Guide Camp

[MoanyMum12]

To think that £40 is a ridiculous amount of money for Guide camp?!
Two nights in a tent for £40...

Hi everyone. Just to update you. DD has been offered a place in another Guide group in the town, it is where most of her friends go so she is happy with it. I felt we couldn't stay with the current group after being blackmailed by the Guide leader. I left some chocolates on her doorstep to thank her for volunteering her time, etc. DD has really enjoyed her last couple of years there.
I would love to be a full on leader at a unit, but my partner and I both work shifts (paramedics) so it is impossible to guarantee always being around at the same time each week.
Thanks all for your advice.

Way too expensive and I’ve been a Guide leader for 10 years.

@ferntwist I just want to clarify as my original post was very vague. It's not the cost of the camp for DD that I was particularly annoyed about, it was the cost that I was having to pay to volunteer my time to help on the camp.

Forgive me if this has been mentioned upthread, but leaders have to remember that many patents have two or even three daughters in Girlguiding, so multiple subs and residentials to pay for. Guiding should be for everyone, not just those with cash.

Wow, sorry @Moany, my mistake. That’s outrageous!

Wow that’s a really reasonable price tbh!! They will need to prob pay some ground rent, activities, food, equipment (they’ll prob already have tents etc which are really expensive but I’m sure they’ll need to pay into a fund for replacing them etc)

I hope your daughter enjoys her new Guide troop.

The leader of the group she is leaving is a fool for treating volunteers poorly. Willing and able volunteers are like golddust ... and she's just thrown one away.

So glad you got your daughter into another group :)
Asking you to pay £40 to volunteer was very unreasonable.
p.s (I’m coming to volunteer @becles unit! The takeaway is such a lovely idea!👌)

Moany I'm glad you have sorted your daughter. I'd just like to say though that you said you would love to be a leader but can't because of shifts. I do shifts too as a midwife but I am a leader in scouting. All us leaders work together as a team and when I can't be there others help out or we have parent volunteers too. It absolutely should not stop you donning uniform yourself. I'm sure you'd be an asset.

Ditto what PlayingforKittens said.
Thanks for coming back to update us, and I'm glad you've got your dd in somewhere else.

I was always told I had to be able to commit to 95% of the meetings to be a leader. I will investigate it!

2 days and 2 nights of non stop child care for 40 quid is ridiculously cheap, even if it DIDN'T include food and accommodation (even in tents.)

I'm a Scout Leader. I'll take anyone who wants to help, be it once a week, once a month, once a year...

However, you should definitely not have to pay for yourself if you are volunteering. Have a great time :)

Thanks almostfifty! I might look at volunteering with scouts, it seems a bit more welcoming. I do have a son who is on the waiting list for cubs!

I went in when my son went to Beavers. Twenty years later I'm still involved, though I've finally given up camping with them, can't cope with no sleep!

Agreed, if you want to volunteer you should be accommodated even if you can only commit to half the time it would be a massive help.

Refusing to pay to volunteer was absolutely the right choice. It should have been £45 for the girls to go and leaders costs included.

I was always told I had to be able to commit to 95% of the meetings to be a leader

I can’t be sure as I’m not involved in Guiding, but I’d be very surprised if that was the case.

It’s certainly not true in Scouting, I’m a cub leader and there are several leaders in our group who work shifts, or are often away for work, we just juggle rotas around it.

I might look at volunteering with scouts, it seems a bit more welcoming. I do have a son who is on the waiting list for cubs!

If you volunteer, your son won’t be on the waiting list for long! Certainly in our group, children of leaders jump the queue!

Like other posters, I can't speak for guiding, but Scouts have had quite a big drive over the last 7 or 8 years to encourage people to offer what they can. 'Flexible volunteering' is definitely the way forward. There are all sorts of roles - including, but not exclusively - front line Section Leaders that can be done flexibly. We'll be delighted to have you in the Scouts

Thanks! I’m off out to work now but I’m definitely going to look into it when I’m back.

Flexible volunteering is definitely ‘allowed’ (ha! More like encouraged) in guiding.

I was always told I had to be able to commit to 95% of the meetings to be a leader. I will investigate it!

The person who told you this was either:
a) an idiot who was making things up that are definitely not Girlguiding policy, or
b) talking at cross purposes with you.

Anyone can volunteer for Girlguiding for any amount of time that they can manage. Admittedly, it might be hard to run a unit (i.e. be Leader-In-Charge) without being there most of the time but even then you would just need two qualified leaders to agree who would do what and schedule meetings accordingly. However, if the person who said this to you was the same leader who has asked you to pay to go to camp, they are just making stuff up and going against Girlguiding's policies.

FWIW, Scouting doesn't make volunteering easier per se. It's just down to the adults involved and varies enormously from area to area.

I have lots of flexibility in my unit. Even if it was once a month or every 6 weeks I'd snap you up x

“Flexible guiding” is definitely something HQ like to go on about.... however how it works in practice will depend on the situation locally.

95% of meetings or you can’t be a leader is bollocks though!

Plenty of units will be glad of an occasional helper, especially one who is happy to go on residentials (and not charge you the same price as the Guides!) especially if they have a leader who finds it difficult to go to residentials for some reason (health, family, other commitments etc)

I do pay to volunteer as staff at Jamborees, but it’s nowhere near the amount the kids pay, and I’m not guilted into it, I choose to go to the event with full knowledge of the costs. I was looking at one in a nearby European country, but to keep costs down for the kids they were charging exactly the same for participants and staff! I don’t object to paying a nominal cost, plus food, and I pay my own transport costs as well of course. If I was taking my Guides the unit would pay for me it as staff it’s something I choose to do so pay for myself. But I do object to paying the same to work my arse off for a week as the kids pay to have a brilliant adventure!