Guiders Staff Room Part 4

[Groovee]

Moving on from Part 3

I'm in the same sorry boat as everyone 😔 and on top of it GO is up the spout again.

I've got 4 events between now and end of term but seriously thinking about whether I come back. It's the relentless of GO, bloody consent forms by the mile and ungrateful parents thats breaking me. Then I think about the fact we've lost 3 Brownie and 1 guide unit since covid and that I'm the only regular adult for my unit and feel stuck.

Hq needs to get an urgent grip or I'm not sure I'll be doing this alongside increasingly difficult day job after Christmas.

Hi everyone, how are we all doing?
One more meeting and I'll have finished my first 8 months as Brown Owl. Our pack has grown from 9 to 24, we have recruited 2 new adult leaders, I have finished my LQ and the first of our girls will be awarded Silver Awards on Monday.
I feel we've done OK for a group of beginners, I even seem to have a grip on GO (ish!). We've been very programme heavy this year as the pack hadn't done any badges at all when I took over and some of my older girls really wanted a chance to earn their Gold Awards. Those girls have "caught up" now so we're all looking forward to slowing down a bit in the Autumn and doing a bit more non-programme stuff.
Next challenge will be my overnight licence! We're doing a County Boating weekend in September which I don't need my own licence for, and Foxlease Snowball in December with 2 other units. After that I'll be wanting to do my own.
@Becles How are you? I think it's the parents that make or break, my lot are absolutely lovely and very supportive. The red tape does get me down a bit though and we've decided against some activities purely because the admin for it is just too much.

Well done @BellaGoth! That must be very satisfying.

I had 5 leave a couple of weeks ago, 4 (hopefully) to Guides and a one a transfer due to a house move. Just heard one of my 10-in-Sept girls has been offered a Guide place (she's going out of district to a closer unit) so that'll be me down to 20 girls- but 10 eligible on the waiting list so I need to decide what I'm going to do there. Only one due to leave at Christmas too🤦🏻‍♀️

Last weekend 5 of us did the midnight walk in memory of H, the Guider that died relatively suddenly last year. As requested by one, we did 5 miles which worked out well, we each did a mile with the unit flag from her unit (now my Guide unit). It was a fitting tribute to her and we raised a bit for the local hospice that cared for her.

How are you Beccles?

Anyone still here?
If you are, what do you think of the rebrand. I like it all except ‘Ciuides’ but I think it’s going to be confusing have the two parallel brands for a while.

I quite like it which I wasn’t expecting.

Whilst I know this was paid for by a grant, I can think of so many better things a grant could have paid for. And if they want more people to know about Guiding, a new logo isn’t going to do that.

I'm a reluctant fan of the branding. Feels a little more cohesive, but the logos could have linked up a lot better.

All in all not bad and I've already spent a bomb on the much better merchandise. The beany hat is lovely.

Now if only they could be arsed to sort out the mess that's GO

If they could create a decent programme tracker that tells you exactly what each Guide has left to achieve, at a glance, like OSM can, that would make leaders lives so much easier.

The G in the guides one reminds me of the hammer and sickle in the Soviet Union flag! Rest is ok.

I like the new Trefoil but the Ranger colours?!!!

Thanks @InflagranteDelicto & @BellaGoth for checking in on me after the summer slump. I've had a good think and came close to quitting because of a couple of incredibly rude parents and seeing an experienced dc nearly in tears when she was trying to do the online ren.

A friend reminded me that I wasn't the only one, but gave me permission to stop and prioritise my needs. I sat back and thought about the guiding me before covid and I'm much happier making less allowances for the parents and callimg out their behaviour.

We have a lower tolerance for rudeness, the girls are the ones sorting out hands up, the sixers and seconds are owning behaviour and our time keeping is better with less messing around.

Best of all, I've opted out of using go for anything other than join us, checking contacts and emergency details.

Tell me more how you managed that @Becles ! My current cohort of Brownies are challenging. There is also a bottle neck as they all want the full Guide unit so can't go anywhere.

I use a spreadsheet alongside Go so I can see at a glance what's needed.

Term for my two units has finished now, we finished a week early as its gang show next week, I'll be taking youngest every night and to avoid having to do an extra hour of driving home & back have volunteered to help in the dressing room. It'll be hard work but fun. If you're S. Bucks, come & watch them in Wycombe.

We have Brownie Holiday next term at the beginning of May. There's a massive clash as it's coronation weekend but we've stuck with it as it's so hard finding a weekend where the team is available. Made the theme easy! Guides are going to Wellies at Foxlease so I'm really excited for that too.

I like the rebrand for the most part.
I wish they would just use OGM (OSM for Guides} instead of incremental tiny adjustements to GO. I've used OGM in Ireland (the Guides there use it} and it is so much quicker and straightforward. It would probably be cheaper than trying to build a better platform themselves at this point.

@InflagranteDelicto I had to go against every instinct and had 2 loosely planned weeks, where I didn't mind if we achieved little because we had to stop and start.

We had a conversation with the sixers and seconds about what they thought their role was and what they would think would lead to someone being asked to step down; talked about why they needed to set an example and how they didn't have to be a sixer or second if they didn't think they were ready.

Did the rules SB in sixes and agreed a set of rules for leaders and Brownies. Then everytime we stopped and waited. The hand in the air got boring very quickly, but having the nerve to wait till the last one stops jiggling rather than most girls made a difference.

I also let them know the trips I wasn't running because I didn't want to be responsible for them in public if they weren't able to listen and do as they were told.

We sorted the Guide issue, which was also a massive problem as girls outgrew Brownies and needed a challenge, by:
Lots of activities about the sections
young leader talking about guides and rangers having primed the pump we emailed parents and carefully onlyoffered he choice of units with places with no mention of the other
asking if parents wanted to move at half term or end of term and to list available options in order of preference - the move was a foregone conclusion (only for the girls clearly ready to go)

@rivierliedje I hate go. It's worse than an Access database.

🤣 I spend a lot of time with my DivComm hat saying nothing about go 🤣

Thanks for the ideas Beccles, I'm deffo going to borrow them for my Brownies. I had to chuckle at a 9¾ yo complaining that she wants to go to Guides but she wants the Monday unit with the massive waiting list 🤦🏻‍♀️ how often are they told that Thursday they can start straight away. Doh. The problem is, Monday is my unit, Thursday my friend. Ironically both my daughters and the 3 current YLs/Guide Helpers have come through the Thursday unit.

Really proud of the girls I put forward into the county competition hike. The Brownie team of 5 came 2nd on the 5k and the Guide team (a mix of Mon and Thurs) also came 2nd but unaccompanied on the 10k. They had one girl drop out at a checkpoint but she did amazingly well given she gave her mum a shock even asking to do it!

Can anyone help me with advice on rejoining Guiding as a Brownie leader? I had to step down in 2019 because of life (!) but I'm ready to step back in. I've found out that the pack I used to help with has closed so I'd like to get that one back up and running.
I'm looking for advice such as will I have to do my leadership qualification again? How IS guiding at the moment?! I see that GO is still is still there so that's one thing that's not changed! Any hints, tips and advice are welcome.

@RhubarbCrumbled best thing to do is email your District or division commissioner if you've got the generic email address or if not fo through join us.

My thinking is while it's great that you want to reopen your old unit, that may not be where the need is greatest right now, demand is or where the adult numbers need reinforcing. Probably best to see where the land lies and possibly ease back in with an established unit to do the refresher modules and safe space/first aid and then all being well reopen former unit (if there's the numbers) after thinking day half term.

Go continues to be inexcusable.

I second Becles. Ease back in as an additional leader, covid has changed kids and not for the better. You'll need to re-do your leadership as you've been away for 3 years. That's now online in the learning platform. Get your safe space & first response sorted and log into the learning platform. There should be tag called the Leader Development Programme and the first two modules can be done as a UH.

2 weeks ago I reached my limit with the behaviour from some of my Guides. I borrowed the leader that looks after the hut (and has had to unblock the deliberately blocked toilets) and I laid it out that the current behaviour wasn't acceptable. That going forward there would be one warning and then parents would be called. Other than the damage to the hut we'd had a term of constant low level silliness, rudeness and mucking about. One of them was quite spiteful towards the other Guides too. I thought that the parents needed to be aware of what has been said and how it'll be going forwards but dear me! I've stirred a hornets nest! All the girls (including the ringleader) can do no wrong at home and they want to talk it through with specific examples. Tbh- as far as I'm concerned the riot act has been read, they know where they stand and the consequences if they don't toe the line so let's all move forward with a clean slate. I've spent 2 weeks worrying about how to deal with this and then how to deal with their emails.

🤬🤬🤬

Can I ask what people do about "cat girl?" We have a relatively new girl who randomly gets down on her hands and knees, miaows, purrs and tries to headrub my legs. She's not neurodiverse as far as I know but I myself am autistic so that might be hindering my knowing what to do.

She's not the first we've had that does this and she probably won't be the last but I'm so uncomfortable with it. I want to shout at her to stop although I never actually would. Help!

Tell her to stop? Ask her to respect your personal space?

She rarely joins in with things, just tends to stand on the outside. She does this when she gets comfortable and starts joining in, I don't want to upset her. She's only just 7 and a very young 7.

Could you not just gently say “Please don’t do that, Guide leaders have had lots of training and we aren’t allowed to touch you unless we are doing first aid, just like your teachers at school’. If she does it again ‘No, I’ve asked you not to do that’. She may be a bit upset but needs to stop. Or say the same to the parents. I would ignore the other bits and focus on stopping the physical contact first.

Hi! It sounds pretty neurodivergent behaviour to me, certainly what our eldest used to do. In my experience, it tends to be behaviour exhibited when the child is unsure of how to behave in a situation, but wants to push themselves to attempt to try and engage in a new situation. Often, if they’re unsure of what is expected of them, they fear they might get things wrong (and potentially risk being rejected or scolded). If the cat gets a row it’s easier to disassociate from than if it was themselves who got the row (not that you ever were going to give them a row of course, but that’s the fear).

To move forward, personally I’d probably go for a lighthearted route. Perhaps joke you’re allergic to cats, but you’re not allergic to Brownies (or use the child’s name), and say ‘would (child’s name) like to join in this activity? Is there any bits you don’t quite understand or unsure about? I can help with that!’

Thank you, that's a couple of really good suggestions!

@FromDespairToHere

I'd also ask the parents to speak to with you at the end of a meeting after half term. If you're asking here, I assume that they haven't completed an adjustment plan or raised issues for you to be aware of...