Rainbows, Brownies, Guides - Has your child returned to meeting in person?

[Ickabog]

I know a few groups have returned but have been meeting outside. However, i'm curious to know if any have returned to meeting inside, and if so how things have changed.

[foreverandalwaysme]

My division are all doing zoom meetings. Can't justify telling children they can't mix bubbles then allowing them to do so. Coupled with the fact the church halls/schools are not hiring out yet.

[PollyannaWhittier]

Brownie leader - we did emailed activity packs weekly March - May 1/2 term, Zoom meetings weekly May - summer holidays, and three virtual camps / sleepovers (April, May and August).

We're not allowed in the Church hall yet, except one leader in to access our cupboard, and even if we were the hall is so tiny we'd only be able to fit about 6 girls with social distancing.

We've done three outdoor meetings so far this term, and we want to carry it on as long as possible but it's dark, it's cold, and they can't understand why the rules at Brownies are stricter than school - most of the girls are in the same class so don't think they should need to distance at Brownies; and also school are apparently letting them sing outside or with the classroom window open, whereas GG have told us no singing at all.

Added to that, it's just so hard to plan activities that work when they can't share equipment and can't get close to each other - 15 girls spread out in a 2m spaced circle means you can't hear someone speaking from the other side of the group.

I'm afraid if we go back to Zoom we'll lose girls, even more so after seeing some of the comments upthread and elsewhere online implying that if we're not running meetings exactly as before we're not trying hard enough. But equally, I don't feel like what we're delivering at the moment is 'good Guiding' so I don't know what to do for the best.

[ThisMustBeMyDream]

@youdidask

Yes I did. And also, yes I did .

I was told no because I'd be bringing his younger sibling as it wasn't allowed. I'm a single parent with no family support.

I'm not stupid. But thanks for talking down to me.

[lucysmam]

@ghostmous3 that may not be the case.

I've been chasing our church for weeks to see a copy of their RA, and send them mine. Never an answer.

Dance groups however, have been back a while.

Presumably they pay more than we do as a voluntary organisation 🤷‍♀️

[badlydrawnbear]

@Horrible76

I'm really struggling with the Guiding Association during this pandemic. I am both a leader and a parent. The decision not to offer refunds for the last three months of last year, followed by a proposed price hike in the subs has really put the boot in. We are never further away from offering the opportunities to girls from disadvantaged backgrounds.

And if I get one more carefully curated 'right guys' email from head office I might pop.

Me too re census. As a leader who also has 2 DDs in Guiding, February is going to be very expensive for me. I am on the verge of saying I can't afford to be a leader anymore as it is more important to me that I pay for DDs to attend. We are actually reasonably well off, both DH and I have jobs despite covid, so I don't know how parents from disadvantaged backgrounds manage to pay. We only charge a couple of pounds subs per week (and we aren't charging all of that now as we don't have to pay rent or for so many materials) which makes Guiding a cheap activity until February comes round and I have to find over £100 for the 3 of us.

[ellentree]

Mine is back at Beavers but outside and socially distanced (and in two groups so less children). After half term it's mostly zoom but they are planning some hikes.

[grumpymother]

I'm a leader of Guides and Rangers with 20+ years service and a parent of a Guide and a Beaver.

The Beavers sent us a sunflower growing competition and a seed in April, not heard anything from them since.

I did a few Zoom meetings with my Guides in the summer term, but to be honest my heart wasn't in it and we had very low turn out - only 6-8 each time of nearly 30 on the register. We delivered things to guides homes (which takes a whole day, as we are rural and they live spread out over about 50 square miles, no exaggeration), we have an active Facebook page and did virtual sleepovers, badge work and so on with a pretty poor take up. It all takes so much leader time. We're volunteers, we have our own families to think about, our own full time jobs to do. I worked 6 days a week through lockdown. I wondered if it was worth the effort to try and keep it going when not meeting face to face because the take up was so low. The girls just weren't interested in Zoom!
We have now done 3 face to face outdoor meetings, with close to full attendance. The girls are loving it. However, as Guides we meet at 7.30pm, and it's dark, and cold; realistically there's only so much we can actually do outside. We can't meet earlier due to our work and families, and our leader team is reduced as one of us is caring for a vulnerable family member and isn't happy face to face.
We are looking at meeting indoors, but it will mean splitting the unit in half and each half meeting fortnightly. We have to charge full subs despite half the meetings, in order to pay the rent on the hall and save for Census (which we put 1/3 of each terms subs towards rather than asking parents to cough up in January). We didn't take any subs in the summer term, so we are already something like £400 down on where we should be in saving for Census at this point in the year, and we have opportunities for fundraising at all.
I am upset that GGUK sent out an email to parents saying we can now meet indoors again, rather than allowing leaders to make the decision based on local circumstances and contact their girls parents themselves. I am upset that we still have to pay full census this year (so many parent don't realise that out of the £105 subs they pay each year, £40 disappears on census and another £30 goes on rent - we run each meeting on less than £1 per guide!). And as a parent, I don't want my children on Zoom, they need real life social interaction, they're children!
The Guides don't 'get' social distancing. We remind them, they spread out, then 30 seconds later they are bunched up again. And we got shouted at this week by a member of the public for not wearing masks, outdoors in a small group on a quiet village street!
I don't know how to move forwards with it. Sorry for the essay!

[thymestables]

My DC are back at both cubs and guides, outside in smaller groups than normal. Guides are alternating weeks while cubs using parent volunteers socially distanced, then staggering start and finish times to avoid lots of parents hanging around.
Am so grateful to the wonderful leaders, kids are so happy to be back.

[Threesocks]

Nope - we have had zero contact from Brownies and Rainbows since March. No online meetings or anything.

[VerbenaGirl]

Still Zooming here.

[DobbyTheHouseElk]

Brownies.

Zoom meetings and virtual sleepover. It’s been sort of ok. This term we have to pay subs for a zoom meeting, but I think I’ll keep it up.

They also did a meeting outside for a morning which went well. Very SD and safe. But reliant on good weather.

I’d like them to subscribe to zoom, the 40 mins isn’t once the leader have a pre meeting, and then everyone joining in takes a while. So it’s sort of 25 mins of meeting. I think it would be better if they had more time. They seem to run out of time quickly and the girls can’t ask questions about badges.

[grumpymother]

dobbythehouseelf the reason you have to pay subs for zoom meetings is because every February we have to pay a whacking great bill to headquarters which is worth at least 1/3 of the total subs for a whole year, for every single member, whether we are meeting or not.

[topcat2014]

The beavers I am a leader at is starting outdoors next weekend. We meet on sat am though so always daytime.

Our hall not available sadly

[EduCated]

No, the unit usually meets in a school, which funnily enough isn’t letting outside groups on currently.

Local campsites aren’t taking bookings. Local park with 15 kids (when the group is usually 25) until 9pm in winter with no toilet facilities isn’t exactly appealing.

[DobbyTheHouseElk]

@grumpymother

dobbythehouseelf the reason you have to pay subs for zoom meetings is because every February we have to pay a whacking great bill to headquarters which is worth at least 1/3 of the total subs for a whole year, for every single member, whether we are meeting or not.

Yes, I know.

I’m not complaining...I fully support our unit.

They only started the zoom meetings in the summer hols. So we didn’t pay for that. But I have no quibble over paying. Did it come across that it did?

[CallingOnAvengingAngels]

I'm really struggling with the Guiding Association during this pandemic. I am both a leader and a parent. The decision not to offer refunds for the last three months of last year, followed by a proposed price hike in the subs has really put the boot in. We are never further away from offering the opportunities to girls from disadvantaged backgrounds.

And if I get one more carefully curated 'right guys' email from head office I might pop

Me too! We're in local lockdown, doing Zoom meetings but hardly any girls taking part, due to the area we meet in families dont have laptops and they're just not engaging. No money since the last subs paid in January. HQ attitude has been not helpful either. Were you on the Zoom webinar this week? I'm close to bring done with them tbh and ice been volunteering for 20 years.

[Bingobongo1]

No I'm really disappointed with guides not even an online zoom meeting.
Scouts still online they were looking at face to face from October however with rates rising may not be possible as scouting have their own traffic light system where by they have criteria to meet for different types of meetings.

[Downton57]

I think some people on here do have to remember that these groups are run by unpaid volunteers with their own families, jobs and god knows what other responsibilities to take care of during this extremely challenging time, and expressing annoyance or disappointment in them is a bit out of order.

[grumpymother]

dobby no, not really, sorry. It's me that's feeling annoyed really as Others further up have said, many of us are worrying about how on Earth we are supposed to pay the Census bill when we've had no income.

[Redwinestillfine]

Ours is doing zoom. We are not joining. Dd will not enjoy it and the whole point is socialisation.

[DuckonaBike]

We do Woodcraft Folk (a bit like Scouting for hippies) - we’re meeting outdoors only until half term. After that the evenings will be too dark but we might have occasional Saturday mornings. Advice from the District is against meeting indoors, which seems sensible.

[DobbyTheHouseElk]

@grumpymother

dobby no, not really, sorry. It's me that's feeling annoyed really as Others further up have said, many of us are worrying about how on Earth we are supposed to pay the Census bill when we've had no income.

Don’t worry.

Our subs this term is very low. They’ve asked all parents to pay if they are attending the zoom or not. If they don’t want to pay or zoom, they will have to leave.

I was considering paying more than they’ve asked, but don’t know how it would come across.

I fully understand they are volunteering and I always thank them in an email after a virtual sleepover or outside event.

[DominaShantotto]

Beavers and cubs outdoors - split into two groups (luckily ours pretty much splits straight down the middle with which school of two they go to so they've done it like that). Think they were hoping to resume indoors soon but the hall are dragging their feet over risk assessments (the dancing group that met there has already folded over this) and I can't see it happening.

Not sure I can take another term of fucking zoom meetings - they're a nightmare cos the kids just disengage and act up, but won't give them a miss so you end up sitting there through this video meeting from hell where all they want to do is fuck on with the virtual backgrounds and pull faces at their mates.

[capercaillie]

I’m a Brownie leader and DD is a guide. DD has been doing guide meetings on zoom since April and they’ve been great - really helped her cope with what’s going on. We’ve been running brownies on zoom since may - about 60% take part and seem to enjoy. Can’t wait to get back to face to face meetings - our hut isn’t open yet but hopefully January. We’re doing a one odd face to face in a fortnight weather permitting :-)

[puddlesuit]

I'm a guide and rainbow leader, we have been doing monthly zoom since April for both. We had our first face to face rainbow meeting outdoors this week and guides starts next week. Local lockdown means we can't meet inside but will continue to do outdoor meetings weekly now!

We have had to split them into groups due to numbers but it's so good to back with them!