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.

Oh dear. Sorry for the delay, Nonemus, this thread slipped off my active list.

Is your daughter an adult or a young helper? Either way, she should have received a booklet which outlined the tasks she had to complete and the skills she had to demonstrate. Has nobody been helping her with that? The leader of the unit (even if she's not her mentor) should be making sure that things are happening for her.

Sorry, nonemus. Same excuse as Maud.

Maud speaks truth and wisdom.

Your daughter should have a mentor, most likely NOT in her unit and most likely a Guider of the same age level (so, another Rainbow leader in her case). The mentor should meet with her, see how things are going in the unit, offer her some of the materials she needs to read, go through her "Pink Book" (her Leadership Qualification book) to see what still needs to be done, etc. The leader of her unit should be involving her in planning so she can make sure the activities she needs to do get planned in. The mentor will probably go to a meeting or two with her, and, if she's having problems in her unit, act as a go-between/mediator.

Does that make sense? Feel free to ask any questions!

Scout is very kind but she has been a leader far longer than me so the truth and wisdom is hers, not mine.

But I've only done UK Guiding for six years.

Hi, having been a Brownie and a Guide myself then oldest daughter gone through Rainbows, Brownies, Guides (and is now young leader with Brownies and just joined Senior section!) and youngest daughter at Rainbows I really feel I would like to put something back in myself by volunteering. Dilemma is they really need a new Rainbow leader in our village but this just isn't my age group (and cant work times in with school pick ups of older children), would love to help with Brownies but don't want to cramp my young leader daughter's style (she loves being treated as a grown up there and thinks mum being there will mean shes back down to being a "little girl"). Then there's Guides but if I am at Guides as a leader I can't get my own girls to Brownies so I am really struggling for a practical solution. Could fit times in for Senior Section but not sure what this entails as never been involved so haven't a clue types of things they do. Any senior section leaders able to offer any insights please ?

I want to ask some (doubtless minor) questions about DD moving from Brownies to Guides; okay for me to ask here or should I start a new thread? Ta!

Sure, ragged, ask away.

And tracey I am both a Guides and Seniors leader -- ask away!

Tracey - Scout will give you excellent advice about being a Senior Section leader, but if it really doesn't work for you to be a leader at regular meetings, could you take on another role? There are often vacancies for (say) county advisers on different types of activity (such as holidays, walking or watersports) or for people to do accounts for units or for the district. Could you be your district's/county's volunteer coordinator?

I completely take your point about the difficulty in being a leader in the unit your daughter attends - I sometimes think my daughter gets a worse (and certainly a different) experience at Brownies simply because I am the Guider and so she doesn't get quite the same chance to explore things away from the home and school environment that the other Brownies do. But I couldn't get her to any other nearby pack and besides mine is better than the others.

Ragged - Ask away!

Well Scout, my DD1 has just joined her senior section group and they seem keen on D of E awards. Whilst I think this is great for the girls and whilst I love camping I am not into map reading and camping without a nice loo ! I am willing to have a go at most activities/crafts/music etc etc but couldn't do a D of E expedition. What types of things do you do with your senior section ?

Ta :).
DD is leaving Brownies (she has loved) & joining Guides (many friends already there), probably in January, soon after turning 10. How would I know if she wasn't ready for Guides? And beyond uniform & older girl-ness, what to expect? Is it just more of the same? Guides seem to do fewer badges, so what do they do instead of badges? Is there a different ethos about the purpose of Guides rather than Brownies? I assume the Guides summer camp might be longer or further away or more challenging... Any other transition difference I might not be expecting? TIA.

Just popped online briefly to see if MrScout has emailed me to tell me what time he'll be home (crazy work schedule so I never know!). It's witching hour for ToddlerScout (two next month!) but I've seen both of your questions and will be able to answer both. I'll do so when TS is in bed.

Awww, Maud.

Ragged - I can talk a bit about the transition from Brownies to Guides from the Brownies' perspective. What my Brownies notice (and of course some of this may be about the way I run my unit and the way the Guides run theirs) is that they have to put a lot more effort in and become much more responsible for themselves when they reach Guides. At Brownies if they want to do cooking (for example) I find a suitable recipe, go and buy the ingredients, bring in the pots and pans. At Guides they would be expected to share those jobs with other Guides and if the girl responsible for bringing the pans doesn't do it the whole activity will fall apart.

I would say that the ethos is the same, but the older the girls get the more autonomy they have in choosing their activities (Brownies get some choice of course but Guides get more). If your Guide unit does few badges, that may be why.

How does your daughter feel about going up to Guides? We are heavily oversubscribed so I encourage mine to go as soon as they're 10, but sometimes those who joined Brownies late (at 9, say, rather than 7) stay for an extra term.

Oh, and if your Brownie and Guide units are both sufficiently well off for volunteers that they can each run a camp, just thank your (and your daughter's) lucky stars!

Ta, I'd love DD to get into a mindset of being more responsible for self! I will try to prep DD for that. You do hear a lot about people who loved Brownies but didn't get on with Guides.

No problems here with being over-subbed or too few volunteers, girls stay on 'til nearly 11 sometimes, though, just coz they like Brownies, I guess. Am not sure why, but numbers are sharply down for pack membership and going on pack holiday (all ages, am involved in FOG so I hear operational gossip). Presumably that's because of "the current economic climate."

Yes, the economic climate is probably behind some of it - although as Brownie subs are about a third of the costs of a term's ballet/gymnastics/whatever, I'd expect Brownies to be the last thing to be dropped.

Our pack holidays have always been quite poorly supported. They're incredibly cheap but everyone has such busy lives that giving up a whole weekend for Brownies is tricky.

Well, it just happened last night was a pack leaders/FOG meeting & I even felt up to going.

They are very low on numbers in 4/5 packs (1 Rainbows, 3 Brownies), so I offered to help recruit. Suggested that numbers low because Brownies are not adventurous enough. They are convinced locally that Cubs/Scouts have poached all the girls.

Do you think 7:15 or 8pm finish is too late on a school night for Brownies? Other people seem to be saying it is.. and actually, I remember thinking how late it was when DD started Brownies, too.

Hmm. I've heard it said before that Cubs 'poach' girls but, really, girls (and parents) make the choice. I guess that on the whole Cubs may be more adventurous than Brownies, if only because (again, on the whole and with exceptions either way) Scouting groups seem to meet in bigger halls with bigger outdoor spaces and can offer more in the way of outdoor rough-and-tumble games. I've also seen it said on MN that Scouting groups take a more laissez-faire attitude to health and safety (I have no way of gauging how true that is) so that, coupled with the interests and preferences of the respective leaders, may also create a difference.

Our Brownie groups finish at 7.30pm, which parents do seem to think is quite late enough for girls who are only just 7. Then again, my friend's daughters attend a Cub pack which ends at 8.45pm.

Hi I've just found you all! I've been a Rainbow Guider for the past 5 years and before that was a Brownie Guider. We've got 2 units in our town which pretty much run back to back - the leadership team is shared across both, so we all plan together and both units do the same activity.

At the moment we're really low on numbers so we are doing a recruitment drive and a Bring a Friend night next week (faints just at the thought!). It seems to go in waves with us - either we're completely over subscribed or struggling to fill the spaces!

We've just had a little girl join us from South Africa who was a Teddy there, so if anyone knows any South African guiding songs which would help her feel at home, that would be great!

I've just got my overnight licence so we'll be planning another sleepover in the new year I think. I must be mad....

Also DD1 will be joining Rainbows next month which I think will be interesting. Any tips for what to do with her when she becomes a limpet and will only refer to me as 'Mummy'??

That's a really tricky one, Mascarpone. I insist that my daughter calls me Brown Owl like all the other Brownies do and make a point of not working with her group when we split into groups for activities. But it is difficult, as everyone knows she's my daughter. I'm probably harder on her when she misbehaves than I am with the other Brownies, just because I can remember being in units where the Guider's daughter was Brown Owl's or Captain's (yes I'm that old) pet.

Well, I think we may have solved the problem now. DD1's going to join the other unit with her friend, which I actually think will be much better all round. She's often better if I'm not there - no chance of hiding behind me which forces her to be a bit braver. It means me making a mad dash home from school with her and her friend, tea and then straight out to Rainbows, but friend's mum will bring her home and deliver her to DH while I am on my way out to run the other unit!! The complicated things we do....

Had a good night last night - Bring a Friend night went well so it's just fingers crossed that some of them actually want to join! They made marshmallow and chocolate caterpillars and then butterfly fridge magnets with nail varnish and sequins.

How do you make marshmallow and chocolate caterpillars?

::need new make-it ideas::

hello, lovely ladies, i'm going to gratuitously keep bumping this as i'm looking for a UK brownie pack that would like to receive pen pal letters from a brownie pack in Canada so that my girls can earn their 'pen pals' badge as part of their 'all about me' key - purlease! purlease! at least one reply back would be (as they say here) awesome...

i've got 20 girls at the mo (i enrolled 16 brand newbies last night from sparks - rainbows equivalent) and they are very enthusiastic! and it's snowing here, and i might even send y'all some chocolate mint girl guide cookies to share if i haven't eaten them all myself by then!

pm me if you might be interested...

and look out for the bumps until someone succumbs...

(oh, and i would really like someone to get me a proper toadstool as well, can send uk cheque. they are all brown here and i would be the envy of the region if i had a red and white one... )

bump

aren't you all back from brownies yet and partaking of and mn?

Gotta love your perssistance!

I am a Rainbow leader, but of course, I know plenty of Brownie leaders! I will enquire if anyone is interested for you!