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 have no idea. Sorry x

I bet if you get in touch with the local Trefoil Guild, someone there would remember the tunes.

Good thinking Middleaged

Wish me luck for tonight everyone, its going to be a stressful one!

p.s. look out tonight for aibu to think tawny owl shouldnt have moved my pfb out of a six with all her friends, and really she isnt an imp more of a fairy

Argh that was a nightmare, bit off way more than I can chew.

Memo to self - next time introduce big changes one week, then have new girl start the week after. Don't do it all at once!

It's a learning curve. xx

Our first meeting was last night. Only about half the group was there because one of the local school's year sixes were off on a school trip.
They were great though. Making knots and teaching the new ones.

It's worth checking with the main schools your Brownies go to once a term to find out what their plans are for activities that might mean girls can't attend unit meetings. Or ask the parents.

Just booked the panto for our christmas outing. Us leaders are so excited!

We're panto-ing too for our last night of term.

And we've only gone and booked for Singalonga Frozen in the New Year!!
How cool are we?? Haven't told the Brownies yet. They have to dress up and everything!!

Can I possibly gatecrash this thread and ask you all a question?

Can anyone explain what you, as brownie/guide leaders see as the benefits of being affiliated to a church? Is it a 2 way "relationship" between you and the church and what does your church do to help you out? And what does the church expect from you?
Also, if you are affiliated do you pay for the church hall use?

I have searched the girl guiding website and have had no luck with finding out much.

I have read the thread from a few months ago about this issue, but wanted to hear from the leaders point of view, rather than the mums point of view.

Thanks very much for any responses. I am not wanting to provoke any arguments, I am simply asking as I am needing to negotiate with someone about this and want to know what is the norm and what I can expect.

ARE units affiliated to a church? Don't some just meet in church halls in the way that the WI, Slimming World etc do?

I'm a Brownie Leader, but don't know of any units that are "affiliated" to churches. Though we do participate in things like Remembrance Day services, along with all the other uniformed groups in the town.

We are affiliated to a church, just because we always have been. You can expect to get cheap rent, in return for which you will be expected to go on the odd church parade and help out at the Christmas Fair.

We pay £5 a week rent. We couldn't afford to not be affiliated.

The girlguiding website is far too interested in being inclusive to ever mention that many, many units up and down the country rely on churches for their accommodation.

Thank you very much for your responses.

My brownies are run in a church hall! My old brownies were in the Salvation Army who often ran children's meetings. At Christmas we attended the toy service where we each took a gift for a child who wouldn't get anything. Then we'd do a wee drama sketch or a song, like all the other groups. We sometimes attended on Rememberance Sunday. But it wasn't compulsory.

My current church, the minister likes to pop in. We always guarantee he turns up when we are baking. But he's friendly and likes to keep up to date with our programme etc.

We pay a donation to the church at the end of the year towards heat and light. But they've never asked us to attend church as the minister's wife was a guider and says that Church Parade etc cannot be forced. It would be nice to go to their toy service though.

I believe some units such as jewish units are affiliated to a closed sponsored unit where only members of that synagogue can join and run by guiders who are part of the synagogue.

Well, you learn something every day!

What is it you need to negotiate about Positive? Are you able to share (nosy)

For me it's a tricky one. Our Guides and Brownies have met at the same church for almost 90 years. At that time the church was the centre of the community.

For us, our rent is practically free. We make a donation when we remember every year, barely a couple of pounds a week when split across rainbows, brownies and guides! This makes a huge difference to the money we have available.

In return we attend 3 church parades a year, one around Easter time, harvest festival and the toy service. The church's youth worker person also pops in to see us quite regularly, I think mainly just to keep in contact. She doesn't lead sessions.

The church also get to boast about us being there and having lots of girls! I think they're quite happy to be able to say they have lots of children around the place.

Where I and the other leaders differ, however, is the approach to church parade. They go in for a lot of guilt tripping, to the point of having a Christmas party only for those who have been to a church parade that year. I think this is completely inappropriate and exclusionary, and out of line with GG policy

I'm trying to change it, and haven't been to a church parade myself either! I just think it's completely unfair and dismissive of girls of other/no faiths, and of those with other commitments on a Sunday.

We are an open, church-sponsored unit (Rainbows). At the church where we meet there are 2 x Rainbows, 2 x Brownies, 1 x Guides, 1 x Senior Section, plus a Beavers, Cubs and Scouts gang too (1 of each).

We attend 8 church parades a year, with flags, and have supported things like the church fete by running some stalls & the Guides/SS making & serving refreshements. In return we are given the use of the hall/kitchen/garden/lounge for free, plus each unit has a locked cupboard in the hall where we can store our stuff. Guides also has a shed in the garden where they keep their tents, barbecues etc too.

We are open sponsored in that we take girls from anywhere, but give priority to those who are "church family" (if we know about it!).

And I completely forgot the reason I came on here... :o

Does anyone have any experience of a Rainbow (or Brownie etc) with low muscle tone? I have one starting this week, and although I had a chat with her mum about what it means, I'm still not completely clear! Will she need a health plan?

Any indication of the sorts of things she might not be able to do/what she might struggle with?

TIA.

My mum's unit are church-sponsored, mines not, she gets free hall hire, even when they've used it for sleepovers, a notice board outside the church and a display board in the hall that is only for her units use, she's allowed to run a stall at the parish Christmas fair and summer fair with any money raised going to the unit and the Rainbows/Brownies/Beavers/Cubs/Scouts in the parish have some shared equipment and a garage and do some joint trips and events. They also have their own cupboard in the store room and own shelf in the kitchen. The priest is also happy to add anything they need into the parish announcements and has been known to collect jam jars/toilet roll tubes etc for crafts.

In return they attend 3 church parades a year but its a really busy parish so generally about half the girls attend church regularly anyway so they dont have to pressure people into going. They also have to provide a representative for the parish council and hall committee who meet every 3 months and are invited to sing at the carol service.

They do take the priest over something whenever they cook and make him a Christmas cake every year but that's not a condition, its just become a Rainbow tradition and he often pops over with packs of biscuits/sweets/cakes if there's been some left over from a coffee morning.

I would actually quite like my unit to be attached to a church as the benefits my mum's unit gets far outweigh the stuff she gives back and I really miss the community aspect of it, I've never even met the Beaver/Cub/Scout leaders that use the same hall as us.

RueDeWakening, we had a Rainbow with low muscle tone when I was a young leader. I can't remember there being anything she actually couldn't do at all but she couldn't run as fast as the others and sometimes she struggled to get up off the floor quickly, so we avoided games like duck, duck, goose. Her speech wasn't quite as good as most 5 year olds and she wasn't as co-ordinated as a lot of the others so sometimes need a bit more help with things but as she got older she caught up, so it was just like having a really young rainbow tbh.

Thanks Bramwell, that sounds positive - we've just got a unit parachute, so nobody wants to play Duck Duck Goose or Fruit Salad much at the mo :o so it should be easy enough to steer clear of things like that until I've got a better idea of any limitations. Half of my Rainbows are...not good at running, so hopefully she'll fit right in!

Virtual - did you fin pd the tunes? I remember them (I'm only 35, not ancient!). We used to skip out as a six into the circle, singing the song, and back onto our space, led by the sixer with her dep at the end.

If you haven't found someone that knows it, let me know and I'll attempt to transcribe. It's basically just a scale up and then down... IIRC!

Thank you so much for all your responses. I have found them very helpful, although very varied!

So, I am coming from it from the other side, so to speak! Part of my job is to organise the hire of a local church hall (including kitchen and all facilities). We are having a review of our letting policies. The Brownies use the premises one evening a week and the guides and rangers on a separate evening. (Ideally we would like them all on the same evening) The Brownies do not pay anything for use of the premises, the others pay just a very small nominal amount every few months. The Brownies have said they will not pay because they are "affiliated" to the church. I was unsure what this meant, really. The church give them the use of the premises. Last year the church also put on a party for the groups using the premises, all paid for by the church and not 1 Brownie came because the leader had not told any of the girls about it.
We have a large cupboard for storage for many groups who use the premises and the Brownies equipment takes up over 80% of the space - and is always very untidy! When we suggested early in the summer holidays that we arrange a day where we would be prepared to come and help the leader to clean and tidy the cupboard she was...errrrr....... unhelpful to say the least and has left sarcastic notes all around the cupboard.
I was just wondering where I go with this......I do want the Brownies to use the place and to be supported in any way we can, but over the years it all seems one way of giving to the Brownies with nothing coming from them at all and I sort of thought that the affiliation was a 2-way relationship.

I d not want to get into a religion argument here, I just thought that if the church are supporting and the Brownies are affiliated, then maybe the girls could be invited along to a few fun things throughout the year. We have lots going on, but all minus Brownies at the moment and they are the ones who are affiliated.

Sorry, this is a bit of an epic!!

Does sound like they're taking the pee a bit. We do also have cupboard space, but always make sure it's kept neat and tidy. We also used to go along to the day centre they used to run 2 or 3 times a year, and have supported other things that they do like fairs and coffee mornings.

Overall it's a friendly relationship, and one I think we are mutually grateful for. Like I said, my personal issue is with our leaders trying to coerce girls into church attendance. Knowing the vicar and the approach of the church, I'd imagine it would actually sit too comfortably with them either! I don't have an issue with an open invitation to the girls and some gentle encouragement for thong who'd like to attend