Guiders' staff room - tea, wine, chat and optional dancing around the toadstool

[MadBadandDangerousToKnow]

Thought it might be nice to have a place to swap ideas and experiences. Shall we do introductions first?

My name's MadBad and I've been a Brownie guider for about 5 years.

I'm waiting to see what my guides want to do but we've got a district event on 20th Oct for contrary. Have you got anything planned?

May I ask a question of wise guide and scout leaders?
I'm starting my sons camp blanket as he has a small accumulation of patches. What kind of blanket are people using nowadays? will fleece work? mine is wool but its from teh 70s.

Hello All

I am new so please bear with me ha ha, I am an outsider in this conversation but I work with the Body Shop at home and we do different kinds of fund raising aevents to raise money for your own good causes, I am sure you hold quite a few fund raising events but would this appeal to anyone?

UniS, on the camp blanket I would go for something that is washable at a low temperature/hand washable. Camp blankets are mostly worn at campfires and they reek of woodsmoke after one use.

Well done to you for starting one though - I am ashamed to say that none of the members of our Scout Group possesses one!

Unis - Hello! None of our Brownies has a camp blanket but the Guides do. They bought cheap fleece throws from Ikea, although there are Brownie and Guide blankets available through Girlguiding UK. So, do you prefer authenticity or practicality?

Lovetochat - You are very cheeky. Advertisements on MN are meant to be paid for!

Hi, Waltons. How long have you been involved in Scouting?

Have gone for Fleece as boy was getting demanding for it to happen NOW and I had a fleece one around. its got about half a dozen badges on it so far.

Excellent start, UniS. Will Boy be joining Beavers soon?

not yet. 18month or more till that day. IF he chooses Beavers over ballet as they clash.

Hello!

Hello Scout. Let's see if we can breathe some life into this thread. What hot topic should we debate?

Unis -Duh. I should have done the maths. Of course he's not old enough yet for Beavers. Should I admit that I rather hope he sticks with ballet?

Mmm, biscuits.... Fancy any more Girl Scout Cookies, Small? Think I found some more in the 'fridge....

Are there any Senior Section advisors/mentors/leaders (whatever the new appropriate term is) here?

Hello, Euphemia.

What's an LQ badge. I haven't got one.

hello, im from the dark side (scouts) - can I join in?

Yes, of course. You might want to be careful you don't trip over the toadstool.

How long have you been a Scout leader? Perhaps we should have a controversial discussion about Scouting being mixed while Guiding is only for girls.

ive been a beaver leader for 5 years! We have about 1/4 girls - all roughty toughty types who don't do glitter (usually have a couple of big brothers) but surprisingly they often move up to Brownies rather than Cubs. They usually come back for Scouts though!

We have just monster waiting lists locally - do you? Possibly as we have 1 Rainbows that caters for an area of over 20k people. AND they only take 16 lasses. As a consequence, all local Beaver Scout groups are full to overflowing.

we are lucky to have 3 warranted leaders plus 2 or 3 regular helpers and 3 young leaders.

Yes, we have a monster waiting list. Our centenary has brought us lots of membership applications, but from girls rather than potential leaders.

There are hardly any Rainbow units in this area - in all the time I've been doing Brownies, I've only had one girl who's been a Rainbow.

We have two Rainbow units in our district but both have waiting lists as they can only take a certain number because of adults available. I'm not sure if there's a Brownie waiting list (lots more units) and I know in my village there isn't one for Guides as we never turn anyone away. Certainly no waiting list for Seniors! But I've got my Seniors unit up and running and some Guides excited to come up over the course of this year!!

Sounds like waiting lists are common everywhere -- there was always a massive one in my area back in the States (for Girl Scouts) but I never turned anyone away and consquently had the largest troop in my Service Unit (District).

Just marking my place. Used to be a Young Leader a few years ago, and am trying to get back into a pack now I'm at uni. Just waiting for the Guiding lady to get back to me :)

She looked quite excited when I said I would do Rainbows, Brownies or Guides...

hello,

guide guider here - but knackered, busy at work and getting married this friday - need an activity for the girls on monday for about 20mins (they're doing go for it's first half)
any ideas??? i'm usually good but today have run 16.3miles and as i say getting married at the weekend but still have to be at work on monday and tuesday to finish up. eek!!!

times like these i wonder if it's not a bit much to handle...

please help me [hopeful emoticon]??

Hi fluffles. Congratulations on your upcoming nuptuals! What sort of activity are you looking for? Can I suggest a couple of games if the girls are doing Go For It!s? How about Fruit Bowl and/or Ladders?

when they're doing go for it's they kind of need something they can do in groups when they finish as they all finish at different times... something sitting down and quiet preferably for while the others are clearing up their carnage..

thanks for any suggestions though.

Have you/they done their Adventure 100 challenge? Lots of good ideas there. Things like designing a future uniform, do 100 of something, water taste test, etc.

Or do you have any girls going to make their Promise this term? You could do Promise-themed activities like Design a World Badge (and explain the symbols they chose) or a Prayer flag.

Or you could do a "Finish the Story" type activity and, if you want, they could make up a skit to share.

thanks scout, i prepared some balloon games but the girls got a bit hyper so i ended up sitting them down with a wordsearch which they actually really enjoyed and calmed them down a lot.

goes to show you have to prepare for every eventuality.

Phew found you all again!