Transitions in Guiding

Many surveys done within various youth organisations in many countries have all reached the exact same conclusion.  Keeping existing youth members is far easier than recruiting new youth members into the group, especially for teenagers.  If we accept that premise, it becomes logical that after all the effort we put into recruiting girls into Guiding in the younger age groups, we should be seeking to do all we realistically can to encourage these girls to stay in Guiding for as long as possible.  Right through to Senior Section certainly, and if possible on to adult roles of whichever kind best suits – Unit Helper, Leader, Commissioner, Adviser, Trefoil Guild etc.

 

But – only a small proportion of the girls who join Guiding at 5 or 7 are still in it at 14, far less beyond that.  And although a certain amount of loss is inevitable – in the UK our losses are far higher than can be explained by that alone.  And these losses tend not to happen equally across the age ranges, but peak at certain key points in a girl’s Guiding career – the transitions.  For in the UK, we don’t have girls bridging whilst remaining members of the same unit.  Changing section in the UK means changing unit, and almost always means a new Leader team, a different day and/or a different time – and sometimes a different venue too.

 

At 7 – the move from Rainbows to Brownies.  We don’t notice this one so much, because a lot of girls join Brownies direct who were not Rainbows.  Nevertheless, it isn’t every Rainbow that joins Brownies, though it ought to be close to.  Perhaps we are losing more girls than we realise, at this early stage?

 

At 10 – this is a big gap – girls who stick right through Brownies and seem to enjoy it - but don’t even give Guides a try.  In a few cases it’s lack of an available unit (regular or Lone) due to geography or schedule clashes, but in the majority of cases that just doesn’t apply.  How many of the Brownies approaching 10 know all about what Guides in general do, and also about what the local unit has been doing recently?  And how many know little or nothing about Guides, and that little mainly rumour or hearsay?

 

At 12 – in my area they start high school at around 12.  A lot of members are lost then.  It’s understandable – homework ramps up, there are lots of new clubs to choose from, meaning some existing hobbies have to be dropped to make room.  Whether Guiding is dropped will depend on how exciting it still is, how much adventure and fun it still offers – or whether it has become a bit repetitive and dull.

 

At 14 – transition from Guides to Senior Section isn’t always straightforward – options locally may be limited as there are far fewer Senior Section units than there are Guide units - and support structures for Young Leaders can vary too.  Plus, homework is increasing again as the key exams approach – can Guiding offer an attractive programme for the limited free time?  Can we make it feasible to fit it in alongside the other hobbies and commitments?  How much support is there for those finishing BP, so that they can get to both complete BP and move on to Senior Section with their pals at 14 - not have to choose between them?

 

At 16+ - by now the numbers still left in Guiding have shrunk – but for those who’ve stuck it thus far, we need to add on more pressures – key exams, job hunting or university choices, and transitioning to adult life (with all the challenges that brings).  While some will be setting out onto working life immediately, others will still be schoolgirls for another couple of years yet.  Can Guiding hold those who, though the same age, are going through some major life stages at different times and rates, and as a result may have widely differing maturity levels and outlook?

 

So, 5 clear stages at which large numbers of girls are lost from Guiding.  What can we do to minimise our leaks at these points?

 

The first thing to focus on - is the actual transitions themselves.  Ensuring that each girl does some preparation prior to the move, so she knows what the next section does, has met at least one of the Leaders (however briefly), has a proper leaving ceremony where she receives her leavers badge and a fond farewell from her pals, and then has a smooth process of transfer from one unit to the next - and even if there is a gap between leaving one unit and getting start at the next, as sometimes must be, no individuals are lost in the interim for want of keeping in touch with them.  It also means that each unit should be working to prepare their girls for the coming move, almost from the minute they join the unit.  There can regularly be conversations about the next unit(s) they might join to get them starting to look forward to the day their turn comes.  Although we should automatically be using the transition resources which have already been provided for us (Pot of Gold, GFI Guides, Move on Up, YLQ/ALQ) in every unit in the UK anyway, that should be the last stage in an ongoing process.  ‘The next section and what they’ve been doing recently’ should be regularly mentioned at your unit meetings, and occasional joint events held where your girls are actually mixing with those from the next section up (how many so-called joint events actually just involve everyone moving around in their strictly segregated unit groups, with the sections doing different activity sessions – so that they aren’t really joint at all, there just happen some other units onsite doing activities that day, whom you might bump into at the toilets or in the lunch queue if you’re lucky?).  But also, we should be applying the personal touch - is the Leader of the next section someone who visits occasionally, or who helps at outings, or who is pointed out at joint events so girls know her by sight if not better than that?  Do you regularly talk about the next section as a natural progression?  (It should always be “When you’re a Brownie you’ll get the chance to do X”, not “if you join Brownies you might get to” as if there is some element of doubt about it).  Of course, to do that, you actually need to know what the other units in your District are up to, both their section programme in general (can you chat comfortably about Roundabouts, or Adventures, or Challenge Badges or Octants - or do you need to do your homework?), and also specifically about what the units in your locality have done at meetings in the last month or two – so could you talk of the Brownie sponsored walk for charity, the Guide international camp, the Senior Section car maintenance session, the Leaders training day . . . or might you need a slot at each District meeting for unit updates, so everyone has up-to-date stories about the next section to share?  And as they approach 7, or 10, or 14 – there should be communication with the girl and her folks, to advise on what units there are in the area, what the process for moving up is, and to discuss timing - when the girl wishes to move up, and how it will be arranged, so everyone knows what will happen and is comfortable with the plan.

 

The next thing is in-unit retention.  Is your unit’s programme varied enough, that at each meeting the girls do at least one thing they haven’t done there before?  Do they regularly do things that give them a sense of achievement?  Is each meeting in some way unpredictable, surprising, fun?  Or do the girls know fine well that the same things have happened every year or every third year since Eve was a lass, and will continue to do so for the next decade come what may?  As a movement, we need to keep moving, keep changing, keep evolving what we do.  That doesn’t mean throwing out all the old stuff merely for being old, but it does mean each activity we do, new or old, has to be regularly evaluated and ‘earn it’s keep’.  So, do the modern girls still find it fun?  Exciting?  Challenging?  Useful or educational?  Relevant?  ‘Because we’ve always done it’ is no reason to justify anything.  A girl will only choose Guiding over all the other clubs available locally if Guiding is at least as exciting (and hopefully more exciting) than the alternatives.  That’s what happened in the 1910s and 1920s when Guiding first grew, and is what happens still.  If the members reach 7, or 10, or 12, or 14, and feel they’ve ‘done it all’ - then deciding which hobbies to drop when the new club comes along is an easy choice.  So, how many of the girls who join your unit stick it for the duration?  Is it ‘most of them’ – or not?  And if not – why, and what are you doing to alter that?

 

Next up is challenge and progression.  Are the girls in the unit getting to do stuff and achieve things, and work out stuff for themselves, without adults always telling them what to do and how to do it (or worse still, doing it for them)?  And do the challenges continue to develop each year as their capabilities increase?  Do the Rainbows get to draw round templates and cut shapes out, do they get to make some genuine either/or choices, do they get to take some genuine responsibilities within the unit, do they get to go on outings, or on sleepovers, are they expected to clear up after themselves?  Do the Brownies get to do activities in their Sixes organised and led by their Sixer, do the Sixers get to run some of the unit activities each term, do the Brownies get to go on weekends, or even weeks away, do the Brownies get to do most things for themselves unaided?  How much time do the Guides spend outdoors in summer term, do they work in Patrols regularly, do the Patrol Leaders have worthwhile responsibilities and meaningful perks or status, are there Guides working on BP, Commonwealth, Camp Permit or Community Action badge, are there opportunities for experiences like Gang Show cast, International Selection or attending major camps or events, do the Patrols do everything unaided with only the occasional pebble being dropped by adults which is just sufficient to get them working out ideas or solutions for themselves?  Is there a Senior Section unit or a support group for local Young Leaders, how does it run and to what extent is that done by Senior Section members not adults, are there Senior Section events in your County, and do the girls know about them and whether transport is available for getting to them, are they encouraged to work on Commonwealth Award, DofE, Queen’s Guide, or YLQ/ALQ, and Chief Guide Award, do you highlight opportunities and options which are open to them, do they organise most of their meetings, is there support and flexible programming during exam time?  Or – is any of that lacking?

 

And the final thing to remember – Lones.  Although it’s assumed by many that Lone units are just for geographically isolated girls – that is only one of several functions.  They can also provide Guiding to those girls who cannot attend local units due to other commitments clashing with unit meetings.  And they can plug a gap for girls where local units are too full to accept more girls temporarily.  But – Lone units need Leaders too, and there are some Regions in the UK who do not have any Lone units, not for want of girls, but for want of Leaders.  It would be an ideal role for someone who couldn’t commit to weekly meetings but who had some free time to give to Guiding . . .

 

Bemoaning the loss of numbers from Guiding is waste of breath.  Waste of breath and energy we could be using to actually do something to solve the problem.  But - it needs every Leader to be actively working to plug the gaps in her patch, making sure her unit’s programme is so fresh, lively, and exciting that it retains the interest of almost all of the girls that join, and the girls are so keen on what they’ve heard of the next section that they’re equally well looking forward to their turn at moving on and being part of the adventures to come.  We are all part of one friendly Guiding family, and local units should all be supportive cousins, not rivals . . .

Guiding and Politics

Guiding has always been a strictly non party-political organisation. But, there is more to politics than just the politicians in parliaments or council chambers and their decisions and pronouncements.  Every issue under the sun is, in it’s own way, political.  Starting an educational charity for girls was political.  Encouraging girls to learn new skills and try new activities – was and is political.  So in that sense, Guiding has always done ‘small p’ politics, consciously or otherwise.

 

What we’ve long avoided, however, is the so-called “big-‘P’” politics.  Party politics, issues which the individual Political Parties find contentious, topics which are liable to be divisive amongst Girlguiding UK’s members, or amongst the public at large.  Or at least, we have avoided them until the past three or four years.  Sure, the Junior Council over several decades looked at a range of controversial topics from within Guiding – but that was mainly closed-doors stuff with limited publicity outside Guiding.  Whereas in the last few years strenuous efforts have been made to get such discussions publicised in the mass media.  Now, our 14-26-year-old members are receiving a seemingly constant stream of questionnaires, regularly seeking their opinions on one controversial topic after another, with the results then rapidly published in mass media, backed by press releases and TV appearances (strictly from those within that age group, natch).  The older adults who actually organise the questionnaires and coach those who will appear in the media - stay away from the cameras.

 

The first problem – is one of misrepresentation.  These surveys are invariably presented as what ‘Girlguiding UK’, as an organisation, thinks.  As in the whole organisation.  In spite of the fact that only a narrow age range within the membership of the organisation is ever given the opportunity to participate in the surveys, and only a small number of members within that age range receive the surveys, and an even smaller number yet within that group respond to them.  And - it assumes that all those who do choose to answer the surveys do so seriously, representing their own personal thoroughly considered and sincerely held beliefs and experiences, with no ‘joke’ responses, no influence from peers or others, and no ‘what I think I ought to say rather than what I actually think’ responses submitted.  Typically, there are fewer than 2000 responses in total, and often significantly fewer than that - making it hard to judge whether the views of this small number of responders are representative across the whole membership of the organisation from age 5 to 115 – or are just those of a small group within a very narrow age range.  It’s also not clear whether there is a representative spread of geography, age range, ethnic background, social background, disability or other relevant categorisation among those surveyed or those who respond - or not.  Maybe if the survey covered a wider span of the membership, the results would be much the same anyway, maybe they would be different, we just don’t know. And I fully accept that misleading headlines are potentially down to how media choose to publish the information which is provided rather than necessarily a lack of clarity on the part of the original author – nevertheless it isn’t made clear, and anyway it’s naïve to think the journalists will differentiate even if they are aware of the limited consultation - the headlines on Guiding’s own website don’t make it clear to the initiated who exactly was and wasn’t consulted, far less lay people who are understandably unaware of Guiding jargon.  Nevertheless, accidental or not, it’s still misrepresentation - anything published by “Girlguiding UK” should either be representative of the views of the majority of all the members of that organisation or a representative cross-section of it - or it should be made explicitly clear exactly which parts of the membership it is representative of, and which it is not.  Otherwise, it just presents the critics with a stick to beat us with which can discredit the whole thing and put all the work to waste.

 

The second problem – is the want of a ‘devil’s advocate’ in the drafting of these questionnaires, and especially in drafting the related press releases when the results are launched.  The authors are so keen to present every possible positive argument they can muster to support their findings, that they are not in the least selective about which ones are good arguments to field which will strongly support the message - and which arguments are weak and better avoided as having too much potential to backfire and damage the message.  As a result, instead of one clear, straightforward and easily-defended point being made by a report and a press release backed up by one or two clear and easily-defended arguments, which the press can easily tweak and publish with little effort - the potentially powerful key supporting points are diminished by the weaknesses in the umpteen other points fielded to try and back up, weaknesses which are all too easy for any competent journalist or critic to discredit or counter without a second’s pause.  To take a recent example, what they wanted to say was that girls should be free to wear the clothes of their choice, and even if those choices happen to be comparatively revealing garments, such clothing choices are no excuse for the girls receiving unwanted attention, particularly sexually-related attention.  It remains a current issue certainly, it’s a point many of us could easily agree with and happily support - and it’s one which is already the focus of well-known and respected campaigns such as “Everyday Sexism”.  But – they didn’t stick to that one clear point, and that main readily-defendable argument in it’s favour.  No, in their rush to try and back up with every available argument regardless of the strength, they foolishly raised the almost-impossible-to-defend issue of school uniform rules.  Now as we know, most schools in the UK have a clear and strict dress code, and take active steps to ensure that all their pupils conform to that code up to and including suspension from class.  And we also know that most schools have strong parental and local authority support for this.  So the examples that were fielded - ‘it should be okay to wear coloured bras under white shirts even if in specific breach of my school’s uniform code’, or ‘it should be okay to wear skirts just as short as the individual might wish as school uniform even if in specific breach of school uniform code’ – were the very arguments which were least likely to be supported by parents and the public at large, who would be far more likely to support the school’s position than the child’s in such cases.  By getting sidetracked into the dead-end of school uniform rules, instead of focussing on the strongest arguments only, the point about clothing and sexism was weakened, possibly fatally.  They simply became perceived as a bunch of school uniform rebels.

 

The third problem I perceive – and possibly the largest of all – is that as a charity we only have a limited number of headquarters staff to spread around all the work which our headquarters ideally has to do in order to run a proactive UK-wide viable educational charity for girls based on the principles which are set forth in it’s constitution, and play it’s part in the World Association as the founder member.  And only a certain amount of funding available for all the work that is to be done too, hence the comparatively poor salaries paid to it’s staff considering their responsibilities and the office’s central London location.  As we know, staff who are focussed on political campaigning cannot also be focussed on fundraising for the organisation and managing it’s financial resources.  Or on managing it’s training centres and developing the training facilities for Trainers and unit Leaders.  Or on supporting Guiding in the further flung parts of the UK and world that it has responsibility for – Branch Associations, BGIFC, Lones, remote communities in the UK – as well as supporting Guiding abroad.  Or on the work we might ideally do as founding members of WAGGGS and hosts to both the World Bureau and a World Centre.  Or on working to modernise and develop the programme for each section in light of advances in educational theory, in order to ensure each section’s programme is as effective as possible (for the youth sections and the Adult Leadership section alike) in the modern era and in the future.  Or on tracking new developments in policy which affect Guiding – both UK government developments and legal changes, and those which affect the law in the differing devolved UK countries – to ensure Guiding continues to comply with legal requirements and the individual Leaders and Commissioners are kept up to date with what they need to do in order to comply with the law, and take advantage of new initiatives and opportunities arising.  Or on working to look after Guiding’s heritage and history for current and future generations, maintaining holdings and acquiring new material, and developing ways in which it can be utilised as an educational resource for it’s members and the public at large.  Or on working to create new resources for Leaders on the range of key topics for which the Leaders are constantly asking.  Or on working to cater for the needs of those whose first language is not English, and for those who need resources in other formats than printed books in English.   Or on working to plan, organise and run UK-wide Guiding events.  Hence, both they and we have to ask the big question.  What, amongst all of this potential work for headquarters to do, should the priorities of our headquarters staff be?  Which of these activities should they fully focus their energies upon?  Which should they devote a lesser part of their time on?  Which should get only a limited amount of attention and effort?  Which should get very little attention?  Which should get none at all?  We won’t all agree on the priorities and their relative importance – but given that everything can’t be top priority, given that all these things need to be done to some extent and we can’t afford enough staff to do it all from the current budgets - might some of us might consider that political campaigning might not deserve it’s current status as the number 1 priority – perhaps might not be one of the major priorities – perhaps not be a priority at all?