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.

Ah. Maybe we're at cross-purposes here.

I always turn up for meetings with a clear plan of what we're going to do. We never just 'coast' through a meeting. But what I don't do - which I know some other leaders do - is have every meeting for the term fully planned from the beginning of that term. Some of our meetings are planned the day before. But they're always planned and always have a central activity. I wouldn't regard handing out badges as an activity, even though it's a fun part of our Brownie circle.

Ah see I wouldn't mind if it was planned the night before or whenever, but there is a lot of coasting as you call it.

maybe I am a closet BrownOwl, but while I can't commit to everyweek I will remain a parent helper. It is still a fairly new pack and to be fair BrownO and the other leaders have had bugger all guidance, me and the other parent helper (ex cub leader) do what we can.

Hmmm. Training for new leaders isn't all that it should be, in my (pretty grim) experience.

I agree that there ought to be something planned, even though not every week can be a sensational blockbuster event. There are lots of instant activities and fillers in the Brownie Adventure resource packs (of which there are now 3) and on the website - do you use those? Do you really use the Adventure and Adventure On books? I have finally convinced the Brownies to bring them every week and we now use them if we have a spare 10 minutes to fill - again, there are lots of quick activities in them.

I gave up the role of brown owl abou 4 years ago now but when I was brown owl our planing started well and fell away

We are in Scotland so we start in August and we run till May. We would sit down in July and plan fom then to Christmas. In Jan we would say we would need to do next term.. we would get a few meetings laid out and say okay we'll have a think. By Easter we are deffo running week to week

And yes I have to admit some weeks I have just coasted...

having said that I have 3/4 different treasure trails all sitting in the cupboard that can be laid out with 5 mins notice. I also have loads of square paper for origami which can fill loads of time and we have worksheets for simple badges that can be completed in a few weeks

So I guess its only coasting cos I have done the prep weeks/months/years before

The girl who took over from me had been with me since she was 14 .. is now mid 20's.... and she has the same attitude to planning!!

Thanks its good to see how others tackle planning. I tend to take some sort of standby with me in my bag of tricks, but it really should be a standby.

the thing is skramble as a unit helper or even assistant guider you shouldnt need to be worrying about having an activity just in case.. thats brown owl's job

The biggest problem I found on "coasting" nights were that my guiders didnt know what was in my head and therefore didnt get involved. Frustrating for them and me.

Now I am an assistant guider I wouldnt think to take an activity with me unless brown owl said can you do XXX or I am on holiday can you organise next week completely

Sounds like you are ready willing and able to take on a bigger role

Unfortunatlly my job and studies (ok studies nearly finished now) involve a lot of the same night as Brownies, so I really don't want to commit further as I feel it is unfair.

But finished studies, well one more assignment then a big huge project and the focus of my work is changing a bit, so perhaps in the future I could commit to being a fully signed up leader.

I do seem to be the designated craft and actvity person, which I am happy to be, but really should be coming up with activities within a more structured plan I think.

I basicly planned the whole camp programme, Brown Owl thinks she did but hers was more of a timetable where I fitted in the activities. It was our units first camp and I was happy to take some of the pressure off BrownO she had enough to worry about what with our horrible licence holder to contend with.

I think me and the other helper will have to push her to develop some more of her own ideas but sit back a little bit ourselves.

Time to get back to it ladies .

Well looks like I will be planning this terms programme, Brown Owl is standing down, not sure who is taking over, horrible feeling they may look to me . Anyway, in the handing over period, I am doing programme, one leader is doing the finances and register etc and the other is doing badges (well I am making her ).

So planned a few nights at our meeting but not much planning as most of the night was at the announcment.

Thought about doing the Jelly babies theme night tomorrow night. Has any one done this? How did the packaging quiz go? I thought it was a bit simplistic as they just read it and go back and write it down. I thought about doing it more Kims game style where they get bag to study for 2 mins then take away bag and ask questions.

Also how many bags will I need for 4 sixes about 18 girls in total? trying to think how many they might use for the jelly baby towers.

Any thoughts

Ooh. Tell me more about the jelly babies thing. Is it in one of the adventure files?

Don't know if it is in the adventure files, I got it from Guiders.co.uk.

Briefly....

Packaging quiz- Give each six a bag of jelly babies and tell them they have 2 mins to study it. (you have to tell them not to open it ). Then collect in the bags and give each six paper and pencil. Ask 10 questions eg, How many grams in the bag, What is the green jelly baby doing? How many flavours of babies?

Jelly Baby game- Like port/ starboard. But shout. Babies on skateboards, babies sleeping, babies play in 3s (they have to get into groups of 3.

Jelly baby anagrams- give each six the letters JELLYBABIES on seperate cards then give clues like. 1. A loud shout (YELL). 2. Part of a boat (SAIL), they have to work out the word then lay out the letters or hold them up to spell it.

Design a Jelly baby- Each six designs a baby, picture, name, hobbies, age, accesories etc. Present to the pack.

Jelly babies acrobatic display team- Give each six a bag of babies each and a pack of cocktail sticks, explain they have to make a model together like a tower or a pyramid (they get it if you say like cheerleaders).

Jelly Baby song- (happy birthday tune)

Jelly babies are fun,
they skip and they run,
I love jelly babies,
The're bright like the sun.

Jelly babies for me,
The're cute and cuddly,
I love jelly babies,
and I know they love me.

I made up little bags of jelly babies to take home as they ones we used were a bit mangled.

So 4 bags for challenges (one for each six) and 4 divided up into 18 bags to take home.

I can email full details.

So what are the rest of you up to this term?

I am becoming a leader (just a unit helper atm) then as BO has given up her post I am taking over as BO after the summer . How did that happen I only came along to help with the crafts

So doing a couple of nights to finish the seasons badge, 2 nights on brownie traditions and 1 night agility, a fun theme night and then a party. Also getting adventurous and going on a day trip.

Once you start you just can't stop!

Hi -just found you. I'm a Guide Unit leader. Why is it they never say anything to you, so that after flogging your guts ou for weeks to organise something all you see is a room full of preteen / teenage attitude.........and then you speak to some of the mums who say how much their daughters love it, and come home raving about how much fun they are having?

Also, why do most of the mothers assume that you are a SAHM because you do Guiding? I've lost count of the number of slightly bemused telephone messages that say, "I tried calling you at 11.00 am, and 12.00, and it's now 3.00pm, and I need to ask if Gerty Guide needs to bring X tonight, can you call me back before 5.30?" Errmm , sorry, no because at 5.30 I'm speeding back down the motorway from work.

Sorry for venting - I really do enjoy it, honestly I do.

Nice to meet you, Itsthawooluff.

Your post made me smile as I recognise so much of what you say (even though I'm a Brownie guider). One reason I'll never move up to Guides is that I don't think I could cope with the attitood. Ours arrive in the hall just as Brownies are tidying away, lollop right in front of the Brownie black hole cupboard and look amazed when anyone asks them politely to get out of the way. I believe they are quite articulate with their own leaders but they mostly communicate with me by means of grunts!

Please don't get me started on the mothers who expect us to stay at home waiting for their phone calls and/or late night visits to pay subs which should have been paid a fortnight ago.

And yes, I enjoy it too, but I do also think I could write a sit com about it all!

Hello, have posted once on this thread before, but I need to pick your brains.

We need to open a new bank account for our guide unit because we are merging with the Brownie unit for admin purposes. Which banks do you use for your units? We're currently with HSBC and the Brownies are with Lloyds, but I had heard that some banks don't pay interest on "charity" organisations' accounts... ?

And Itsthawooluff I know exactly what you mean - they don't realise Guiding isn't your full time paid job! We had a parents evening when it got really bad, did a slide show of photos from the year, and also a "get to know your guiders" bit, where we told them what we do in our "other" lives, a gentle way of letting them know we are volunteers!

Hi Pookamoo.

We're currently opening a bank account. When I took over as Leader, we didn't have any bank account and it's taken me this long.

I first applied to Lloyds, but they had given me an old-style form and were adamant (after I'd spent ages gathering documents and signatures) that I'd have to start again on the correct form and so I decided to take my valuable custom elsewhere. I'm now applying to NatWest. There's an agreement between Girlguiding UK and Nat West which (allegedly) means that there are fewer hoops to jump through to open an account for Brownies or Guides, but that's not my experience. They rejected my first application because I took too long to send the form back (they hadn't mentioned that there was a deadline and it took a while because I don't see my helpers every week to gather signatures). So I submitted a new form, but meanwhile they lost the certificate you have to obtain from CHQ to prove you're a bona fide Leader and so I need to contact CHQ to get another one. Grrr. So I can't see how this is any less complicated than opening an account with any other bank - the Nat West requirements aren't any different from Lloyds' - but nevertheless this is the arrangement CHQ have made.

These accounts were publicised in Guiding about a year ago. I think there was a second bank offering something similar - maybe you could track down a back copy of Guiding? Sorry. That was a bit long.

I'm liking the idea of a parents' evening. It was an innocent question, but there was a thread a few days ago when a Brownie mother asked whether the leaders on a pack holiday would be washing all the Brownies' clothing every night.

Aargh - just found out our hall is being used as a polling centre on Thursday - Brownie night! Would have been nice if they had let us know we wouldn't be able to use it!

That used to happen to us when we met on Thursdays. We were never informed - 'tis lucky I'm a bit of a politics anorak.

Would a sherry help here, LGP?

Problem solved - we're going to go on a nature walk instead - so fingers crossed for fine weather! Just got to ring round all the parents now.

Am back! I forgot about this thread.

I have just got my certificate so am now offical

We are having a 'music festival' thing for our area centenary celebrations. Bit dubious about the price though. £12.50 each , it has put off most of my rainbows (as well as the fact its over an hour away and in the evening).We also need 1:2 staffing so have to rope in parents to come too.

Hello again, nymphadora. Well done on becoming legit! I've heard other Guiders mention that many centenary events don't really 'work' for Rainbows.

Here, Lady Glencora and I were just starting on the sherry. Would you like a swig small glassful?

Has everyone seen the thread in chat about what it is or isn't reasonable to expect Brownies to be capable of doing on pack holiday? It's been an eye-opener.

Hasn't it just! Mind you I went on my first pack holiday recently and that was an eyeopener! But I dare not say all of the reasons why for fear of being flamed! One reason I will admit to, however, is that I was gobsmacked the sheer amount of work that the two guiders who organised it put into every detail of the arrangements. I hope to get a pack holiday licence eventually, and went along to learn the ropes, but it really made me realise the work involved in getting your licence.

Argh. The holiday licence. I did the work but didn't submit my book for auditing (real life intervened). Think I'd have to start again now. Ho hum.

We're doing skramble's jelly baby challenge this week. Three cheers for MN, skramble and this thread!

More sherry?

We need to plan our Rainbows centenary stuff too. None of the official events are near enough to be viable for us so I'm not sure what is going to happen. Brownies is not such an issue as we have some very active local packs and we will figure out something together, but there are not many other nearby Rainbow units.
Pass that sherry over, I'll have a swig.

Oh sorry. I didn't come back last night. Do you want it now?

A cold drink will be fine now. Perhaps a gin and tonic later when the sun is over the yard arm.