New Girlguiding Programme, Subs and A lack of funds - Rainbows, Brownies, Guides

[IceRebel]

Is anyone else struggling with the cost of the new programme? I would be interested to find out what other units charge as subs, as we're struggling with having to pay out for the new materials, as well as balancing the costs of the activities we provide. As far as I can see there isn't an online / paperless version, which would really help as finances are quite tight. Is it just our unit or are others out there struggling as well?

Also, if you've ever thought about volunteering your time any local units would love to have you, so please do ask. I've never known it to be so difficult to get adult volunteers, we have such long waiting lists but are unable to accept more girls without additional help.

I bought the resources personally ,as a donation
I think they should have been free.Bit much to say Here is the new programme ,now spend £XXX on the resources

I’m a Rainbow leader and I have a very mixed group in terms of family income. We charge £30/term but are open to instalments etc. We keep a stash of second hand uniform, but the only part we actual ask for is the polo shirt which is £10 new. If they also want the hoody then great but we don’t insist as it adds up. We don’t recommend the joggers and they fit no one and we’re fine with primark leggings or whatever.

We always do 12 weeks, making up weeks in holiday if needed.

We don’t have tons of spare cash so the new resources are a stretch. We did get a bit of help from county which was appreciated and I’ll probably make the activities cards a donation from me. We’re giving everyone a badge book, but handbooks just for newbies as I struggled to find anything super useful in there.

We do charge more for optional trips in holidays/weekends but never more than £15 and usually a lot less.

Parents say they think good value for money but I guess they wouldn’t tell me if they didn’t!

Always worth checking out the girls' other activities. I used to kill myself fundraising and realised after a while that we were the cheapest activity by miles.

We're putting a handbook in each Six box as they are a waste of money. I'll use becoming a brownie for a while and think on.

My tawny Owl got £500 from her work so we used that.

Our subs are £40 a term because we have such high census costs. We also charged the new badge books at a cost of £7.50 to the girls in this terms subs.

Our guides and brownies are both 25 pounds a term although due to the amount required by HQ being raised substantially last year it was 35 pounds for one term.

It is excellent value. My elder dd loves Guides the most out of any other activities she has done. I do feel annoyed that the badges are no longer viewable online. It does feel like it is a book-selling gimmick to ensure everyone needs their own book. Our guides have had to buy their own book but I had a feeling the brownies were being bought theirs from subs.

Some of the badge choices are a little however. There is no way my 11 year old is doing her vlogging badge, for example, and dh is aghast there is no map reading any more.

Nastycats I don’t go Guides and luckily no one suggests that Rainbows do any vlogging. I believe that map reading stuff is covered in the skills builders badges (so done in meetings) rather than in interest badges now. So there should still be some of that.

...and dh is aghast there is no map reading any more.

Whaaat?!! So useful, what happens when you are outside of a mobile phone friendly area?

Nastycats and Ariela: As name change said, the map-reading is moving out of independent interest badges and into skills building within the meeting.

Costs - no-one has to buy all the UMAs and SBs all at once. Pick up one set per term to start with. Share & swap with other units in your district.

Badges - There are badges to be earned in the unit: the staged SBs. Some posters on here are not familiar with how the new programme works. Leaders have access to free online trainings, webinars and local face to face training. Please do those rather than read speculation & opinion.

Fees - these vary massively so try not to compare. Some church sponsored units pay no rent at all. Others are in school halls being charged the same rent as a commercial evening class.

Overall - don't be disheartened or overwhelmed by the changes. We've got a year to bed in. Chin up

I've got a Beaver, a Cub, a Scout and Brownie.

For the 3 boys in scouting I pay £9 each per month all year round, so £108 per year each. Camps and outings cost extra on top.

For Brownies I pay £20 per term, so £60 per year. Dd has not long started so I'm not sure of additional costs yet.

The scouting is considerably more expensive but it's still excellent value and I'm very happy to pay it - and it makes me wonder why Brownies is so cheap!

Spreading the cost over the year makes the cost more manageable and accepting a standing order must cut down on debt collection I'd have thought.

I think it’s always worth remembering that resources purchased from any of the Guiding outlets the money goes back into guiding. I think it’s easy to lose sight of that.

Well, hopefully map reading will be covered in meetings. To be honest they have done some amazing outdoor cooking and camping activities in the year dd has been a guide but no map reading. I'm not that bothered but I can see it us a useful skill and one that my dh at least is 'interested ' in, and was as a scout and CCF member, so he had hoped to share that interest with dd. Again, dd is not hugely bothered!

I should also say that dd has really loved doing some of the new badges over the summer including geocaching, mixology and herbal remedies!

Our subs are £35 x3 terms per year (Brownies) which covers all pack night costs. We sell a starter pack which until now has been the sash, bag, becoming a brownie, badge and adventure books. We sell it slightly cheaper than the seperate costs which means that the girls have access to the same resources.

We try to economise in the summer term with all those lovely free outdoors activities and the census is built into the subs. We went for the flat rate to avoid an expensive Spring term, then cheaper Summer term. My Beavers are at the same venue so same or marginally cheaper rent (slightly shorter meeting) and charge £30 but pay for pack night trips extra which can be faffy and averages around the same as Brownies anyway.

I've got new programme training coming soon. Our DC is buying some district resources to share around to help get us started. From the summaries I've seen so far, I like the skills building through the sections like they do in Scouting. The differences between Rainbow Roundabouts through to Guide Go For Its (Gosh, I remember them being new from my first incarnation as a leader ) could feel a bit fragmented.

This term, we're concentrating on using up our stock of current badges and aim not to buy anymore. We've got a couple of nights of smaller groups filling in the gaps on partially filled badges. We'll draw up a longer term plan after training.

For fund raising, we find bag packing is most lucrative. We try to do local/ school fetes for a bit of fundraising and recruiting for girls/ maybe leaders. We're in a good position on leaders with a long term core with a good spread of ages. Leaders in their 20s come and go over time. We've become great friends and have socials. We spread the load according to our strengths which tends to be quite balanced.

Just a heads up for guiders...just been online to look for a risk assessment for Big Gig and found that a lot of the interest badges are online, might be helpful for any oarents/units who can't afford it.

Have any of you got trefoil guild or FOGS? Might be worth seeing if they would be willing to donate a couple of packs or see if they will run some coffee mornings?

Ours are quite active but are fund raising for our HQ repairs at the moment.

We pay £3 a week with trips and uniform on top. I expected to buy the new book outright but the unit has subbed half the cost. That said, and given the time of year, if you can hold off, some not too subtle suggestions it'd make a great Christmas stocking filler probably wouldn't hurt?

Fwiw! Ive run a badge linked activity night for my DD's unit and then had that link back to a fund raising activity that raised a couple of hundred pounds and when she's moved to guides, I'll happily volunteer at her unit, but I don't want to be there permanently now as it defeats some of the point of her going for me. Locally, the rainbows/guides are okay for volunteers at the mo but I've offered to step in at short notice though if needed.

I think some of you are undercharging given parents will be used to £5 for dancing and £6 or more for 30 mins swimming.

Thank you for all you do!

We had a bit of a browse through the new programme at the weekend and it looks really interesting.

Only skimmed the thread. I feel everyone's pain, it's so hard juggling it all.

We're a guiding & scouting house.

DS -explorers at group A. They don't own their building, subs are £10pm, and were the same as a scout. That's the group structure for you! Only uniform required was the shirt, and there was the option to buy a group t-shirt, which was good, it saved his shirt. I had issues last remembrance as he went to get it and his arms were 6" too long! This is the activity that requires the most extra bits of money eg for tomorrow's chip shop hike

Dd2 was a cub, and just moving up to sea scouts at group B. Ds switched groups because he didn't want to go to the sea scouts! Compulsory uniform is the jumper & hat. Hat is going to be second hand, they are obscenely expensive. Subs would be £15pm (they own their building) but because dh is a leader they are waived for her

Can't remember if there's a joining fee, I'd have paid it a long time ago. I think there was.

Both Dd1 and Dd2 go to Guides. Subs are £36 per term, I know ⅓ of that is rent. There's a joining fee of £10.

I'm a Brownie leader, in the same district. My subs went up for this term to £30 from £25. Not because of rent, but so I can charge one lump sum and cover everything. That said, my parents were quite happy to pay £2 each for me to take their girls to a nearby village by train for a hike, with an ice cream at the end!

The new resources have been a headache. I've bitten the bullet, and bought everything. Also got the girls the new badge books, but only the badge books. This was made easier by having 8 of my 24 leave for guides in July, so I only had to buy 16. This will be an economic term, as census has just been announced for my county and I winced.

@Wheresthel1ght Only the outgoing interest badge syllabus is online. The new ones are in the new badge books

New ones are on there, I was looking at the mixology one last night as we are looking to do it on sleepover in a couple of months. Think you need to search them though

A selection of the new badges have all the details... but only a taster. Most have one clause then "the rest is in the book"
www.girlguiding.org.uk/what-we-do/our-badges-and-activities/badge-finder/?SearchForm.Text=&SearchForm.GuidingSectionIds=54&SearchForm.Age=New&SearchForm.TypeId=&SearchForm.ThemeId=&SearchForm.Order=0&SearchForm.PageNumber=1