Guiders Staff Room Part 2

[Groovee]

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/extracurricularr_activities/715087-Guiders-39-staff-room-tea-wine-chat-and-optional-dancing

Part one above, new thread for when required x

Have you thought about asking parents? We've had them in for Hanukkah Ramadan, Chinese new year and dialing. I'm sure that if you contact a local place of worship, different types of bakeries or restaurants you could go with the oldie but goodie standby - food...

Check out the Girlguiding South-West England resource 'Make it Multicultural' for some more ideas.

www.girlguidingsouthwest.co.uk/resources-8-c.asp

Thanks Becles, I've never tried to organise an outside visitor for anything before! I might include a note in my newsletter & ask the parents first. There's a little Asian grocery shop in town, I might call in there too and see if there's anyone who could help me while I'm in town tomorrow morning to meet my mentor (finally).

Thankyou for the link too - I'll check it out now

Sorry for another thick question - I'm just getting to grips with JoinUs/Go - is there a resources website like that for Northern England or can anyone use them all?

Both North West and North East England regions will have their own but do use anything from all regions too.
I take it you're not in a particularly diverse area!

You can use resources from any region.

Laser has some great ones if you're heading to London or anything to do with the big smoke; and of course my current obsessions are the amazing growing up wild pawprints. I love the emphasis on taking the girls out whenever you can but I'm to say that my head has been turned by some pretty badges

Anglia also have some great resources on their site.

girlguidinglaser.org.uk/growingupwild/paw-prints/

www.girlguidinglaser.org.uk/laser-london-challenge/

auto correct fail

dialing= diwali

Aaargh! Please tell me I've done the right thing....
I run a large Brownie unit with a big waiting list: right up until this week there were 8 year olds on the list who'd been waiting since they first were 7.
We don't have a feeder Rainbow Unit or Guides in our village, but nearby in villages which also have Brownies, so some girls go to Rainbows elsewhere but come to us for Brownies.
A Brownie parent from a nearby village contacted me in the middle of last term and asked for a transfer as the night of Brownies didn't suit them. I said that I'd put them on the list and that they'd go to the top as a transfer rather than a new recruit.
Within a fortnight of this conversation another 5 families contacted me asking for a transfer because their girls attend our local school or it fits better with other extracurricular clubs or whatever.
The waiting list for the other unit is very short (sometimes none at all), and it occurred to me that I may have set up a situation where parents go to the other unit and then essentially jump to the top of my list.....So I had a rethink, contacted all the transferring families, and said that I'd put them on my list but as they had entered Girlguiding after some of my waiting list had registered on my list, it wouldn't be fair to put them at the top and I'd be assigning places based on age, as they all had a current unit anyway.
DC has been in touch to say that parents are unhappy that they aren't jumping the queue, and that other Brown Owl is unhappy as I'm taking her girls. What should/could I have done differently. Other brown Owl copied in at every stage BTW.

DC=Div Comm by the way, forgot which board I was on for a moment!

Oh god nightmare Momb, I'm not sure what you could have done to be fair!

If girls move house, they do get priority. If it's just convenience, no.

I think that your approach was right. Manage your waiting list and transfers only following discussions with the other unit leader and agreement of your own leadership team.

As my nephew would say Tough Tetris. The priority is supposed to be for house moves not queue jumping and skewing the waiting lists.

Stick to your guns as ultimately each unit decides their criteria which can change from term to term or according to your district or unit priorities.

momb, I have no experience of that sort of situation at all but seems like you were fair enough to me!

I know it's early to be thinking about this but I'm going to use it for part of the LQ - what are your units planning to mark the Queen's 90th birthday?

I was thinking Rainbows and Brownies could have a joint celebration - sort of afternoon tea but in the evening & with some traditional parlour games. Either fancy dress or just party clothes.

Any thoughts?

that sounds like fun Lucy.

If your area is anything like mine, the girls rarely go to "traditional" birthday parties, but have more things like bowling and ice skating, so they love them as a novelty

I need your advice, lovely ladies. I have just taken on a Rainbows group (was a helper before). One of our girls is moving house and wants to rejoin Rainbows there. Am I supposed to do anything? I noticed that you mentioned house moves get priority on waiting lists. Her mum has not asked for my help but if I should be doing something I want to do it. If it helps, she is moving countries within the UK - I don't know if the rules are different out of England. TIA

House move:

I always contact the parents to ask if they want to continue guiding then ask for the new address and permission to share info with local unit.

Find relevant district on join us and then make contact. If problem with a reply I track by Facebook

Email tends to be sent to dc with flossie dob membership number xx is moving to address y in x. She would like to continue and is looking for a x unit.

Have copied parents into this email so please contact directly or on this phone number.

Have always been sorted out rather quickly .

Awesome, thanks Becles.

One of my rather lovely brownies has just been confirmed to start at a unit next week and is wait listed for Guides after Easter.

Seem to have lost my mojo.

We go back tomorrow night, and right now I just can't be bothered :S

How do I get the will back?

Sorry to hear that Albus.

I'd say taking it slowly and focusing on one meeting at a time but I know it's not that easy.

What are the immediate issues or has it been building up? Fancy talking it out to vent or have the super guiding league come up with suggestions (both sensible and ridiculous)

There isn't anything really

It just feels like a lot of work for nothing. I did it on my own for a couple of yeard. Now I have done helpers, who are great, but I feel like I need to do more now I have them, rather than ease off a bit.

I'm also on the brownie fb group and feel like I can't match up. Do much girl led guiding, and camps and challenge badges, trips out And covering important issues like the holocaust. I feel like a victory if I can get mine to all join in a game

I am quite looking forward to our first meeting back (it's kind of planned already because we had to cancel a meeting meaning we are just going to do most of the things we missed). However I have a STACK of admin, forms for a sleepover I said I'd do because I'm not going so that's my contribution, register, bank account, check which girls that are on the unit are no longer attending so can be removed from Go, individual details forms that someone else was supposed to do last term but didn't, one leader is leaving and had a quite specific role so will someone else do that now etc. etc.

I'm having a 'moment' with unit accounts.

LiC has printed me a copy of hers up to date so I can check mine against them but there's alllll sorts on there that I wasn't aware of being on & she paid for her own transport to Winter Wonderland so mine are well out!

I don't know what to do now - whether to start from scratch & input each date individually as I go through them or wait and speak to my mentor next week about submitting a different term's accounts for my LQ

& now the laptop's crashed

Albus

^
I'm also on the brownie fb group and feel like I can't match up. Do much girl led guiding, and camps and challenge badges, trips out And covering important issues like the holocaust. I feel like a victory if I can get mine to all join in a game^

Isn't that the challenge and achievement though? The Facebook groups alternatively give me inspiration, disbelief and awe. Then I eat chocolate and remind myself that good looks different to each unit.

I never do challenge badges as I don't have the money or time in the term for then (I will do the official ones like BBB or Mission Spectacular) but to be frank my Guider/Brownie led mission for the past couple of years has been to get the rest of the leaders using the adventure books and program rather than obsessing with interest badges.

We don't camp (county trips only, but I like day trips and events as they are fairly easy to plan for me. I often end up with 3/4 other units coming too some with only 2 girls which gives the leaders a viable option.

I know that I'm really lucky to have a great network of Guider friends in the next district for support though as my district is generally rather struggling with enthusiasm.

Albus
Facebook groups are just the same as FB generally: people don't post when they have done a simple old favourite, they post when something has gone spectacularly well. It's impossible to compare your meetings with the others because you are at a low ebb so seeing the worst of yours and the best of theirs. As long as your girls are enjoying it what else matters?

On the other hand, if you want them to cover something 'more worthy' (though not quite the holocaust) there's a resource called 'Together we can' that gives you simple activities/ways to cover quite heavy topics just get the girls thinking. I mention it because I'm feeling the strain a bit at the moment and we're going a together we can badge as a few easily prepared ones.