2nd Pittville (Salem) Rainbows – a new Saturday Rainbows- started on 1 November, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. The meeting place is near the Town Centre and close to Tesco’s and Waitrose. It meets from 10-11.30 am on 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month.
As Gloucestershire’s Growing Guiding Coordinator, I had attended South West Region’s Growing Guiding Conference in November 2013 and was motivated by a case study from a county that had opened a joint Rainbow/Brownie unit on a Saturday (not meeting every week).
Cheltenham Division is Gloucestershire’s largest division and has a large Rainbow waiting-to-join list. Even though, we had recently opened a new Rainbow unit, we still needed to do more and needed more leaders.
So I proposed that we piloted a Saturday Rainbow unit. I approached a Rainbow leader who was no longer guiding and persuaded her to open the unit with me.
Rather than publicise the new unit, we wanted to offer places to girls in Cheltenham who had already decided to join the movement but did not yet have a place. We targeted the 67 Rainbow-age girls (aged 5 and 6), who were on Cheltenham’s assigned, contacted and waiting-to-join lists i.e. girls who had already made a choice to join Rainbows but might not have got an opportunity before they were Brownie age.
So in September 2014, I wrote to each of these 67 girls’ parents offering them the opportunity to start Rainbows straightaway. Some girls took up the offer; some wanted to stay on the waiting list where they were; some already had commitments on Saturday morning e.g. swimming or dancing
The new unit has been a success on 2 fronts:
Firstly, and most importantly, it’s taken girls off Cheltenham’s waiting list and given them the opportunity to experience Guiding. The girls are from all over Cheltenham and from 6 different primary schools - they did not know each other beforehand and are getting on all really well together.
Secondly, it’s offering an opportunity for experienced leaders to continue/return to Guiding when they can’t manage regular mid week commitments. The new leadership team demonstrates a flexible use of experienced Rainbow leaders:
· A Cheltenham ex Rainbow leader has volunteered to lead - she gave up leading her Tuesday unit a few years ago as she could no longer get to her mid week meeting because of a change in her work commitments;
· A student at University of Gloucestershire who has her ALQ – Rainbow Leader- and a Saturday suits her better than midweek;
· A junior doctor at the local hospital has just moved to Cheltenham from Newcastle– a Rainbow leader- who can’t commit to weekly mid week meetings but is happy to do Saturdays twice a month.
Administration
We charge the same subs as the weekly Tuesday Rainbows meeting at the same location. Although we only meet twice a month, our sessions are longer than the weekly meetings and we do cover the full programme.
We have issued a rolling yearly calendar to the Rainbows and their parents listing all the meeting dates for a whole year and update it termly.
As we don’t (yet?) have Saturday Brownies, we have placed the Rainbows on waiting-to-transfer lists on GO for Brownie units near where they live, ready for when they are 7.
Karen McFarlane
Growing Guiding Coordinator, Girlguiding Gloucestershire
8 February 2015