Scout/Guide leaders (or similar)

[Aroundtheworldin80moves]

How are numbers looking compared to this time last year?

Last year we were a healthy, growing group. Beavers were at their max (14). Cubs and Scouts at the 18-20 mark (24 being the unofficial max due to size of the hut). Also housed one of the Explorer units.

We now have no Beavers, and approx 12-14 each of Cubs and Scouts. 7 Beavers became Cubs. And 5 Cubs became Scouts (but not all at our Group, movement between Groups at this age is common due to there being groups every weekday locally. We also gained from from other Groups usually).

Slight curiosity if we are normal. We do online meetings and met in person outdoors when we could.
Loss of Beavers was due to health of leaders, coupled with there being no interest from current members. We do have three five year olds on waiting list, for when situation improves.

Bear in mind that it’s not just the guidance - there are various reasons why units may not go back immediately.

We theoretically could have met in person in September, but didn’t because:
A) We had more than 15 girls so would have had to split sessions, and not enough adults to do parallel, so either would have had to alternate weeks or commit to running twice in the same week
B) Our usual venue wasn’t taking external bookings, and our local campsites we use for outdoor stuff were shut up for the season with site staff furloughed
C) We were all in work at that stage and were struggling with the possibility of having to isolate due to a positive case/contact at a meeting - regardless of rules and policies my work would have been pretty fucked off if I’d put myself in that position at that stage.

As it happened, our area hit local lockdown pretty quickly so we’d only have had two weeks even if we had found a solution to all the above!

That said, we’re averaging about 18 on Zoom. This time last year we probably had about 25. We’ve 3 waiting for when we return in person, a couple aged out, and a few we expected to lose anyway because they were hitting ‘that’ stage.

Ours are pretty healthy, though the local Brownies has lost their leader so don't know what's going to happen there. We've had 5 new girls start since last March, 2 have left, a couple have said they will pay census but don't want to meet online.

We have about 8 Brownies. A big group all turned 10 last year and obviously we lost a lot. We aren't doing zoom meetings but Brown Owl is emailing them weekly with an activity.

I really want to give up being an assistant leader as I've totally lost interest. The new programme spoilt Brownies for me and nearly a year of lockdown has put the final nail in the coffin. I'm dreading telling Brown Owl but knowing me I'll still go, hate it and it will get me down.

We lost our 2 helpers last year, one final year university student who was excellent at games and a mum helper whose daughter decided she didn't want to go any more. Brown Owl has recently retired from work and there is no way I would take the unit over.

Cadets rather than scouting but our numbers are woeful. We (DH and I) run two groups one was at 45 and the other at 22 prior to lockdown. We have only officially (as in confirmed by parents) list about 4, but these are only a dozen cadets across both actually engaging with anything virtual.

My bigger concern is volunteers, I reckon will lose at least 4 out of 13 across the two groups.

I am a guide leader who has zoomed weekly since May (not in holidays) we are at full numbers, having had brownies move to us during lockdown. We didn't return to f-2-f as we had two many schools in the mix and the impact on leaders was too risky for work reasons.

I am done with zoom, the girls have really engaged, we have had 10 promise's made on Zoom.

However out of 6 Guide units only 2 have been running anything, my daughters rainbows is down to 7 girls but has lots on the waiting list who have said they want to join once f-2-f starts up.

Our scout group is one of the only groups in the district to have run all the way through, kept most of our numbers and had everyone pay subs.

It's been a bloody slog thought with explorer leaders running beavers and cub leaders running scouts.

We did around 4 face 2 face meetings last year and it was such a welcome break.

Really hating zoom now

It was fun during the first lockdown, a novelty. Now it's a drag.

Also very frustrated with the 15 &5 ratios especially in the older sections. They are all getting tested twice a week. I'm testing 3 times in healthcare role. I

I also struggling to see why I can't take my explorers camping in the summer. If we have small hike tents for each child or siblings how is that a risk.