Queen's Guide Award

I am going to use this page to document my progress towards my Queen's Guide Award which I started on 17th July 2018. This gives me until 16th July 2021 to complete every section. I will update this page regularly with my progress and plans, as well as linking to blog posts on some of the sections when completed, especially the ones involving trips for the unit (scroll to the bottom). As a little bit of background, I have been in Guiding since I was a Rainbow and did my Baden Powell as a Guide, my Young Leaders and my Adult Leaders. I helped run Rainbow and Brownie units whilst at university and have my 5 year service award. I am getting married in May 2019 and am also looking to move house before then so hopefully this blog can serve as an inspiration to those of you who lead busy lives and think you can't fit it in.

Service in Guiding

Element 1 - Practical Guiding for 60 hours with 20 hours dedicated to a particular activity or project
My mentor advised me that simply continuing to volunteer with the unit I have been at my whole life is not sufficient enough challenge to count towards my Queen's Guide but I am planning on moving house soon so I will find a new Brownie unit to help at. I will also plan and run a trip out of the meeting place (probably at the end of a term), or a pack holiday. This blog will help record the number of hours I spend doing this, as each meeting can be taken to be approximately 1.5 hours (plus any planning for any meetings I run myself!). I have put out a few feelers to the District I will be moving to and they have said that there are multiple Brownie units which need my help! I have said I am not going to commit to anything until September but I will visit a few units in the summer term after I move in May.

Element 2 - Attend a residential Guiding event and take on a new responsibility
I have been on many indoor camps with Brownies but have never taken them camping in a tent so I would like to do this with my girls. I will probably achieve this through attending a district/division camp rather than running my own, but that is also a possibility.

COMPLETE Element 3 - Take an active part in planning an event for at least two units
I organised our District Thinking Day trip in 2019. It went incredibly well and the girls and leaders all thoroughly enjoyed it. A full write up on how I planned this trip is coming soon.

Element 4 - Actively take part in a working group or committee run by Girlguiding 
I volunteered for 'Let's Get Digital' to participate in user testing, but have not heard much back yet. Other options include the 50th birthday for our local headquarters/campsite, or finding a group once I have moved house in the New Year.

 

Outdoor Challenge

COMPLETE Element 1 - Complete The Senior Section Permit or Going Away With Scheme
I organised and ran a pack holiday in September 2016 and finally was awarded my Going Away With License in September 2017.

Element 2 - Participate in an exploration or expedition with a purpose lasting 3 nights with your peers
I plan on doing an exploration as opposed to an expedition as I am not a fan of walking long distances. A top contender for location is York. Possible activities include geocaching or a Monopoly Run (either a pre-made one or one we devise as a group) as these will both allow us to see a large portion of the local area. As yet, I am undecided though. I will get in contact with the many friends I made through SSAGO at university to form a group as they will all be under (or only slightly over) the age limit of 25.

Personal Skill Development

Develop a skill for a minimum of 60 hours over 12 months 
I had clarinet lessons from 2005-2014 and got to Grade 7 but while at university I couldn't find a teacher I liked so stopped playing, except in orchestra, and I would like to get back up to the standard I was at and gain my Grade 8. I have spoken to my old clarinet teacher and she is happy to give me some lessons and put me in for the exam. I started having weekly lessons in August 2018, and have been very quickly getting back up to the standard I used to be. My pieces, for those of you who are interested, are:

• Sarabande et Allegro, Grovlez
• Sonata in Eb (Adagio and Allegro Moderato), Mendelssohn Bartholdy
• I Got Rhythm, Harvey
• Scheherazade (3. Satz), Rimsky-Korsakow [orchestral excerpt - first 10 seconds of video only]
• Sinfonie Nr. 6 (1. Satz), Beethoven [orchestral excerpt]
• Sinfonie Nr. 6 (2. Satz), Beethoven [orchestral excerpt]

Community Action

Element 1 - Choose a topic and carry out research and a practical element
I would like to use this to research and hopefully change girls attitudes towards maths and computing from Rainbows up to Rangers. I will produce a resource which will detail a meeting to be run with a variety of activities. Girls will be asked a few questions at the start about what they think of maths/computing and then asked similar questions at the end about whether they enjoyed the activities and games which were run. I will make this resource available for all leaders to use and then create an online form where they can submit their units responses. I will also potentially produce a badge to go with it for leaders to buy with any profits raised going towards my exploration/residential expenses.

Element 2 - Present your findings to a group of people 
I will hopefully produce a report or a video of the results which can be emailed to all leaders who took part in the survey. I will also look for other people I can present my findings to in order for them to better understand how girls view typically male subjects.

Residential Experience

Attend a residential event where a majority of people are unknown to you
I plan on attending a Scout camp with my fiancé's Beaver troop as the only person I would know well will be him. The timescale for this is fairly flexible - whenever they need me I will go along.

Related Blog Posts

Starting Queen's Guide (06/08/18) 
First Update (29/10/18) 
Second Update (07/01/19) 
Thinking Day Trip (09/03/19) 
Third Update (15/04/19)