Brownies...

[reallyrandomwords]

Sorry if I'm posting in the wrong place but wasn't sure where would be better...

Does anyone know if a child can be in more than one brownie group?

My partners dd (lives with us 50/50) has been attending brownies where we live for a little while now, making new friends and enjoying the activities. We also take her and his ds to lots of events and activities, dd has private music lessons through us and we do their swimming lessons (giving this info for context) while the only activity they do with their dm is join her with the sport she does and has previously complained about not having time to do anything so it's up to us.

Suddenly however, her dm wants to get her into brownies there- we wouldn't be against it if it weren't for the fact she's already settling into the group here, although also worried that she wouldn't keep up with it. She's not looking for any other activities for them, only that- probably because dd has talked about enjoying it.

If she goes ahead, will it be ok to still keep her in this group or will she be forced to leave? I'm really worried that she'll be forced to leave, then her dm won't keep up taking her to the new group and then she loses out. Even if dm kept up with taking her, she'll lose the new friendships she's only just started to build.

Hope that makes sense...

I'm so worried that it's

There’s no rule against it, however most areas have long waiting lists so girls struggle to get into one group let alone two.

I can’t imagine how this would work out. But I’m sure GG would be approachable to the idea.

Although she would probably need two separate sashes otherwise it would be confusing

The way brownies is now with a set group activity send from GG, she might be bored if she’s covered the unit before.

Some slight differences between units maybe confusing for her. But I don’t know. GG have a register for all girls so it may be that it’s impossible to belong to two units at a time. I’d ask your Brown owl and see.

Yes, @MrsFionaCharming puts it in a far simpler way than me. With such long waiting lists, I don’t know I could do it.

Could her DM not enrol her in beavers/cubs?

It can be done but one unit would be her "main" unit and would pay her census and keep her online record updated (badge work, unit meeting place activities etc). The leaders of the two units would need to talk as she would only show on one units online list, and if the second unit wanted activities completed with them added to her record. Not all units have waiting lists so I wouldn't worry about taking a space up in two places.

So it might be possible, but complex? I'm so grateful for the replies! I don't know about the group at her dm's but here there was no waiting list, they were advertising and she was able to stay before she actually had her birthday- I think it was about 6 weeks before.

It needn’t be complex.

I’m a Brownie leader and would have absolutely no problem with it as long as the other unit leaders were happy too. We’d have to do a bit of communicating behind scenes but it shouldn’t be difficult or too time consuming.

Just thinking - you would need to be prepared to pay subs to both units though to cover the costs of her place. It’s not a centralised pot (except for census) so may differ between units.

We'd obviously be completely happy to keep paying her subs here, no issue with that at all. I think the leaders here would be great, I'd be concerned about the the other leaders may get told though.