I live in a small Home Counties town that people move to from London to raise their kids. We moved here 4 years ago and I put my dds names down for Brownies. Dd turned 7 over the Easter holidays, and I was hoping that she would be able to start Brownies, but she hasn’t been offered a place yet.
Yesterday I asked a few other mums in DD’s class whether their daughters were starting Brownies, and one of them said yes. I asked her how long ago she’d put her DD’s name down and she said 2 years ago! So my daughter should have been higher up the list than hers.
When I pointed this out to her, and asked how it was possible, she reluctantly said she was friends with and had gone to school and church with the woman who is Tawny Owl, and they go to the same church still, and the Tawny Owl had made sure her dd got a place. She said it was really important to her that her dd was a member of that brownie pack as she had been a member when she was a child.
I spoke to a few other mothers and they said that the brownie pack seems to largely ignore the order on the waiting list, and gives out places based on whether you go to the Anglican Church (that the leader goes to and where the Brownies meet) and if your parents grew up in the town, as most of the leaders did.
AIBU to think this is completely wrong? The Brownies are a public organisation, they shouldn’t have such an unfair, discriminatory system. Children whose families are from the town, or who go to the church, should not have priority over children whose families have just moved here and don’t go to that church.