Getting a Great Start

Fall (winter) is in the air, everyone is settling into their school year routines, and Guiding groups are having their first few meetings of the "new" year. Whether you are a new Guider, new to your Unit, or are returning to familiar faces and places, the first few meetings of the fall are an opportunity to set the tone for the rest of your year. Good communication and collaboration between girls and Guiders in these weeks will set you up for a great year!

Here are my top three tips for getting started:

1) Establish clear boundaries and "rules" for behaviour together.

• Review the Girl Guides of Canada Code of Conduct
• Remind everyone that the rules apply to adults as well as girls, and we want to make sure that everyone feels safe and respected when we are together.
• Create a personalized version of the Code of Conduct that works for your group, using words and ideas meaningful to your girls and leaders.
• Use your personalized Code of Conduct to guide the development of specific rules if necessary.
• Keep the wording of any rules or conduct statements positive.

2) Create a familiar structure for your meetings.

• Develop a loose agenda that incorporates elements you want to do every week.
• Include a mixture of self-guided/small group activities and high-energy or large group items.
• A commonly used structure for many groups is gathering activity, patrol/circle time, group opening, high energy activity (games), group program activity, transitional activity (songs or self-guided activities such as puzzles), closing.
• Adjust the structure to suit the age and preferences of your girls and leaders. For many years, my Guide Unit used the girls' patrol time as our "gathering activity". The girls chose and planned their own activities for the start of meetings and would work on them for 20-30 minutes each week while the Guiders circulated between their groups and set up for our group program activities. This structure worked well for us, but might not be right for younger girls or even other Guide Units. I will probably be writing more about this method of structuring Guide meetings in future posts, so stay tuned!

3) Plan together for long and short-range goals.

• Engage your girls in age-appropriate planning activities, but keep the planning sessions short. The start of the year is the perfect time to look for general input about their likes and dislikes. Use this input to develop a long-range plan for your year. For example, if "sleepovers" are high on the list of things the girls love, pick a month when you will have one. If your leaders are up for it, pick one month in the first half of the year, and one in the second!
• Use your long-range plan to decide when additional planning sessions will be necessary.
• Plan for special events in a separate session for each event. Don't try to combine event planning and meeting planning in one session.
• Plan for multiple meetings in one session (a month or several months at a time).
• Increase the level of detail in your plans for things that are coming up sooner. A detailed plan should clearly identify all the specific elements that are required to make an activity successful. Examples include who is responsible for each part of the activity, what materials are required, and any advance preparation required.
• Regularly review your medium and long-range plans to make sure you are staying on track with respect to your goals. 
• Provide opportunities for the girls to give feedback after individual activities, and on their overall experience at several times throughout the year.

For more information and ideas on establishing good communication and teamwork within your Unit, sign up for a Girl Guides of Canada TEAM session on "Building Unit Guider Skills". In future posts, be sharing instructions for some specific activities I have used in my own Units in the past.

Do you have a great "Getting Started" tip for other Guiders?
Or a request for ideas or activities on this or any other topic?
Post a comment below!