As the girls arrived, everyone was given a cloth bag to decorate. We had lots of fabric markers and the girls got really creative. We hope the bags will be used to carry their things back and forth to meetings, so we don't wind up with a mess of ties, sashes, water bottles and miscellaneous items left behind at the end of the night.
We then moved on to a trial run of the Guide Horseshoe. We split the girls up into three groups, with a Guide who remembered how to form the horseshoe as the Patrol Leader. We sang the Guide Marching Song as we marched - it was "80 years or more" when I was a Guide, and now we sing "100 years of more"!.
- Patrol Leaders fall in (Patrol Leaders line up single file facing the Guiders.)
- Patrols fall in (Patrol members line up beside their Patrol Leader, on their left-hand side. The Patrol Second is on the opposite end of the Patrol to the Patrol Leader.)
- Patrol Leaders forward (Patrol Leaders file up and stand in front of the Patrols. Each hands in their attendance/dues bag and tells us if anyone is away.)
- Patrol Leaders return to your Patrols (Patrol Leaders return to their Patrols.)
- Right Turn (Everyone turns to their right.)
- Horseshoe formation, forward march (First Patrol leads off, followed by the other Patrols. Guides make a larger U, then march back down the centre of the U, splitting at the bottom, and coming back up to the top. The first Patrol goes to the left, the second to the right, and so on. If there are an uneven number of Patrols, the last Patrol splits with girls alternating direction.)
- Company Halt (Guides stamp their feet 1, 2 and stop)
Our next activity was a discussion about Patrols. We started out by asking what Patrols do, and got the basics of working together, taking attendance, recording dues, and participating. With some prompting, we added selling cookies, planning activities, choosing and leading games, picking and leading songs, and running a meeting to the list of things Patrols can do within the Unit. We asked the girls if they would rather have three smaller Patrols or two large ones (the vote was for smaller Patrols), and although we didn't intend to form Patrols tonight, that's what happened!
In our Unit, any enrolled Guide is eligible to run for election as a Patrol Leader. Nine girls decided they would like to run, and each stood up and gave a short speech about why she would make a good Patrol Leader. Each girl was then given a piece of paper and a pencil and asked to write down the names of the three girls they felt would make the best Patrol Leaders. The girls went off to continue working on their bags while the Guiders tallied the votes. Once we had determined the Patrol Leaders, those three girls were called over and asked to pick their Second (again, the requirement was that they be an enrolled Guide). Everyone else was then called over and the Patrol Leader/Second pairs announced. The other girls were then given slips of paper with the names of the pairs and asked to rank them in terms of preference. From these, we formed Patrols and, amazingly, every Guide was able to have her first choice of Patrol Leader/Second!
The first task for the newly formed Patrols was to choose a Patrol Emblem. Much thought went into this, but all three Patrols eventually chose flower emblems. We now have the Forget-Me-Not Patrol, the Daisy Patrol, and the Thistle Patrol.
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Our final activity was a Patrol activity, with each group asked to make up a skit about good cookie selling practices. We then closed with reminders for next week (Caterpillars!) and Taps.
Links:
- Guide Horseshoe Video - This video is very similar to how we form the horseshoe. The main difference for us is that we collect the attendance/dues bags after the Patrols have fallen in, and the following command is 'Right Turn' rather than 'Left'.
