Brown Owls - can you help with q re moving while on waiting list?

[Hadeda]

I'm hoping a knowledgeable Brown Owl will be able to help me...

I've got my DDs names on the waiting list for Brownies but neither have joined yet - they are too young. We have just moved and I'm wondering whether I should move them to the waiting list of a pack near our new home. I'm afraid of losing our place on the waiting list - Brownie places are like gold dust around here. The old house is still close enough for us to get there, but a pack locally would be easier.

So, do you know? If we move to the waiting list of another pack, will we go to the bottom of the list? And so basically lose any chance of the DDs being Brownies...

While I'm at it - do you know if you can you put your name on more than one waiting list? The website is very confusing and I don't want to fiddle in case I mess up the list I know we're already on!

quick reply as I'm going out the door to Brownies :-)

Contact the BO whose list you are on and explain to her that you would like to go on other lists too. She will be able to advise on the list for other local units, and should be able to contact them for you. Make it clear that you don't want to give up your place on her list. If the other packs are in a different Division you can go in via the website and get put on other lists but don't reapply for the original unit.

Thank you momb!! I'll give her a ring then. I was worried it would be almost as tricky as school places!

Our waiting lists are organised strictly by age, so it doesn't matter how long a child has been registered. Oldest girl gets next available place.
Each unit/district will do things differently, so its worth asking how close to getting a place DDs are in current area, and where they'd be on list in new area. They could state Guiding in old area and transfer to new unit as soon as a place becomes available.

If you go through Join Us you can only be on one list, but I have added girls who already have a reg number from rainbows to my waiting list and discovered some are on 3 or 4 lists!!!

I'd contact your local chosen pack and see what they said!

Our waiting lists, though, are ordered by registration date on the Join Us site, so when girls have joined my waiting list from other waiting lists, they have not had to go back to the bottom of the list.

Groovee - I've also had girls who have somehow managed to outwit the system and be on two lists at the same time!

Ah you can ask for them to be removed by your county GO Coordinator. I had one who told me she wouldn't start til 2 months later and after no contact, I went into her record and discovered she was on 2 other GO brownie units. Told the DIV com and she sorted it out as she was attending both units!

It took me a long while to realise that, with Join Us, girls can only (in theory at least) join one waiting list. In the days of paper lists, we quite often had girls on 2 or 3.

Our district Go! coordinator sorted things out when we discovered that the girl to whom I had just offered a place was already attending another unit.

Hmmm - so you shouldn't really be on more than one list?
I can see why you don't want people attending more than one unit, or not notifying you when they start somewhere else. But some packs may be more popular than others, and if I have been unlucky enough to choose the over popular pack then my DDs miss out?
Anyway, I'll try to get hold of the guider at the pack near us and see how she runs things.

I really really really want the girls to have the chance to be Brownies. It's a fantastic activity which I enjoyed so much myself - I started as a very shy little girl who Brown Owl was very doubtful about taking on pack holiday, and finished up running a canoeing trip as a ranger guide. My mum was a Brown Owl for 30 years, still running her unit when she died unexpectedly last year. Half the church at her memorial service was in uniform, some having driven 2 hours to get there. At the tea afterwards her Brownies presented my brother and I with a rose each. It was such a lovely gesture, rather than just giving us a bunch of flowers. She would have been so pleased and proud of them.
[Of course, I'll probably also have to explain to any Brown Owl they do actually get why I am getting ridiculously emotional at their enrolment...!]

No, you need to pick one unit and join their list. You are right that some units are more over-subscribed than others, so you may need to think tactically about which list you join!

I really don't see why you can't be on more than one list if you're happy to take a place at whichever unit comes up first.
The problem with Join Us is that it isn't good where there are several units in an area at each level, and no one to one relationship between each level.

In my district, we take the info off Join Us and manage it manually. We offer places at each level strictly on age order, at whichever unit has a place availble. If parents refuse a particular night, they can stay on the list and wait for an opportunity at a different night.

You should only register on Join Us once though, and let the units manage it themselves from there.

I almost agree with you, middleaged, but think I am more swayed by the HQ argument that it is easier to manage lists, and see where the pressure points are, if girls are only on one list.

I know that I can look at my waiting list and tell a girl when to expect a place. There's only once that I have referred a girl on to another choice of unit because I was having a leadership problem and with 2 girls with additional needs couldn't take above the number I was at. So if you don't get offered at one you should be referred on to the next unit. Our Div Com looks at lists and will call units to say "you have 8 and we have 6 girls looking for places can you take them, then she refers them on via join us.

Where I am, we have 4 Rainbow units, 4 Brownie units, 3 Guide units and a Ranger unit all in a smallish town, and all using the same hut for meetings, do lots of activities together etc.

Parents rarely have a preference as to which unit their daughter goes to.

At Rainbow level, we put all girls on WL against the same unit, and then the DC (me) liaises with the Leaders and offers places at units as they come up. I keep an excel spreadsheet of girls, DOBs and any unit preferences, and manage it from there. I allocate the girl to the correct unit on GO once they've accepted a place.

The move from Rainbows to Brownies and from Brownies to Guides is managed by the Leaders, in discussion with parents about preferred nights.