Guiders Staff Room Part 4

[Groovee]

Moving on from Part 3

Go!
Just NOT fit for purpose.
Arrrrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go and I rarely get on these days.

We did fajita fun tonight. It's a skill builder. Went down well with the girls. Although a few shocked faces with the basins of water to wash their dishes 😂

My opinion of GO right now is probably best left unsaid
We did Brownie Marketplace - they got really into it so it took the whole 90 mins! I just let them loose on all the play equipment we had available, I was surprised how enthusiastic they were designing their stalls.

There are no words that can successfully describe how useless GO is right now.

Off on Brownie holiday today, but I can't get off my bum to pack!

I hate GO. No one with a unit to run had anything to do with the design. Bet it was one of those yes people too scared to call CHQ on bullshit.

I was wistfully looking at online Scout manager the other day and I noticed that Girlguiding Ireland have gone with them for their management system. Our county is having a joint camp with the Scouts and we had to use the online Scout event manager which is brilliant. Sigh

Ooh I hope your Brownie Holiday went well Inflagrante, ours was this weekend too. Today I have been mainly not doing a lot in recovery!

Thanks Scissy. It was good. 3 nights and very full on. Very pleased to get home!

I've been pointed here and wanted to say hello fellow leaders! I've been doing Brownies for 8 years and I love it! Although could do without the stress parents can cause!

Welcome Fletch Feel free to share your feelings about parents, especially Those Parents.

Welcome @Fletchasaurus

Welcome @Fletchasaurus
This afternoon I've been testing fruit shoot bottle rockets, much to my DD's amusement - I'm hoping to garner some interest in the Brownie interest badges by helping them get started with some of the more unusual ones (plus bottle rockets are fun). It flew as high as the house (and my garden now smells of fizzy blackcurrant vit C tablets!)

@scissy Sounds great. Do you have a link to step by step I could look at?

@Becles I got the basic idea from Maddie Moate
I used "effervescent vit C" tablets as the resulting liquid's harmless as opposed to the Royal Society video i found who recommend effervescent adult strength paracetomol .
Further to what Maddie says I placed the bottles cap down in a cup when launching so they would "fire" upwards. Make sure you are at least 2m away more because of mess when it goes off rather than injury
Word of warning - ours ended up next door so they can fly quite far - it was a lovely parabola though!

I’m looking for advice. I’m not a guider, but a brownie parent.

My DD7 had been doing a few badges and I thought all was welll. But Snowy Owl has told me she’s completed too many badges so far (4) since sept and they can’t have her doing so many as there are only 18 to get, so she isn’t allowed to do any more badges for a while. She’s completed one more badge, but they won’t let her have the badge as it’s too many.

I honestly thought it was what the girls were meant to do, can anyone offer advice or tell me what I’m meant to do. It’s been suggested that DD does the badges from the old badge book as they have plenty of spare old badges. I’m worried I’ve been using unit funds too much in DD badges. I don’t have an old badge book as DD started in sept. The unit doesn’t have one either. I’m feeling disheartened. I’m prepared for you all the tell me I’m being unreasonable to do so many badges.

Dobby

The syllabi for the badges from the outgoing Programme are available via the Badge Finder on the Girlguiding website. If your DD is a keen bean (& she sounds it, which is fab) I’d recommend she spends the rest of this term making the most of having 50-something badges to choose from.

I hope what your Snowy Owl was after saying is it really sad I’m a bit excited about the idea of another Snowy In Charge? I do know one other, but we are Rare And Special was just that it’d be good for your DD to pace herself a bit: if she gallops through all the Interest Badges at breakneck pace she’ll likely then be left feeling... frustrated? (I think it was an older Rainbow who did all 15 Rainbow Interest badges in the space of 2 terms, but if she’s doing the Brownie ones at the same kind of pace...) I know in lots of places Leaders are being advised to get girls to pace themselves to try to ensure they don’t get bored; but that shouldn’t really come across as bluntly as a “badge ban”.

Did Snowy Owl at least tell you what she had in the badge-box? I’ve got Brownie’s who’re completing badges from the outgoing Programme, but they’re doing what they’re interested in, as they should. The clue is very much in the name of the things. If, however, there’s some expectation the Unit won’t be having to buy anything else, it might be wise to get a list of what they have in the box & then hunt up those syllabi & pick from them.

I run Brownies in one of the most deprived Wards of the UK (with some of the most awesome small people in the world) & my various local Commissioners would be wanting A Word if £2.75 (aka the cost of 5 new Brownie interest badges) was going to bankrupt us. (No badgeybankruptcy over here thanks to a whole £150 of Grants To Grow vouchers. A uniform for our YL, on the other hand... Seriously, are they made of silver?!)

Your DD isn’t at all unreasonable to be doing badges & I’m really pleased she’s so keen & enjoying Brownies so much. Refusing to award a badge to a girl who’s owed it is... Very Unguidelike, frankly. Mine sometimes have to wait for me to go to Guide HQ to get badges (& they are v patient & good if I can’t get there between one meeting & the next) but they know that the badges are coming as soon as I can get them to them. Withholding a badge is just...

Do think redirecting your DD to outgoing interest badges is worth it purely because there are lots of very interesting ones going. And she can badge to her wee heart’s content while you think about options.

Is your DD generally happy at Brownies? Do they do a good range of activities? Has she earned any Skills Builder badges yet? Do you feel able to discuss things with the Unit Team? Because it is ok to move Brownie Units. Absolutely NOT saying you should over this; but if this is part of a bigger pattern of things, then it’s important to know that you are allowed to move to another Unit (though I know that in some places this is much easier than others).

@Dobbythehouseelk I'd be bloody ecstatic if one of my Flossies had done 4 badges since Sept!!! I've got one keen bean who's done 3, and a total of 5 between the other 23 girls in the unit.

If she's doing the 3 clauses to the best she can, then they should be awarded. I'm not afraid to send them back to do more if they haven't put in the effort I think they're capable of, eg just printed off a Wikipedia page that they knew nothing about for Inventor.

The old badges are fab though. Do look on the Badge Finder to see what inspires her

BringOnTheScience

Thank you. I was really worried I was using unit funds too much or had committed a terrible offence. In my opinion I think she’s covered the clauses ok. It was her handwriting apparently as it wasn’t tidy enough (fair enough it could improve) but we had a massive gift bag for “my rights”. Full of objects labelled as well as the other two clauses.

It wasn’t the fact she hadn’t completed them properly it was the amount she’s done, so 5 since sept is too many, hence why she didn’t get the badge for the last one as she has to wait a bit for them to allow her to submit it again. They said there are only 18 badges in the new book and they don’t want her getting all of them. She’s now really disheartened.

Thanks for your advice and for letting me post in this section.

MarieVanGothem

Thank you for your help.

I was shown the badge box, and told to have a look, but then she shut the box and locked it away in the cupboard. I asked for a badge book and she said “oh well I suppose I could dig one out, but...” She wanted me to find one. Ok, no problem I will try and borrow one from somewhere.

Yes, DD is happy in the unit. It’s a bit awkward because we live in a little rural village and Snowy Owl is fairly mature. She made a plea in the parish magazine for more brownies, so I contacted her and said DD wants to come but is 6, can I register her to help with your Numbers? Anyway eventually we got registered, loads of confusion and Snowy Owl finding computer things tricky. The village next door has a massive brownie unit, they’ve recently started and taken the girls away from our unit. They went to the district commissioner to ask for the unit not to be allowed to start up due to competition for girls. So I sort of feel loyal to our unit. I can walk through the village to get to it, it feels right. The other unit has a long waiting list. Ours is struggling for numbers. Ours do loads of trips and seems really active where the next door village stay in the hall every week. For example we went to the guiding odeon screening for Mary poppins and the other unit didn’t ask the brownies.

I don’t think DD would want to move, but this is the second week in a row she’s cried at brownies. She’s a tough cookie and doesn’t cry easily.

Really it’s the badges that the tricky bit, I will encourage her to do the older badges. But it seems a shame not to get the badge when she’s done the work. I was at the meeting so heard SOWL in the circle handing out badges and praising all the girls apart from my DD who she handed it to saying XXX here is another for you.

Have a chat with Snowy Owl about how her words make your daughter feel. That's not an acceptable approach - they are interest badges to be completed as and when the brownie wants them and Snowy needs to review her budgeting rather than limiting interest.

If she carrys on like this, I'd let the district commissioner know and think about trying to move your daughter.

I don’t really want to make a fuss. Several other parents have complained and taken brownies out due to similar issues. I really want to support them. I suppose until you see if for yourself you don’t always believe. Because I was the parent helper I saw for myself a few things. I’ve never helped before when she has been there.

Thank you, I’m going to have to be brave and tackle this.

DD is halfway through a 6th badge, it’s taking ages to complete. I mentioned that DD still had one ongoing, and she let out a big sigh. She said they’d been to a meeting and one unit had a brownie who had done all 18 badges. We aren’t going to get to that stage as there are some DD has no interest in.

I'm a Snowy Owl in charge. I'd have awarded the badges if done correctly and to what it asks.

But I would maybe ask her to slow down a bit so that she could get all 18 badges over the 3 years. My only concern is that she loses interest once there are no more to be achieved.

In the leaders defence. The new programme is only in its first 10 months so we are still learning ourselves.

We held a bake sale for a young leader and made £99.10 for her to volunteer abroad.

Well done Groovee! My daughter YL had a trip abroad with Guiding too. Fund raising is hard work and an extra £100 is a brilliant contribution.