Beavers and helping out

[Infinityandbeyondthestars]

So my DS has recently started Beavers and i am getting a bit of pressure from the leadership team to help out as a section helper. I am in 2 minds, i don't mind helping out occasionally but a bit weary about committing to it.

Has anyone done this role, what does it entail / is it a big commitment?

One of our Beaver leaders was asked to help out one week, he arrived thinking it was a one off, and was presented with a t-shirt with his name on and 'assistant leader'. He has been there 8yrs now.

People always mention their other children as a reason for not helping. There are many Scouters and Guiders who have found ways of sorting their own children out and carried on volunteering. I've done it for over 40 years having only a few weeks off every time I had a baby. Obviously it's not for everybody. I would never expect that people would be as mad as those of us for whom guiding and scouting is a way of life. However there are ways around most things and people who really want to help, find a way of doing so.

@BikeRunSki How do you deal with parents with several siblings and the other parent not being home in time for the meeting or single parents? We do a car sharing for DD's Scout pack and one mum can hardly do it as her DH only comes in quite late and she has 2 others to think about.

This is what I found unfair when DD's pack tried to implement it. While I do understand the issue, DD's Scout leader is due to retire in 2 years, we lost the girl's pack leader 18 months ago and without parents helping at camps there would be none, I think it is unfair to lots of children who can benefit hugely from Guides/Scouts, that packs try implement a mandatory rota.

Our rainbow pack had always Guide volunteers doing th DoE or even jsut Secondary school girls looking for volunteering.

Young people doing volunteering for DofE don't count as adults for ratio purposes

@reluctantbrit and others who've asked - no one is excluded. Where a family has younger siblings, we try and accomodate them, depending on the activity. We often have a younger brother or sister drawing or doing special "jobs". One family with 5 children took the attitude of "Well, you'll have at least one of our children with you for the next 10 years" and both parents trained as leaders/section assistants, but are never both present! A single mum has become group secretary, and is amazing at writing grant applications; another family help out a lot a maintenance/gardening/fundraising days on weekends. "Parents" on the parent rota can be grannies, uncles, teenage siblings etc as well as just actual parents. I have only known one family point-blank refuse to volunteer in any capacity. That particular child left after about 6 months, because her parents did not feel that they were getting their money's worth from their subs. I'm not sure what they thought their subs paid for, but they thought that the leaders were paid.

*teen siblings don't always count. They don't count for ratios, but they can be a helpful extra pair of hands for indoor activities.

Bike - your group sounds like it's got parent participation sorted really well, I wish we could do that.
I think some groups try to run an opt-out rather than an opt-in process for a parent rota - we're not at that point, but if we did have to, we would never say a child couldn't attend if no parent could help, but we would be offering as many different ways to volunteer as possible (as bikerunski outlines) in order to try to include everyone at some point and keep the group going.

We really don’t @tinselviolin! We occassionally have to cancel meetings because we don’t have enough adults (of the three leaders, one works shifts, one works on an emergency standby rota and one is often away from home). It’s no good having 16 people painting a fence on a Saturday morning, if we’ve only got 1 person on a Wednesday evening.

Sectional Assistants have to have a DBS, but they don't have to do much training, and they can't be responsible for running any even without a Section Leader or Asst Section Leader there.

From a Leader's pov, then it is FAR more helpful to have someone who is able to come every week, than it is having different people turning up each week, not knowing where things are or what the routine is or what the "rules" are and needing to check everything with you - so I don't blame the Leader for asking if she thinks you might, or if she thinks you would be good at it.
However, that is all she is doing - 'asking'. You can absolutely say "No, I can't commit at the moment, over and above the once a term on the parents' rota - but ask me again in 6 months / a year's time / in two year's time"
or
"No, I want him to have the chance to do this away from me" (and wait for a text from the Cub Leader or the Scout Leader asking if you will help there )
or
"I can't commit to being there every week, but don't mind doing once a month / or 'a run of 3 weeks to complete a badge' / or fortnightly" / or whatever you are prepared to commit.
or
"I can't commit to the whole of the evening, but I'm happy to come up 10mins before the end and wash up the cups / tidy away the activity / run a game while you speak to the parents / whatever it is you need help with each week"

etc

@BikeRunSki oh dear, maybe I got the wrong end of the stick there. We can barely get people to sign up for bagpacking...

@bikerunski I think in our case it would def be an issue if DH or I would attend a meet on a regular basis, we found that DD actually behaves better without us, she has a habit of playing up if we are attending an activity.

The only time it works is when they do something outside the usual, an activity in the forest grounds instead of the hall or on a trip when DH often drives the kit van.

And I think I may not the only one who openly admits that the idea of spending 90 minutes with children doing a craft activity or games is my idea of hell. As I said, I am happy to help organising something or physical helping with kit but I am not a person enjoying the actual meets.

I do appreciate the volunteers and leaders, I know that without them no group would be able to run.

But often the leaders could be more specific with help requests. We had several like "sorting out kit and cleaning", "helping with building xyz" which meant we had suddenly an influx of dads with considerable skills and tools arriving, often "we need help" is too general and people not knowing what to expect don't come.

DD actually behaves better without us, she has a habit of playing up if we are attending an activity.

I think this is the case for 95% of children! And I very aware that my children have a very different experience of Scouting because I am there.

I understand what you’re saying @reluctantbrit, but it is very difficult to plan any activity without an idea of the help available, in terms of numbers/ratios, skills and interests etc. There is no point planning a night hike, if we don’t have enough support. Equally, weeks and weeks of indoor activities are not anybody’s idea of fun.

Not being with my own children is why I originally became a Cub leader, not a Beaver leader... Although DD1 is now a Cub.

I love my 'job' and it's very rewarding, but can be hard work at times. I'm lucky to currently be in a great team (we have 5 Cub leaders, although 1 may be moving to Scouts). We have several official parent helpers within the group as well- plus the committee who take a lot of stuff of the leaders hands.

If you want to help, but don't want to work with the kids or struggle to get to the meetings, the committee would probably be glad if the help.