Weekend Brownies

[tywysogesgymraeg]

What are your thoughts about Brownies on a Saturday, or even a Sunday?

We have a long waiting list where we are. We have either two or three meetings each weeknight in our Guide hut (Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers), so no opportunity to put on any extra units.

Would you be prepared to send your daughter to Rainbows or Brownies on a weekend if that was the only option of getting them in?

If so, what time of day would you prefer, and Saturday or Sunday?

If you have long waiting lists and leaders prepared to run the unit - anytime would be fine.

I only have a ds, but I would love it if there was a cub meeting at the weekend, and I would volunteer at it too.
I work ft, so ds is in childcare till 5.30 weekdays, not home till 6, and so can't go to things in the evenings, and scouting is one of the things I'd really have liked him to do

Weekends wouldn't work for me, and many others, because of every-other-weekend arrangements with an ex.

I think it's a great idea, but also my dc can't do regular weekend activities either due to every other weekend with their dad.

If you have a long waiting list, you would probably get enough interest to fill a group/pack though.

Thanks for your comments. I think it would work too, but local Leaders disagree with me.
I want some evidence to show them. Next step would be to survey current parents I think.

Could you do a survey of those on the waiting list? SurveyMonkey is free to use, dead easy to set up, and it collates everything for you

I would think it would be popular. Our rainbows and brownies recently closed due to lack of leaders when ours had to retire but the only alternatives are on a different day which many of us can't do and rather oddly there are 2 packs in the same road running at exactly the same time on the same day so whilst we were given details of 3 packs, 2 of them are the same time so making it even harder to find one we can go to. As a result my daughters have stopped completely and are unlikely to return. Weekends would work for quite a few people I think.

My daughter does Beavers on a Saturday, it is great I prefer it to after school.

Slightly off topic but kind of relevant. My dd attends a music school on a Saturday morning. There are children from 2 years old up to end of primary school. It's not a conservatoire, just a local group run in a primary school. It is full and bustling every Saturday morning. I have met quite a few parents through it, who work full time, and love that they can bring their kids along at the weekend. And there are loads of dads hanging around, which makes for a better balance I think.

My point is, if people are really interested (and the waiting list suggests this) they will come.

My dd does music sat morning and swimming Sunday morning. Still loads of time for visiting relatives, chilling etc. there are waiting lists for all the groups she attends.

Survey monkey is a good idea, or an old fashioned email?

If local leaders disagree, then surely they don't want to run a group at a weekend? As they are volunteers I don't think you should be putting pressure on them.

I'm not putting pressure on the current Leaders. As you rightly say, we are all volunteers. It would need some new volunteers.

I'd work on getting the volunteers first. See what days and times suit them.

Unit cannot run without leaders, whatever day. So go with what days your new leaders offer.

it will be finding volunteers thats the tricky part

We can't go with whatever days new volunteers offer. We don't have any timeslots available Mon-Fri. This is specifically a question about whether people would use a weekend Rainbow and/or Brownie session if we laid one on.

It would depend on finding some new volunteers. Most of our current Leaders do two (or more) meetings per week as it is. I would only go ahead with a recruitment campaign though if I thought girls would come on a weekend.

The other alternative is to use a different hall for a new unit on a weekday. But this is a) likely to be more expensive and b) the unit wouldn't have access to all the resources we keep in our Guide hut. That would depend on finding new volunteers too.

In many ways it's a nice problem to have - you hear about so many units closing due to lack of girls. But I hate having to turn people away.

Thank you all for your comments. I'm not going to give up on the idea yet