UM16 BP International Evening

Our four BP girls wanted to organise an International Evening for the unit. The Zone 2 (Global Awareness) clause says:

"With your Patrol, organise an international evening with games, crafts, food or music and dance."
Our BP Guides decided that they wanted a theme of 'International Food'. With a unit of 30, and having already done a cooperative games evening (and seen how difficult it was to get 40 lively guides to listen to them and follow instructions), they went off to plan a couple of weeks ago.

Last week they came back with their plan to have four stations, with each group visiting a station for 15 minutes, with one girl planning and running their own station. They had agreed as a group what stations (based on what they thought would be enjoyable, could fit into the time and facilities, would work with the number of girls, AND would fit well with the other stations). They did this independently away from the unit - online chat, i think - and came back with their shopping lists if need be.

We had found out during the weeks before that two local schools had school shows and parents evenings on, so we knew numbers would be down to around 22. But on the day itself, we got lots of texts from other parents saying girls were also unable to come due to parents evenings, school discos, and shows, etc....which meant we were left with only 11 girls. I will admit, I was a little disappointed at the last minute notifications (but i understand how it happens). I really don't mind that girls don't come every week, but almost all of the cancellations were down to things that were planned several weeks ago, so it would have been nice to know about these before we had done all the shopping (all edible stuff, mostly non-keepable). And i was also aware that our BP girls might be disappointed with the turnout, giving all the hard work they had put in.

On the night....well, yes, i think there was initially a bit of dismay from a two of our most 'leadery' BP girls ("where is everyone? why haven't they come?")...but that was soon forgotten once they realised that it was going to be a lot more fun and a lot less work than they had anticipated! We were able to have music on in the background, we didn't need to do any 'crowd control', and didn't once have to put our hands up to get people to listen!

We had a fantastic evening! The guides who were there had a fabulous time, and had the time (and resources available) to do extras of activities they enjoyed, and spend more time than they would otherwise have had. We were impressed the leadership and creativeness shown by our BP girls, and their ability to organise and plan. They all enjoyed running their activities, and agreed that actually, it was a lot easier with smaller numbers.

The activities they ran were

• Making and decorating (and eating!) cake-pops from America, along with an american themed quiz and colouring activity.
• Decorating German Gingerbread men
• An international blind food tasting (guess the food!)
• Mehndi from Asia, using chocolate writing icing tubes

Programme planning and girl-led guiding

Last term (and last week again), we asked the girls for ideas on what they wanted to do:  Four A3 sheets pinned up around the hall, and a big stack of postit notes divided up between the patrols.  The four sheets were titled:

• Badges & GFIs
• Activities in the hall (crafts, cooking, skills)
• Visitors or Trips
• Games to play

The girls were allowed to write their ideas (individually) on post-it notes and stick them onto the appropriate sheet.  They were also allowed to write 'Not...' if there's something the didn't want to do.

We got equal numbers of 'More Craft' and 'Not Craft', and equal numbers of 'More sport' and 'not sport' - so we'll include one session of each in our term plan (and perhaps in the summer months, split the unit in two for some sessions where some can do craft, and some can do sporty things outside, if we have enough adults.

The overwhelming votes were for 'Chocolate' (appeared on all four boards, many many times), and visits to a trampolining centre.  So, we're doing the Chocolate GFI this term and will arrange a trip to one of the trampolining centres.  And, in the interests of a balanced and varied programme, (and because a very kind friend has offered to come and do a CPR and emergency first aid training session for free) we're working through the first aid badge.

As well as these our badge and GFI for the spring term, we've also got 4 BP girls who want to run various sessions as part of BP Clauses, so we've allowed time in the plan for these. They include

- an international evening

- a celebration of a festival from another culture (chinese new year)

- a 'peace and relaxation' session (good luck with that one, will be a challenge)

- a patrol cooking competition

With this lot, plus a trip out to the trampolining centre, I think we'll be covering all of our five areas:

• Healthy Lifestyles – develop your mind, body and soul. It’s all about keeping healthy and happy.
• Celebrating diversity - meet new people and get involved in things going on in your area.
• Global Awareness – make the world a better place.
• Discovery – have new experiences and adventures.
• Skills and Relationships – build on your personal and life skills.

And all of the sessions will be based upon the 5 essentials

1. Work together in small groups
2. Govern themselves and make their own decisions
3. Have a balanced & varied programme
4. Care for the individual
5. Share a commitment to a common standard

AKA

1. G - Groups - working in small groups
2. U - Uniformity in a common standard
3. I - Individual - care for the individual 
4. D - Decisions - Making their own!
5. E - Exciting - balanced and varied programme

AKA

1. M - Making Decisions (girl-led guiding)
2. A - Activities (balanced and varied programme)
3. G - Groups (working in a variety of groups)
4. I - Individual (care and choices)
5. C - Commitment to a common standard (promise, law, unit rules, etc)

Young Leaders in a Guide Unit - how to support them?

What kind of support should we be giving to our Young Leaders at the guide unit?  They are not part of any other Senior Section/Rangers unit, so attending our Guide Unit as YLs is their only regular participation in the Girlguiding Senior Section, and in effect, we are their SS leaders.

These are the things that Girlguiding says should be part of the Senior Section Programme

• Follow the core Look Wider programme, including
• Understanding the octants, and phases of octants
• Ensuring the YLs have time to plan and do their Octant activities if requiredd
• Take on new responsibilities, e.g. become a Young Leader or even, work on the Young Leader Qualification
• Ensure the YLs are involved in unit planning sessions
• Ensure the YL's have time given and opportunities to complete their LQ clauses
• Ensure YLs are given dedicated leader time to help them through their LQ programme - appropriate mentoring.
• Participation in wider SS activities - ensure that SS opportunities from division, district, county, region and national level are offered to these members. This may mean Guide leaders attending these activities with the girls (if this is required at the event)

One thing that concerns me is that I am a Guide leader, not a SS leader.  I have completed my LQ with a module for the Guide Programme. I have not completed the module for SS Programme, yet we are encouraged to have a YL join us who isn't getting SS programme guidance anywhere else, other than with us.   This seems to be a bit of an anomoly in how this area works, and I worry that my SS YL girls may be missing out.  I regularly encourage them to join a local ranger unit, but with school and other commitments, they are understandably hesitant.

Also, as I am not a SS unit leader in Go!, I don't regularly get to hear about SS unit events going on and am not included on SS mailings. The girls (as SS members with email addresses on Go!) do get some of these emails, but if I don't get them as well, I can't encourage them to participate.  And everyone knows that teenagers aren't always particularly motivated to organise and plan things without a bit of a nudge in the right direction!

What to do?