Team evening in a park

09/07/15

[First off, apologies for this being late; what with visiting the boyfriend and starting a new job, I completely forgot I hadn't written last week's meeting up!]

This week was organised by our YL as part of her YLQ. We joined forces with another unit who meet in a different hall on the same night and did several team-building games in a local field.

First then girls stood in a circle. A ball was given to one girl who had to say a girl's name, throw the ball to that girl and sit down. This continued until all the girls were sat down. We didn't think it would work too well as none of our girls knew any of the other unit's girls but we did eventually get all of them sat down by getting them to ask a girl's name and then throw her the ball. They then all stood back up and were tasked with remembering who they threw the ball to last time and doing it again without having to ask the girl what her name was first. It went relatively well considering it was the first time any of them had met each other. If you are doing this in your unit where everyone knows everyone else, then you can give the ball to the last girl standing and task them with throwing it back to the girl who threw it to them.

The girls were then separated into 3 groups with an even mix of each unit for some other games. One of the games was a blindfolded obstacle course. The girls were split again into 2 teams, with an even number from each unit. One girl (usually a sixer) was in charge of navigation and the rest of her team took it in turn to be blindfolded and guided around the obstacle course (round some cones, stepping over some ropes, through a zigzag) while carrying a cupful of water. When all the girls had been down the course, the amount of water left in each team's cup was measured and a winner declared. The next was a game of charades in their two teams. The final game was a 'how well you know people' type quiz. Each girl had to write a given fact about her (something she likes, something she dislikes, an obscure fact etc.) on a piece of paper and put it in a hat. Each team then took it in turns to pull a piece of paper out the hat and guess which girl had out it in. If they got it right, they got a point for their team, otherwise it was passed over to the other team to have a guess.

Finally, the girls, in their 3 groups, played a game with a ball. All the girls stood in a line, with the one at the front holding the ball. It was then passed over her head to the girl behind, then between her legs to the next girl and so on until it reached the back. The last girl then ran to the front of the line and started again. The winner was the first team to cross a ''finish line' with their whole team. We found it quite hard to stop the girls drifting forwards while the ball was being passed down the line but they were having fun so we didn't mind too much!

Overall, this went relatively smoothly for it being the YLs first taste of planning and running a meeting by herself. We had to give her a few pointers when she'd forgotten something (like a rainy-day plan) but all-in-all she did a great job of organising it. And it was all the better for me as I didn't have to do much and could catch up with a friend who helps at the other unit who I haven't seen for almost a year!