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)

The program over the year - how to fit it all in?

These are all the things we should try to cover in the guiding programme over the year.... I'm not sure how we manage to fit it all in, but i think we usually do!

The Guide Programme covers 5 different areas:

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

The 5 Essential principles – During their time at Guides, the Guides will be encouraged to:

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

In addition, we try to fit in the following over the a year, which help to cover the Guide Challenge Badge requirements each year

• 2 GFI's per year (takes a minimum of 3 full weeks to complete each GFI)
• 2 Interest Badges per year (usually 2 full weeks to complete each badge)
• 2 trips out per year
• 2 'Community' activities per year - thinking about others in our community
• 1 residential/night away per year
• Something from the wider guiding family - a division or regional event, a national challenge, etc- something to show the girls that we are part of a bigger guiding family.

To ensure variety and that every girl gets to do some things they want to do, we try and include these activities every term:

• Sports / active fun
• Craft activities
• Cooking / food
• New skills or experiences
• A party or 'let your hair down' activity
• A trip out, or a visitor in to the unit (to provide variety from the leaders)

And finally, we also need to make sure these things happen too

• Promise Ceremonies, Promise and Law activities - introducing new girls to the unit and to guiding.
• Fire drill
• Unit Rules
• Girls choose patrols, vote in Patrol leaders and patrol seconds (although perhaps the patrol leader should choose their own patrol second?)
• Girls update G-Files for challenge badges
• Assist BP girls in their challenges - ensure that sessions are available in the plan for them to run for their BP clauses
• Assist YLs in their YLQ  and ensure Young Leaders get appropriate 'senior section' opportunities - to work on their YLQ and/or to get SS Octants signed off, and to participate in wider SS activities.  Ensure that leaders have time to answer questions from YLs and support them, and give them appropriate guidance in their Leadership journey.
• Parent Rotas, development of Unit Helpers and leaders
• Girl-led guiding - time to get input from the girls on what they want to do in Guides, so that it can be incorporated into the programme for next term. So, feedback and suggestion sessions for :
• Promise ceremonies
• Activities
• Outings
• Badges
• GFIs
• Camp themes and activities
• Games

So, how do we fit all of this in to our programme each year?  

We have 5 or 6 meetings per half term, which means 30 to 36 meetings per year (typically around 33), plus the following out-of-meeting regular activities (and possibly other out-of-meeting activities)

• Winter indoor camp weekend
• Summer canvas camp weekend
• Remembrance parade
• Pizza and Panto night out on a Friday near christmas
• A divisional, county or regional event or day

I actually think we do manage to fit most of these things in, but only by being smart with our planning and ensuring we cover several aspects with each activity.  We do try not to make any activity too much like being in school, even when badge work suggests it.  I guess we can be reasonably confident we are doing a good job, by the fact that we are full to capacity and have a waiting list....but I still feel we have to keep on our toes!

The biggest 'conflict' is between 'girl-led-guiding' and fitting all of this stuff in that we are supposed to fit in.

Quite honestly, 90% of our 10-13 year olds would choose to do the chocolate badge, chocolate GFI, sit and natter all night, or race around the hall screaming and playing tag amd generally letting of steam.  They would would rarely, if ever choose to do any 'community' activities, or learn about celebrating diversity or global awareness. They mostly don't want to have to plan GFIs themselves (although they do like to be able to choose the activities), but they want the leaders to organise it for them - and take the 'thinking' and 'planning' out of the activity.

Mostly, if given a free choice, our girls want 'down time' when they come to Guides, a chance to switch off their brains after increasingly busy and tiring weeks at school.  As a mother of two guide-age girls, I can certainly see this in them, and I can see the value in that. But this does at times conflict with fitting in all of the recommended programme elements, PLUS all of the things they have to do to get challenge badges and suchlike.

I'd be interested to hear from other guiders (a) if I've missed anything here, (b) how you manage to fit it all in, and (c) how to deal with the conflict of 'covering a good and varied guiding programme' vs the girl-led desire to switch off their brains and just chill out when they come to guides.  What do you think?

UM1 New Term, New Guides and Patrols

Unit Meeting 1

Our first week back at Guides, and a new year for us all.  We have 4 new starters, taking us up to 28 girls in total - our largest unit size for some time.  The new girls all seemed to settle in really well.

Patrols and democratic republics
Tonight the girls re-arranged their patrols - with encouragement to keep the numbers fairly equal and an explanation of why this was to their benefit (equal time on equipment when shared equipment during patrol time, same amount of time per person to complete tasks during patrol time, etc).  They organised themselves, but I sensed that there may still be some who aren't happy with how their patrols have now changed.
The girls voted for, and chose, their new Patrol Leaders and Patrol Seconds, with Panda patrol voting to remain as the Democratic Republic of Panda.

Unit Guidelines
In their patrols, we asked the girls to come up with the unit guidelines they wanted to see, and at the end, each patrol read out their chosen guidelines.  Surprisingly, all patrols agreed on nearly all of the rules (even the ones that they aren't very good at following):

1. Listen to others; don't talk if others are speaking
2. Hands up, shut up
3. Always be fair and kind to others
4. Have biscuits and drinks everyone
5. No phones or ipods in the meeting
6. Be sensible (With the older ones adding the traditional 'No Blood on the Walls'!)
7. Have FUN and Join In!

Two patrols also added the five Cs

• Be: Caring, courteous, cooperative, considerate and commitment.

I was pretty impressed that they came up with this all themselves. Let's see if they follow them!

Feedback, self-management and choosing the programme
We used a new method of asking for the guides' suggestions for activities. Our young leader put 3 large A3 sheets around the room with the following titles:

• Badges I'd like to do
• Ideas for activities next term
• Ideas for camp activities or themes

Throughout the meeting, the guides could write their ideas for each category on post-it notes and stick them on the appropriate banner. This resulted in lots of suggestions and resolved a problem we had encountered when asking for feedback and ideas before.

Previously, guides were asked for feedback and suggestions in patrols. Several complained that only the loudest got their opinions written down, or the person holding the pen didn't write down the opinions of everyone, especially if some people in the patrol wanted 'more craft' and some wanted 'less craft' for example.  The girls wanted to each give their *own* suggestions, and not have them filtered by others in their patrol.

This seemed to work really well. We had LOADS of suggestions, all sorts of things, on all the boards.

Games

We played several silly games which both worked well

• Me too! Chairs in a circle facing in, one person in the middle. Person in the middle makes a statement about themselves. Anyone else who matches that statement shouts ME TOO! And runs to swap place with another person. The one in the middle must also try to get a chair.
• Moving Chairs - chairs in a circle facing outwards, one chair not enough, people move along chairs left or right and the one girl on the outside must try and run round to get an empty chair as everyone is moving around.