University Update

25/09/14

As regular readers may know, I have just started university and was looking for a unit in the area to help with. I spoke to the District Commissioner recently and unfortunately they don't have any units (of any section, not just Brownies) that meet on a Friday which is the only day I can do due to other clubs and sports I do. She has left me her details so I can get in contact if my circumstances change but, as it stands, I am going to have to go without Brownies for a while. I will still be helping with my 'old' unit whenever I am at home and I am going on the Pack Holiday with them in a few weeks. I've even spent part of Freshers' Week organising the Wide Game that will be part of my Look Wider! Here's a sneak preview but a full post about it will be coming shortly:

I am also going to use this time to focus solely on the rest of my Look Wider qualification, in particular the Independent Living section, when I'm not working obviously!

Posts will probably not be coming weekly for now (unless I get really into my Look Wider) but I will keep you updated about how I'm doing.

Badges and Posters

18/09/14

This meeting we started off by playing a game. We asked one of the oldest girls, who's leaving in a few weeks, what game she would like to play and she chose Fishes. The girls were playing really nicely this evening and we managed to play two games instead of the usual one with lots of arguing. For the first game we chose the first two girls who asked (nicely) to be the sharks but for the second game, to make it fair, we had all the girls who wanted to be sharks line up and then Brown Owl turned her back and picked two numbers. We counted along the line to find the girls. It worked really well because then we didn't end up with 2 friends working as a team which is usually the cause of most of the arguments as the girls think they are ganging up on certain people.

When the girls had finished playing, we got out tables and they started making their badges for pack holiday. I had found all the pictures and printed them out and then we borrowed the District badge machine to turn them into badges. The girls who are coming on pack holiday had to colour in the badge for their six and hand it in so it didn't get lost, and the girls who aren't coming could either colour in a spare or design their own badge that they could take home that night. When they had finished, they could colour in a badge for a leader if they wanted, and there were spare ones, or they could colour in a poster to go on the wall.

While they were doing this, Brown Owl held a parents meeting for any girls who haven't been on pack holiday before so they could ask any questions and find out how we run it. We asked the girls to be quiet, which they seemed to be doing but then we noticed that some of the girls were missing. They were located by the Young Leader in the toilet, making quite a bit of noise so we had to lay down the law and say that everyone has to ask before going as opposed to trusting them to go and come back sensibly (the toilet is only down the corridor).

Other than that, it was quite a relaxed meeting though. I sat at a table with some of the girls and chatted to them about random things while colouring my own badge in. It all ended sadly though as this was my last meeting with them before going off to uni. When Brown Owl told them, the whole unit shouted 'nooo' in unison! I was given a card, signed by all the girls, and a Brownie Me To You bear!

 

I have taken both to uni and they are on display in my room, so I don't forget them (I wouldn't even dream of it!). I am returning for pack holiday in a couple of weeks and I have gone through Join Us and the 'Girlguiding - Movers' Facebook page to try and find myself a unit to help at during term times but, as yet I haven't got in contact with anyone. I am going to try and focus on my Look Wider too, as one of the sections is all about Independent Living! Hopefully I will find a unit soon as I'm not sure I can cope with too much time away from girls...

Pack Holiday Sixes and Puzzles

11/09/14

This evening we started our planning for pack holiday. On last pack holiday, our Young Leader and Guide were looking through the scrapbook and came across a detective themed weekend. They decided they wanted ours to be a detective one this year so have been planning over the Summer. Our first task was to split the girls into their sixes. We split the girls into the ones who are coming and the ones who aren't. The ones who aren't coming started the evenings activity and the others organized their sixes. We asked them to get into pairs with a girls they wanted to be with. The three oldest girls were then given the position of sixer and the other pairs were put in their sixes. We try to have a girl who's been before in each six so that the other girls know what is expected of them. The sixes worked out quite nicely this year. The Young Leader and Guide then gave them options for six names, all names of detectives. One six immediately claimed Pink Panther and the other two both wanted James Bond so we said that neither could have it and they eventually settled on Johnny English and Sherlock.

All the girls then worked on this evenings activity; puzzles from their handbooks. There was a wordsearch and a 'fit-word' (a sort of crossword where you have to fit the given words into the right places) and the Leaders mingled helping them while discussing our own names for pack holiday. All the Leaders are going to be villains but there was quite a long list for us to decide from. I think we have settled on:

Brown Owl: The Queen of Hearts
Snowy: Feathers McGraw
Me: Elphaba (Wicked Witch of the West)
Cooks: Dastardly and Muttley
Young Leader: Moriarty
Guide Helper: Cruella De Vil
Leader's children: Darth Vader and The Joker

Once the girls had finished, we tidied away and played a quick game of Fruit Bowl. We started it off by just getting the girls to swap seats and then we started to remove chairs and get girls out. It was going fine, even if Brown Owl was slowly running out of things to choose from, until we got down to the last two girls. If it was me, I would have just said they were both the winner and left it at that but it was decided that the first to a third chair on the count of three would be the winner. The two girls (let's call them A and B) then got ready to go with all the other girls lined up either side. They then started cheering except it was clear that all the girls were cheering for A and not B so B got upset. Brown Owl told them all to stop yelling and counted down. A got to the chair marginally before B so B got more upset and walked off crying in a strop. Brown Owl had a quick word with both girls and then the pack in general. She picked up on the group of girls who'd started the cheering and made them all apologise to B for being mean and luckily that was the end of the matter.

We ended the meeting by saying goodbye to one of our girls and then they all went home.

This meeting was a mix, parts of it were really good and the girls were really nice, if a little hyper, and other parts are just best forgotten.

We have also scheduled a meeting for the Leaders so we can finalise the programme for pack holiday and sort out the menu before I go off to University (I am coming home for pack holiday weekend - I wouldn't miss it for the World!).

First meeting, second year

04/09/14

This week was our first meeting back after the Summer. We didn't have any new girls starting so it was a pretty straightforward meeting, even if the girls were all a little hyper as some of them hadn't seen each other for 6 weeks!

We started off playing a game to try and wear off some of their energy. We let them choose and they decided to play Wigwams (instructions here). I was surprised they didn't choose Fishes, as they did most of last term, but they all seemed happy to play this one instead. As this only really needs one Leader to run the game, it gave the rest of us a chance to catch up quickly as we also haven't seen each other in quite a while!

After the game finished, we got out the tables and let them get on with planning their stalls for a fundraiser we are doing in a few weeks. Fairly regularly (every 18 months or so) we have a sale to raise money for a different charity: in the past we've done the RSPCA and the Blue Cross. This year we are raising money for the National Star College after our visitors last term. The girls get into small groups and plan a stall together. We then invite the parents and friends along and the girls run their own stall as well as taking it in turns to go and have a go on all the other stalls. We have had a wide variety of stalls in the past; from the traditional cake sales and raffles, to the less traditional obstacle courses and fortune tellers! We let the girls choose their groups as it gives them a little more independence but we do suggest that girls who've never done a sale before have someone in their group who has, to point out things they might have forgotten about. I spent the evening going between groups, writing down their ideas and helping them resolve disputes in their groups. We have a nice mix of stalls this year; nails and spa, lucky dip, hook-a-duck, fortune telling, cakes, loom bands, among others, so hopefully we will raise a fair amount for the National Star College (usually we make £150-£200). 

We ended the meeting by handing out the Agility badges the girls earned at the penultimate meeting last term and then let them loose on their parents, still no less hyper than when we started the meeting!

I didn't end up doing much of my Look Wider Qualification over the Summer, but I am still noting down things to fill up gaps so I'll hopefully make a start on typing stuff up soon! I am also off to University soon so it may get a bit disjointed for a couple of weeks while I settle in and find myself a new unit to help at, although I will still be returning home occasionally and going to meetings, but I'll keep you updated on that as it unfolds too.