and will only get 1 term as sixer, whereas fourth eldest, three days older than her, gets a whole year!).

Our little bit of pack democracy is that the sixes choose their own seconder, which does very occasionally mean that a girl who has joined quite late gets to be a sixer without first being a seconder.

I've had to jiggle my sixes about and I didn't put seconders in, I put the 3 girls, we as a team felt were ready to be sixers. We've only recently made 2 girls seconders. Both worked hard to show how much they had matured and listened to what was said. I explained why they had been made seconders too. We do have a bit of a young group at the moment.

Cheery Thank you x

Cheery - That is lovely to hear. Thank you so much. Most of my parents are (I hope) silently appreciative so it's kind of you to come here and say it.

Psychic - My sixers are the four oldest Brownies at any one time. This sometimes means that a girl has to shift to a different six to take up the sixer role. They always seem happy to do this and it helps the rest of the pack to understand that (except in the once-in-ten-years that five Brownies moved up to Guides at once) everyone will get a turn at being a sixer.

When we gave the Brownies the choice, they opted for the new wildlife names, but our nearest pack, given the same choice, opted for the traditional names.

Cheery, I am a Snowy Owl, and I would like to thank you on behalf of all Owls, everywhere.

We do the job because we love it, but it's great to get positive feedback from our customers/parents.

The parents of my unit are pretty good - they are very supportive and appreciative of the work we do, and help whenever needed.

OP - do a total Six revamp, or move a couple of older girls from other Sixes to the Six requiring a Sixer/Seconder.

"Old" Six names are the best I say - we have Gnomes, Imps, Elves and Leprechauns.

Kleine, our list is swamped so putting names down early is a good idea here. We will sometimes swap girls between lists if they move closer to another unit or a particular night is difficult but generally people here just go with the closest unit.

Hello, I am a parent of a Brownie and would just like to gatecrash to say

YOU ARE ALL AWESOME

I do thank Brown Owl and co each week and send emails every now and then, but its honestly not said enough and when I read about nightmare pushy non-paying parents I am so embarrassed to be a fellow parent.

Psychic paper, I think you are right, I would do a total revamp including new names. If they pick the same one flip a coin...

Question about Brownies sixes.

With my pack there is a general expectation among the girls that as the sixer moves up, the next oldest take their place.

However as some of the girls have left early, moved house etc, the next one to become sixer in this method is only 8, with lots of older girls in other sixes who aren't even seconders yet.

I would like in September to re-do all of the sixes to get a better age balance. I have looked at this, and it would be a full shake-up, not just one or two moving. I think I would maybe change the six names too, to reflect it. (at the moment we are woodland creatures, but maybe each six could vote for which of the fairy folk they would like (but god knows what happens if 2 sixes pick the same one :S)

What do you think?

What I'd say is the pack which works for you now may not be the best in 4 years time. Leadership tema scan change, your dd may even prefer to go to the pack all her school friends are joining. I'd revisit the idea when dd starts school and put her on the waiting list then.

In our area we manage 1 waiting list for all three Rainbow units and all 4 Brownie units. This is done manually in Join Us. Girls are offered places strictly in age order, so there's no advantage in getting them on the list early.

Thanks!

enquiryym.girlguiding.org.uk/

It will vary but this is how you'll get connected to the unit you want.

Waiting lists do vary by area but certainly for rainbows they tend to be long

Also leaders do change so visiting a group now will not guarantee that it will be the same when your daughter is 5

Visit www.girlguiding.org.uk/interested
to register her interest and get on the waiting list

Hi ladies. I thought this might be a good place to ask a question or two if you don't mind. DD is currently 1 and when she turns 5 I'll be looking for her to join Rainbows in Ely where we live. I have heard (in relation to Scouts, admittedly) that you have to get them on the waiting list as early as now. Is that true?

Also, there are apparently 3 Rainbow packs in Ely - how do I find out what they are like? And do you have to sign up to a specific pack? I know no-one with a DD old enough to go!

Enjoy your days x

Yay indeed momb

We're taming part in the local carnival parade today, dressed up as cupcakes to celebrate out 100th birthday.