Since I’m currently recruiting for someone to take on my Brownies, I thought I’d start an irregular series about why we do these things. After all, my post on why I’m quitting gives you a good idea of why not to be a Brown Owl. So why would anyone want to take it on?
What did I get out of Girlguiding?
For a start, I got my job. The dog coming over to see me at the end of my interview helped but “Girlguiding volunteer” on a CV is never going to hinder you. You may need to add an explanatory paragraph for those whose image of Brownies has never left the 1950s but it can be a simple shorthand for “commitment, teamwork, leadership skills & general compentence”. Quick run-down of things you pick up: first aid, how to assess risk, fire safety, how to keep simple accounts, event planning, crowd control, outdoors skills, teacher of a wide range of subjects from colouring-in to body image, keyholder, safeguarding, public speaking, running to the rescue, and being a friend to all, regardless of ethnicity, sexuality, gender, religion and anything else that some people get difficult about. Girlguiding used to have a section on its website about how to convert everything you do from Girlguiding-speak to CV-speak – in fact, they still do although it’s a little out of date. It talks about Look Wider, the old Senior Section programme that got discontinued three or four years ago now.
Next: remember all the fun stuff you did when you were a Brownie? All the stuff you’ve never got the chance to do since? Well, now you can do it again, and it’s probably upgraded in the meantime. I get to do a lot more archery and fencing than I ever did as a young member myself – to be fair, that’s because I’m an instructor in both but it also means that all the other leaders in my district in particular get to do a lot more archery and fencing than they used to, if they choose to make use of me. What have I done as a leader that’s just plain awesome? Lots of outdoor activities – climbing, abseiling, go-karting (once, briefly), paddleboarding, orienteering, camping, Go Ape, ziplines. I’ve been to the Big Gig quite a few times, a Girlguiding-only massive concert that’s generally held at least once a year. It used to be at Wembley Arena and they’d do Big Gigs up north for those who couldn’t travel to London quite so easily but in 2019, they skipped London and only did the one up north. I’ve been to large-scale camps, like Wellies & Wristbands (festival-style camp for Guides & Rangers), Magic & Mayhem (circus-themed day camp/overnight for Rainbows & Brownies), Fearless Fun (activity weekend for Brownies & Guides) and Sparkle & Ice (Winter survival camp for Guides & Rangers). I’ve volunteered at Magic and at Sparkle. I’ve been to our own unit camps where I’ve been in charge of first aid and been the main kitchen assistant and of course, run archery lessons.
And for me, without the kids? Got those archery & fencing qualifications I keep going on about. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to get those without Girlguiding. That’s thanks to Try Inspire Qualify, which is a SWE event I’ve been to twice now. The “qualify” bit is optional – adults get to go on their own camp and try out all the activities they often have to stand and watch their kids do, and there are workshops and a campfire and in short, it’s all the fun of camp without the responsibility of having your children there and the option of gaining a qualification. I love Try Inspire Qualify and I’m kind of sad I’m not going this year – there are no qualifications I want to do and I’ve done all the fun activities so many times. No. You can never do them too many times. I’ll go, just to have the fun!
I went on a county adults trip to Our Chalet, the WAGGGS World Centre in Switzerland and went back on my own for the New Year Break in 2019-20. I’ve spent at least two Thinking Days at Pax Lodge, the London World Centre. I went to something that I maintain was the precursor/prototype for TIQ back when it was a one-off event that Foxlease ran called You’re Only Young Once and that was brilliant! The old fault I have with TIQ is that you sleep indoors – at YOLO I camped, just me in my little tent on Appletree surrounded by my local Rangers who happened to camp next to me and a pair of leaders who’d never camped before and were amazed by all things tent and I did a quiz with the lady in charge of the region walking weekends and someone I’d met via my other blog. Oh yes, the walking weekends! I’m working on my level 2 walking qualification and for the sake of getting logbook walks, I try to get to all the Dartmoor leisure walking weekends. I swear, you learn more from the MLs on the leisure walks than you do during the level 2 training weekends.
But none of that is compulsory. The leaders at the other end of my district are starting to take their girls to wider events – they’re going to Wellies this year for the first time – but it’s only me and my protege that have ever done them before now and it’s definitely only the two of us that do Girlguiding stuff for our own sakes, so you don’t need to feel that because you do Brownies once a week you now have to go to several camps a year and start collecting qualifications!
I got me out of Girlguiding. I’ve been in this since I was four years old. I genuinely don’t know where I end and where Girlguiding begins. How much of the stuff that makes me me would I have done without it? Would I be planning the long journey to paddlesport instructor without that session in the school pool when I was twelve? Ok, maybe that wasn’t so significant but I certainly wouldn’t be planning it without the idea of having a ready-made pool of pupils to take out and I wouldn’t have started taking kayaking semi-seriously three years ago without Girlguiding having moulded me into the outdoors sort of person I try to be. I wouldn’t be sitting here rolling my eyes at “adulting is haaaaard” without the background of writing risk assessments and planning events and dealing with spaghetti-induced injuries. I wouldn’t have run across the road to the kid who got hit by the car that time without my first aid qualification and the instinct Girlguiding has given me to leap in and help.
And without all that summed up in the line “Girlguiding volunteer (Ranger section)” on my CV in 2008, I wouldn’t have the job I have today where I get to sit at home in front of two screens and 100% control over the music and the windows and my boss’s calm assumption that I can play manager to the teenage relatives he occasionally brings in for work experience. I definitely wouldn’t be gathering up my stuff ready for a camping trip next weekend and I absolutely definitely wouldn’t be gathering the stuff to modify the design of the tent when I get there.
(The front flap that zips down both sides works great on a two-berth tent but enlarge that to a four-berth and suddenly you’ve got six feet of nylon unsecured either to the ground or to itself. I don’t like it and I’m going to do some sewing and some sticking to secure it in both places.)
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