As usual it was a case of the leaders in the room had done the e-learning, read Guiding, bought the resources, booked onto County Day and knew what they are doing. It was a case of they wanted to shoot the message bearer in a nice way!
I was working to a combined programme overview & programme planning training plan which I whipped through as they had obviously done their homework. Leaving them time at the end to check out the full range of UMA's & Skills Builders & some sample badges. The words l heard a lot of were "like school" and "assessing the girl to the right stage" and of course comparison with Scouts. We debated the photocopy question and I put the official line, but I heard their wishes loud and clear. There is mixed feeling about the cost of the badge books, and I talked about the national & county hardship grants and other ways to fund the resources. One Leader was very concerned that the "Becoming a brownie" book with the brownie story is going after the transition year! There was also concern raised for those leaders who are not IT literate and we talked about other sources of support.
I had to draw on all the Being our Best research that I didn't have with me, to justify why the change, and quote the figures that the new programme has been tried and tested; and not just thought up by CHQ staff. I think maybe this element has been missed from the training plans, and wish I had time before tomorrow's training to dig up some old trainings for the content as I suspect I'm going to get the same or similar reception tomorrow.
One interesting aspect was from a Trefoil Guild member (thought they were going to get some training on the new programme?) who does a lot of work with units on guiding history and felt the UMA was going to make her contribution unnecessary as the UMA card covered it all!
It's a really hard test putting the official GG line when you agree with some of the things being said but as Trainers we have to!
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