To think this is a fair rule re interest badges in GGing?

[InterestBadgesForGG]

DD is 6, and does Rainbows but I know this is the rule throughout girlguiding locally with the interest badges.

Each girl has the opportunity to do 1 interest badge per theme. They are not stopped from doing any of the other badges, but their subs only cover 1 badge. After that parents/the girl is expected to pay 50p per badge.

The only exception is if girls can’t complete any of the interest badges in one theme due to disability or SN, they’re allowed to choose 1 other interest badge instead for that theme.

I think that’s fair enough. We’re a very middle class area where most girls have 2 working parents. Most girls around here seem to do all the interest badges in 1 theme as that’s what the girl wants.

I’m a single parent and it’s never been an issue if I say “DD wants to do this but I can’t afford the 50p until next half term” they’ve still let DD do the badge and given it to her and I’ve just paid it on the next lot of subs. Occasionally we’ll get emails asking if we can donate to interest badges as some girls want to do extras in a theme – and I have sent 50p or £1 if I can afford it so I assume there are things in place for girls/families who want to do more but can’t afford to

I was talking to a friend about it and she’s a guides leader in another district/area. She thinks its not on and that’s what subs are for, for any badge a girl wants to do.

For context our Rainbows and Brownies meet in a school hall (they have a display board and a cupboard for supplies) so I assume they pay the school for allowing them the use of the space so that’s probably what most of the subs cover (it’s £25 for a 12 week term, slightly less for shorter terms and slightly more for longer terms but never goes above £30)

I explained this to friend but she still thinks it’s not on. I didn’t ask her how much the subs in her area are to compare but it does seem fair to me to let them do 1 per theme and then charge for extras.

So WIBU? Me or friend?

YABU – Friend is right
YANBU – You’re right

The subs mainly covers insurance 7n my experience once you take out hall hire too there is VERY little left over for activities and badges. The way they do it sounds fair to me.

YANBU. I know money is tight for many people atm but 50p is hardly extortionate, a kid keeping a keen eye out could cover a badge every few weeks just by picking up dropped change found on the pavements.

Keeping the subs fairly low but letting people pitch in a small contribution towards more depending on what they want to do seems like a very fair way of managing it - I would bet that the subs at your friends place are higher and there will be some girls getting far more out of it that others.

Hi, I'm a rainbow and brownie leader. Our subs is 10/month and all badges are included in that.

I have to say you're getting a real bargain at £25/term and I can understand why they've got this policy in place of trying to keep subs that low.

You are right, rent is probably the biggest cost, our village school charges £15/h for rental so that really add up especially if you are running a small-medium sized unit.

Hth
X

Honestly, I'd be so glad that any of my current bunch wanted to do any interest badges at all, I'd gladly pay for them! I've tried and tried to explain the new theme awards system to them and their parents but there's just no interest/motivation for them to do it outside our meetings, it seems.

My unit pays for all the badges the girls earn, but our termly subs are higher than yours, so I don't really think either system is unreasonable.

50p is a very very small cost, even if you're poor

@SockQueen I have girls that either do them all (sometimes twice) or don't at all 🙈😂
But hey it's girl led and all that..

@coffeecup88

Hi, I'm a rainbow and brownie leader. Our subs is 10/month and all badges are included in that.

I have to say you're getting a real bargain at £25/term and I can understand why they've got this policy in place of trying to keep subs that low.

You are right, rent is probably the biggest cost, our village school charges £15/h for rental so that really add up especially if you are running a small-medium sized unit.

Hth
X

@coffeecup88 I know there's 18 at DDs rainbows and around 25 at the Brownies she'll go to so maybe medium sized, there's occasionally a place or two as well.

Our subs are more but we don’t pay for badges. £25 per term is pretty reasonable, as a lot of that will go to the central guiding system rather than to the pack.
Could you ask if the pack could do a fundraiser once a year to cover the costs of the badges?

@SockQueen

Honestly, I'd be so glad that any of my current bunch wanted to do any interest badges at all, I'd gladly pay for them! I've tried and tried to explain the new theme awards system to them and their parents but there's just no interest/motivation for them to do it outside our meetings, it seems.

My unit pays for all the badges the girls earn, but our termly subs are higher than yours, so I don't really think either system is unreasonable.

@SockQueen My DDs aiming to do them all apart from the two she can't do due to a medical issue (but she can do the other badge in the theme so the rule about SN/Disability doesn't apply)

Even if the subs are the same for your friend, the hall may cost more for you. Ultimately, they can only find badges with what's left when the essentials are paid and it sounds like they are doing a decent job at balancing needing the money with making exceptions for those who can't pay.

£2 per session is an incredible bargain before you even begin to factor in cost of resources etc!
Your friend is being unreasonable.

@SometimesMaybe

Our subs are more but we don’t pay for badges. £25 per term is pretty reasonable, as a lot of that will go to the central guiding system rather than to the pack. Could you ask if the pack could do a fundraiser once a year to cover the costs of the badges?

@SometimesMaybe They did used to do bag packing the local supermarkets to raise money for badges but due to covid can't so the emails go out to ask for donations. The girls asking are never named and the emails usually come from the DC rather than individual leaders so there's no way of identifying the girls asking.

The emails don't ask for a specific amount just "any donation you feel able to give, even 1p" but "if you can't afford to that's fine too" and I've sometimes not donated to these and never had issues so it seems to work well.

Guide and Brownie mum here. Definitely don’t bother with badges outside the unit. They have a lot of interests but a bit of a faff getting a badge for it and then me having to sew it on….
I don’t think either of you are right or wrong. Just different units having different finances.

Rainbow and Brownie leader in London here. It clearly states in the leader training that girls are allowed to do any and as many interest badges of their choosing. We charge £20 per term, we pay rent for our hall and we still manage to pay for the badges the girls want to do. It all sounds from your OP like you are being told which interest badge to do? This isn't supposed to be the case.

I personally don't like the fact they are charging you for extra interest badges. It isn't very encouraging to the girls and not every parent might feel comfortable in saying to the leader that they cannot pay. Im a firm believer that we should encourage girls to do as many interest badges as possible.

If funds are an issue, there are grants etc that they could apply for (we recently got a £200 grant from girlguiding hq for example) - they could use this to buy badge supplies or they should be fundraising for it. But if everyone is happy locally, then there will be no incentive to change.

That's a shame @AlandAnna if she'd like to do them but you don't want her too. The interest badges are a key part of the programme because it means they can gain the theme awards and the coveted gold award. At Rainbows level it's only an afternoons worth of fun stuff to do to get them.

@GuidingSpirit

Rainbow and Brownie leader in London here. It clearly states in the leader training that girls are allowed to do any and as many interest badges of their choosing. We charge £20 per term, we pay rent for our hall and we still manage to pay for the badges the girls want to do. It all sounds from your OP like you are being told which interest badge to do? This isn't supposed to be the case.

I personally don't like the fact they are charging you for extra interest badges. It isn't very encouraging to the girls and not every parent might feel comfortable in saying to the leader that they cannot pay. Im a firm believer that we should encourage girls to do as many interest badges as possible.

If funds are an issue, there are grants etc that they could apply for (we recently got a £200 grant from girlguiding hq for example) - they could use this to buy badge supplies or they should be fundraising for it. But if everyone is happy locally, then there will be no incentive to change.

@GuidingSpirit Not told which one to do, we can still pick them but if you do more than 1 for each theme you pay the 50p for it.

They used to do bag packs in the local supermarkets but can't due to covid now.

@coffeecup88

That's a shame *@AlandAnna* if she'd like to do them but you don't want her too. The interest badges are a key part of the programme because it means they can gain the theme awards and the coveted gold award. At Rainbows level it's only an afternoons worth of fun stuff to do to get them.

@coffeecup88 Not all the Rainbows badges are an afternoon, some take a few days, and recently DDs done one that's taken a week, and the Recycling one takes a few weeks, so I can see why some girls/parents don't do any.

@InterestBadgesForGG out of interest which of the badges do you think would be affected by medical needs? I've not had anyone raise that issue before and I'd like to be cognisant of issues for any girl that joins with medical needs.

The badges are designed so that each girl can take their own spin on it. All 3 elements completed but the only requirement is that the girl "does their best" as per the promise. And every girl will have different abilities etc. For example I don't expect the 4 yr olds to turn to have written anything for their badges.

Yes of course @InterestBadgesForGG but construction and drawing are. And I certainly enjoyed some parental benefits when they DDs were doing their helper.

We don't pay for badges, I'm not really sure what our subs are but I think it works out to about £2 a night. It seems that my DDs group do one skills builder each term and the girls can do whatever interest badge they want to at home. Our leader tells us what colour they are doing so they can get both colours.

To be honest a large part of rainbows is getting the badges so the aim is to do 6 skill builders and 6 interest badges to get the gold badge, so in theory 12 badges then bronze, silver and gold so 15 badges per girl. I would pay for the badges if we had to but I definitely expect my subs to cover it.

My daughter helped out in the remembrance parade and at the end of that term got a gorgeous poppy badge a skills badge and 2 interest badges and her bronze badge along with the pin badge, I was surprised she got so many badges!

[quote coffeecup88]@InterestBadgesForGG out of interest which of the badges do you think would be affected by medical needs? I've not had anyone raise that issue before and I'd like to be cognisant of issues for any girl that joins with medical needs.

The badges are designed so that each girl can take their own spin on it. All 3 elements completed but the only requirement is that the girl "does their best" as per the promise. And every girl will have different abilities etc. For example I don't expect the 4 yr olds to turn to have written anything for their badges.[/quote]
@coffeecup88 My DD has a muscle condition and doesn't do PE at school or sport outside of school so probably won't be able to do the Agility badge, but she can do Nature as she can do that sat at the table but if she couldn't then she'd be exempt from the interest badge for that theme.

I think she'll likely struggle with Helper and Recycling, going to give Recycling ago but if she can't do it, then I'm not overly bothered (and won't be using the exemption either as she'll be moving to Brownies soon).

I don't know enough about the Brownies badges yet to say if she'll struggle with any.

It’s not I don’t know want them too. If they do it off their own back, fine! If I have to look through their book, check what they need to get signed off and by whom, it’s not going to happen. I’ve got three children who do various activities outside of school and guiding and a full time job. I’m busy enough without taking on this too. School expects us to help with homework as well…. there are only so many hours in the day.

@Rover83

We don't pay for badges, I'm not really sure what our subs are but I think it works out to about £2 a night. It seems that my DDs group do one skills builder each term and the girls can do whatever interest badge they want to at home. Our leader tells us what colour they are doing so they can get both colours.

To be honest a large part of rainbows is getting the badges so the aim is to do 6 skill builders and 6 interest badges to get the gold badge, so in theory 12 badges then bronze, silver and gold so 15 badges per girl. I would pay for the badges if we had to but I definitely expect my subs to cover it.

My daughter helped out in the remembrance parade and at the end of that term got a gorgeous poppy badge a skills badge and 2 interest badges and her bronze badge along with the pin badge, I was surprised she got so many badges!

@Rover83 DD has her Bronze, and Silver, 4 theme awards, 4 interest bagdes, 4 skill builders, the Mirabel and Thinking Day badges. She wanted to do the Remembrance Parade but Rainbows don't do it here, only Brownies and Guides.

(Sorry that was so badly typed )

I always find it fascinating how many different ways there are of doing things within GG.
I am a Brownie leader. I am so delighted if a girl does an interest badge that I absolutely will buy it from our funds. We charge £25 for a 10 week term and that pays for everything, hall hire, membership, resources, badges. It’s pretty tight most years but we cope with the odd fundraiser locally and gift aid too.
As long as whatever the unit does is made clear from the start, it seems fair enough to charge for ‘extras’. But personally I wouldn’t want to deter a child from doing a badge due to extra cost. Also the effort involved in getting that extra money when I’m always having to chase for the term fees anyway would put me off bothering! Unless the girls are completely badge obsessed I can’t see it being a massive extra cost.