Complete five clauses that provide a personal challenge.
Clause 2 Prepare a presentation, suitable for a non-Guiding audience, about Guiding, and the skills that are transferable to the workplace.
Have completed this clause and actually did the presentation to my team at work. Also used it as an exercise to learn some basics in Powerpoint.
Clause 4 Prepare a presentation on one aspect of Guiding, suitable for a Division AGM or similar.
I have been the Division PHA for a number of years and thought I could write about this for the Division AGM. I have not attended any of the AGMs and have not been asked to provide any information form them. So here goes this is a report for 2007 to date.
The future for pack holidays in Bristol South hasn't looked so bright in the time I have been PHA. If anyone's counting I took over the role in 1995. This year I have assessed four pack holidays and there are another three in the pipeline. I have also visited a successful Rainbow sleepover.
There has been a similar number of holidays in the Division this year to last. In 2006 12 holidays were held with a total of 112 Brownie, 6 Guide/Young Leader and 31 adult (Guider and other) participants. So far this year Brownies 104 Brownies 12 Guide/Young Leaders and 44 have had the opportunity to go on holiday with their pack.
The most popular place by far for holidays has been Badminton Cottages with Brean coming second.
I have drawn up a chart showing which units have a licence to take away their girls and also a chart showing how many girls and adults have had the opportunity of going away with a unit in the last five years.
I would like to remind everyone of the need to send A/A forms to me as early as possible, but no later than six weeks in advance of your holiday. If for some reason these timescales are not possible please contact me so that we can discuss the issue.
The pack holiday account continues to have a healthy balance. We will be waiving the overnight fee again for all holidays this year. However this still needs to be shown in pack holiday accounts as a donation from Division.
If there is anyone here who is thinking of taking their license please speak to me later or contact me on my home number or email address at anytime.
Clause 9 Look at your locality through the eyes of a newcomer. Can you find information about Guiding? Is it available in the library, Tourist Information Centre, shops that sell Guide uniform etc? Place posters or leaflets in those areas, and any others you can think of! Look at the places where young people (and adults!) gather in your area. Evaluate the possibilities of placing posters or leaflets about Guiding in those areas.
Simple answer is there is no information about Guiding in the locality. My district is on the outskirts of Bristol. There is no TIC, library or shop selling uniforms locally. Where do local girls and adults meet? No where unless they belong to a group, these meet in the local church hall (where my Brownies meet), the dance school and the three local primary schools (we don't have a secondary school). The doctors surgery could also be counted as a meeting place. About the only place there is any information is in the clubs and societies section of the church magazine which give the days and times of all local groups using the church hall.
The Brownies made some posters about Brownies and have had these put up in the church hall and dance school. Have also got some Brownie recruitment leaflets from Trading which I have given to the local schools to hand out. Both the posters and leaflets have my Brown Owl email address on so that anyone interested can contact me.
The leaflet handout has so far produced three new Brownies and two for the waiting list.
Clause 10 Write an article about one aspect of Guiding, suitable for a Parish magazine or similar.
We are a Brownie pack that meets weekly in Whitchurch and we require your help. We are looking for a leader who can help each week at our meetings.
Can you give a couple of hours each week to help Brownies gain the most from Guiding. We particularly enjoy craft work and cooking. We also work for badges, play games, sing songs and take part in many other activities. Each year we also have a Brownie holiday where a good time is had by all.
Recently we have completed our writers badge and are working on the artist badge, we have made cards, biscuits and done craft projects related to Easter. We are now looking forward to a trip to Crealy in June and a holiday to Wells in September.
No previous experience is required, training is provided and all new leaders are assigned a mentor. All potential leaders will need to go through a CRB check.
The pack was opened in 1945 and if we don't find a leader soon we will have to close and this will leave 14 girls who will be very disappointed. If you can help or know someone who can and are aged between 18 and 65 please email Brown Owl on brownowl@100thbristolbrownies.org.uk.
We also like making new friends, if you would like to become a Brownie your name can be added to a waiting list and you will be contacted as soon as we have a new leader.
Though I got a response to this, it wasn't from where I would have expected. I was approached by another Brownie Guider in the district who had just had 15 ten year old Brownies leave and she was left with just four. This also shows the lack of communication in the district. I have not been invited to a meeting during the last year, but I do know they take place.
We have amalgamated the two packs, sadly the district has lost another pack (three in the last few years along with the two Guide companies a Ranger unit and a Rainbow unit). But on the positive side we have managed to keep one pack open with two warranted Guiders and a third Guider who comes for about half the meeting each week. We have also increased our numbers to 15.
Clause 11 Take part in an event to promote Guiding. This could be a roadshow, STOMP, ROAR or similar.
On August Bank Holiday Monday I spent the day at the village fate helping to promote Guiding, primarily aimed at recruiting leaders but new members for any section could be 'signed up' though as we only have Brownies at the moment in the District this could pose problems.
The theme was now and then. We pitched two tents, one a traditional ridge tent the other a light weight four man tent. The tents had pictures of past and present uniforms. There was also a static display of Guiding today and plenty of leaflets to hand out.
Attendance at the fate was poor, the weather was glorious and as the summer had been poor we think that many people had gone away for a long weekend.
We didn't manage to recruit any leaders though the old uniform pictures generated a lot of interest and several retired Guiders spoke to us. We have hopefully recruited a few Brownies and a Young Leader.
We plan to go to the event next year but do things differently, hopefully have some give aways and toast marshmallows over T lights. We might also consider making it fund raising so that it draws people to our stand. As long as we cover the cost of the pitch its not essential to make a profit. There was no charge for this years pitch as we were not selling anything.
