Guiders, over here please

[Andtheresaw]

Talk me back in please.
I'm a Brownie leader. I like Brownies. I like that they are funny and clever and still enthusiastic about new things while being a but more useful than Rainbows. For me it's the best section.
I am struggling with the new programme. It is so prescriptive and so basic. It is boring. A real step down from the level my unit has always worked at.
I am struggling with the gender policy. It is very unlikely to affect my rural Brownie unit, but I feel as if I'd be lying by omission if parents could not make informed consent.
I am struggling with the parents. I know it is generally a cyclic thing but I lost a really good helpful aware bunch last summer and after just over a year of being completely taken for granted I'm tired.
Remind me why I do this. Please make me love it again. I have a career, a DH, a family, older relatives to care for. Guiding was my only thing for myself. Pls give me a reason to stay.
Thanks

I'm a guide leader, and I'm struggling with the same thing. The new programme just seems far too serious and I'm struggling to find the fun and excitement in it. I'm also really troubled by the gender policy and the related safeguarding issues and the email sent out, as is my DP, who is wonderful as my sounding board. Some of the guides are so brilliant and wonderful and remind me how fantastic it is to be young and learning stuff, I too really want to find my enthusiasm again for their sakes.

Sorry, not really talking you back in 😕

Well no, but it's reassuring that I'm not alone.
I'm loathe to discuss it with the team because I'll need them to step up if I leave. We have a full unit and waiting list.

Anyone around who can cast a positive light ?

Not a guider, but my Mum was and I was a unit helper. My DD has just started rangers having gone right through from Rainbows. I know how much time and energy goes into these things, and really appreciate what you and all the other Guiders do. My DD has got so much out of her time in Guiding.
The new programme looked interesting when the Ranger leader introduced it - the emphasis was on what the girls chose - I can see that would be harder with younger girls. She also made it clear that they wouldn't be abandoning their own unit activities which made them 'them'.
I don't know what GG are trying to do with their latest safeguarding statements - I too am regretfully pondering that one. A 14yo girl ending up in a tent with an 18yo male, and unaware of the situation, needs some consideration.
Basically- you are appreciated, and the girls get so much out of it. And it is fun.

I had left after 20 years of being Guider. I had left due to logistical reasons as we'd moved but reading what I've been reading I don't think I'll be back any time soon. My daughter is 5- she wants to join Beavers when she's 6. Part of me is very sad.

Change is hard. Even those of us who are generally positive about the programme updates are finding it tough in places, some of the activities we've done have been big successes, and I am hoping that the next UMA cards will include more of our old favourite activities, so it will become more a case of things we've always done with extra new ideas, rather than only new ideas. On the other hand, my Guides did a bunch of skills builder activities last night and some of them were a long way off in terms of timings and one was way too school-y. One assumed way too much prior knowledge for the age of girl they are targeted at and would have been much better as a level 4 than level 3 - another level 4 activity would have been better as level 3. Several of the cards I'd already reimagined - suggested an alternative way of covering the same skill. Another I learned that we really needed to change up. Next time I'll be better prepared - or that SB will have been reissued!

The first batch of Go For Its we had with the Guides all those years ago weren't all great - several were reissued over the years in slightly more user friendly formats and with some different elements. I suspect that these activities will evolve over time as well. In the meantime we can take a pragmatic approach and be bit flexible.

The gender policy - honestly, I'm being pragmatic about that, too. Guiding does not exist in a silo. I believe in informed choice - but equally I believe that if a boy decides that he's going to live as a girl, he will be doing that full-time - at school and home as well as joining Guiding. Friends at school will notice that John has become Joanna, and even if the child changes school there will be the same issues over toilets, changing facilities, accommodation on school trips. There are going to be conversations happening well before it comes to Guide camp time. I think that this is the of-the-moment big issue but we are not suddenly going to be inundated with transgender members. And if we do - if the family want to keep it secret, they won't disclose to us either!