Brownie Weekend

[Jude89]

I run a Brownie Pack, last year we went away to PGL for one of the centenary weekends and it cost £70 per brownie for the weekend (parents drove them the 40 mins to the centre)

There has been a lot of interest in repeating this trip this summer, however the only centre near us is booked up so we have the option of two other centres both a 3 hour drive away.

The trip this year (because of the VAT rise mostly) would be around £80 per brownie not including transport, including transport there and back would be more like £110/£120 per Brownie and include 6 hours travelling.

I'm not a parent, but I think paying £120 for a weekend is A LOT and 3 hours is a long time to be on a coach when you're 7-10 year old, on the other hand I think it would be very unfair to ask parents to do a 6 hour round trip twice in a weekend (I expect they would just say no!)

What do you think?

We could organise something ourselves locally, but the PGL trip last year was FANTASTIC (and everything was organised for me! -I already spend too much time on Brownies, I think I'd loose my social life completely for a month or so sorting a weekend away by myself!)

The other thing is that if you don't have a pack holiday licence you can't run a Brownie Holiday yourself anyway. I don't have one yet either, I'm just about to start the training for it, so what my pack have done in the past is joined up with another local pack which does have a qualified leader - the leader with the pack licence has done all the organising and the other leaders like me have been responsible for our own packs and been able to take over a bigger venue than we could have separately. Perhaps you could speak to your District Commissioner to see if that would be possible. I agree £120 is a lot for a weekend, and you could probably find somewhere more local.
Totally agree about the work involved too, which is all the more reason to spread the load around other packs in your district.

I agree with LadyGlencora. Three hours away is too far for a weekend trip, especially if the girls will be travelling there after school on a Friday. (And IME if you arrange lift-shares amongst the parents, something always goes wrong and you have to spend hours on the phone re-making all the arrangements). The cost also sounds prohibitive, although I know that PGL facilities are great.

I would try to arrange a shared holiday with another pack or packs. We have had some great holidays in the past with another local pack, but we don't do them any more because the leader of the other pack retired and I cannot face planning holidays single-handed. I used to have a social life before I became a Brownie leader!

Cost is too high, I think DD did Starburst weekend (Jan 2010) for far less, ?about 45 quid? including minibus transport there and back (nearly 2 hours each way).

She was very exhausted, actually missed school on Monday she was so shattered. I would not let her do another weekend trip in termtime.