Promise, Law & Planning

Tonight was a bit of a catch-up night with a review of the Promise and Law, planning for our Hallowe'en Party, beginning to organize our Patrol-Planned meetings and activities, voting on the new uniform designs, and talking about a holiday service project.

As the Guides arrived, the Patrols marked their attendance books and collected dues. They were also challenged to see if as a team they could remember the words to the Promise, Laws and Motto. We opened with our usual horseshoe and then checked in with the Patrols - everyone knew the Promise, but the Motto and Laws were a mystery to most of the group. We talked a bit about the Motto and then practiced BURRPLS for the Guide Law. (BURRPLS is an acronym using the first letter of each Law and can act as a memory aid when trying to recall all of the Laws!) We then moved onto an active game before diving into our program for the evening.


Our first, and longest, activity was to plan our upcoming Hallowe'en Party. Each Patrol was responsible for brainstorming ideas, choosing an activity and making a plan. The Patrols will have 20 minutes next week to set up, run and clean-up from their activity. As we are working on planning as a skill, we asked the Patrols to follow a step-by-step process:

1. Brainstorm activity ideas - write down everyone's ideas.
2. Choose your favourites (no more than one per Patrol member) - everyone has an equal vote!
3. Run your list by the Guiders to make sure all are do-able in our meeting space and the time given. 
4. Make your final choice. You might be able to combine more than one idea into a single activity. 
5. Create a plan - What supplies are needed? What are the instructions/rules? Who will explain the activity? How long will you need to set-up/clean-up your activity?

For some Patrols, this was an easy activity and they moved on to coming up with ideas for activities they could lead at other meetings. Other Patrols needed more assistance, but we managed to come up with three unique Patrol plans. 


While the planning was taking place, we visited each Patrol to conduct a survey on the New Uniform Designs. We used a tablet to show images of all of the options, and each Guide was given a ballot and voted for her favourite options for the front of the shirt, back of the shirt, sleeve logo, sleeve length and fit style. Each person was also able to provide any additional comments they had. All of their votes and responses will be entered into the survey site so they can be part of the National Uniform Team's data!


Once planning was completed, we moved on to Guide Law Skits. Each Patrol was given two of the Guide Laws and had to come up with one or two short skits demonstrating the Laws. Skits are always entertaining and the Patrols did a good job as the rest of the Unit was able to guess which Law they were acting out.


Our final activity was a discussion about a service project we've been asked to participate in - The Shoebox Project. This is a program that provides gifts to women in need through shelters and community groups. Each box is packed with items to help the recipient feel good about themselves and to let them know that people care about them. Donors are asked to choose items that they would like to receive as a gift, or that they would buy for a family member or close friend in order to keep the quality of items in the boxes high. We were specifically approached to see if we would like to make a box (or boxes) as part of a batch for young women aged 15 to 18 living in a transitional housing program in Brantford. After explaining the project, the Guides and Pathfinders decided we should take part, and we will be collecting items to pack two shoeboxes over the coming weeks.

We closed with reminders for next week (Hallowe'en Party!) and Taps.


Links:

• The Shoebox Project (external link)