Girls brigade, brownies etc post covid

3 things I've noticed -

1 - Numbers do seem to be down on a lot of things...I think people have remembered how pleasant not dashing about like blue-bottomed flies feels like and things have been rationalised a bit.

2 - At the same time, there are also lots of clubs and things available as well and you can only attend one at a time so perhaps more choices mean fewer faces.

3 - Cost of living is also hitting a lot of people/families so not all activities are being done either.

I think things go in waves so the quiet stuff just now will get a bit busier again at some point then level off and either reduce or have another intake.

All my own observations and suspect it won't be the same for everyone else..

Half the problem is it's seen as cheap child care. It's rare that parents want to help out with the packs and therefore ratios take a hit. Lack of young leaders coming through to help out is also a problem. My wifes been a leader for over 20 years now and there's been a decline in parents willing to help or get involved. A pack can only be run with volunteers.

There can be a cross over depending on kids moving up to guides, or if none are moving up from Rainbows. Also bear in mind that this may have been the first week back from summer holidays so numbers may increase over the next few weeks.

If there's a poor leadership group this can have a knock on effect if the kids aren't engaged, also new badgework is extremely involved and organising isn't just a couple of hours a week, there's a lot of work behind the scenes particularly for volunteers.

Kids got out of the habit of clubs during Covid, and sports clubs in particular, and stopped coming through the system.

That said - local scouts and brownies in Stirling are over-subscribed and MrsSC now leads a new Scouts group.
There's always been a shuffling around of numbers but lack of volunteers is a real problem.

Eldest went to Rainbows/Brownies pre-Covid but hasn't returned. Too many other clubs/activities she's more interested in. Probably not helped by her other activities continuing in some form throughout Covid, or restarting far sooner than the Brownies: even dance classes managed via Zoom, but there was nothing - not even any communication - from our local Brownies group. Just a total lack of engagement, I'm trying not to be too critical as they're all volunteers at the end of the day

Half the problem is it’s seen as cheap child care.

^ Very much this. Mrs a11y and me are both volunteers with local clubs: MTBing for me, swimming for her, and somehow got roped into officiating/timekeeping with the swimming club too (all in my "whites"...). Our view is clubs won't exist for our kids if folk don't volunteer, so we'll do what we can within reason. Definitely in the minority though - many parents bugger off as soon as they can at sessions.

Same thoughts from me as @a11y and it is being seen a lot more as well - kids dropped off as the parents are wheelspinning out the car park! (slight exaggeration but it isn't far off in some cases)

Ooooh, that all sounds a bit worrying. Fingers crossed it improves, and at the end of the day my kids are getting fun currently so I'm happy, but know they could do much more with a bigger pack so fingers crossed it grows.

I went to the Boys Brigade for a few years as a yoof. Thursday evenings were Ok, an evening spent running about and often a tuck shop. I distinctly remember one function however when we were sat in the church. The Minister was reading from the bible in one hand and had a sword in the other. I left pretty shortly after...

@neilnevill - they might be looking for some extra helpers, is it something you can do to help? Depends what else you have on whilst they are in the clubs, but I'm sure the packs would appreciate the offer of an extra pair of hands if it was something you could assist with.

Indeed, my wife and I just went in a place we can commit to anything at the moment though, various things life is throwing at us. were things different I'd try helping.

Our daughter has just moved from Cubs to Scouts, they lost a few cubs over lockdowns when they didn't like the Zoom meetings as and haven't returned. Lack of leaders has always been an issue, quite a few left during Covid as well.

Both me and my wife were scout / explores leaders for 10 years but the behaviour did it for both of us, I had much less tolerance of other's badly behaved kids once we had one of our own!

My wife and I are running a family camp for the scout group this weekend, the ruse being parents need a DBS check. Once they're cleared they become eligible to come and help run evenings, perhaps even becoming a leader 😉

Understood and it is similar for many people, but I thought I'd ask just in case you hadn't considered it yourself.

I enjoyed the 'relaxed' time during the pandemic, but it convinced me that for my own things, I'm just an anti-social person so was quite happy being out there on my own. Once the things could restart I was straight back in to getting some club rides sorted and back to coaching as I enjoy both, but I have noticed how busy I was before the pandemic - several things (all bike-related - trailbuilding, organising club rides, organising social rides and coaching) as well as taxiing for a teenager - suddenly things got very busy again!

Sorry awful typing on the phone! I meant to say, wife and I just aren't in a place where we can commit to things currently. I think your managed to get the gist, despite the awful typing!

Wife's original Guide unit dipped after Covid toothed point of being almost wound up. Numbers now recovered.

She's just set up a second Guide unit closer to home - only 4-5 the first week but Brownies moving upstairs Christmas will bolster it.

I'm involved with Scouts - nationally and at District level numbers fell by a third after Covid but recovering now.

Biggest issue is leaders that have been lost, many having done many years saw Vovid as the time to take a well earned step back. Not just unit leaders, but background committee roles. I wouldn't want to be a unit leader, but sit on 4 group and District committees,

Anyone interested in supporting any youth organisations with experience in finance, management, estates, IT/website, ease contact your local youth/sports club and see if they could use your ability.

My wife and I are running a family camp for the scout group this weekend, the ruse being parents need a DBS check. Once they’re cleared they become eligible to come and help run evenings, perhaps even becoming a leader 😉

A familiar tale when new leaders come up before my AAC committee 🤣

Boys Brigade here - we have gone from 100 boys a week to maybe 30.
I, and many others, have given up the volunteering.
Families seem less committed and less interested than before.

And we too are feeling the OTT rules about officers and PVG/DBS checks. We have head office asking that every granny on coffee morning has a PVG/DBS....and every single time we meet boys that there are two of us, and one is an officer not just a PVG/DBS volunteer. So we just doubled the number of volunteers needed to give up a weekend for DofE. And yet head office are happy for me to sleep in a room directly connected with the boys bedroom at their outdoor centre...

I have volunteered for 9 years - and won't be next year. I have done my turn - both some other parents need to help, and someone at head office needs to know the ridiculousness of some of the 'rules'.

Our local beavers/cubs/scouts are over-subscribed with long waiting lists, getting and retaining sufficient leaders is the big problem. It was looking like both the beaver colony and the scout troop my respective kids go to would have to close as there simply wasn't enough adults.

Last night was my first session as a beaver colony assistant.

My sons Beaver group continued through Covid with zoom meetings every week and it was great for him as it gave him some interaction other than his Mum and I during Covid. I was really impressed the leaders kept it going this way as it was such hard work trying to run it on Zoom.

We got more involved in helping him and ended up doing lots of badges with him in our spare time/weekend sending whatsapp messages with videos of him doing stuff and he ended up getting every single beaver activity badge.

He got invested at Cubs last night and they gave him a book of all the cub badges so we will start work on those as well.

The group is really well run, they have lots of leaders and plenty of kids attending. They have just started a squirrel colony as well (4-6 years old). I appreciate how lucky we are and how much he enjoys it.

Involved in Bristol scouting and all our groups local are oversubscribed, with lack of leaders (not just parents helping occasionally) being the limiting factor on provision.

Aha! I'd forgotten beavers, that's cubs/scouts but younger and mixed isn't it... And yes it seems the scout hut a couple of streets away has a beaver group(pack ? Colony? ) We shall try they also.

Our experience is that Brownies / Guides does seem to have been more cautious in their return to normality, whereas cubs and scouts seem to have been a bit less so. Whether that's a national or locally defined ruling I don't know, but last night was the first time at Guides that we were allowed in the room to collect out children.

We had been told that our daughter would end up on a waiting list for both Guides and Scouts, but she's going straight in. Both troops seem busy enough but no waiting list.

I’d forgotten beavers, that’s cubs/scouts but younger and mixed isn’t it

6-8 years old and mixed. But cubs and scouts are mixed too.

We're not post Covid. It's still out there and people are still testing positive.

Ours beavers/cubs/scouts/explorers are pretty much full.

We lost a few scouts over covid, but have been building up since we started back in earnest last year. Both our groups troops have c20-25 scouts and we’ve had a few join who hadn’t been cubs.
The cub packs stayed fairly constant, any that left were replaced by ones on the waiting list as they were over subscribed.
Our beavers are over subscribed too as we only have one colony so any that dropped out made way for those waiting.
We’ve also had a few new leaders join up too.

Brownies / Guides does seem to have been more cautious in their return to normality

Think their default setting is cautious. They’ve only recently allowed girls to do Tomahawk throwing as an activity.

Think their default setting is cautious. They’ve only recently allowed girls to do Tomahawk throwing as an activity.

Big issue for any girls wanting more adventurous stuff, and why many go to Scouting I suspect.

In the early days of Guiding there was an aircraft mechanics badge ffs, Guides helped with humanitarian work in Europe after WW2 (if you get to chat to any of the few still remaining, they are incredible ladies) but culturally it seemed to go all jolly hockey sticks after that.

MrsSteve has led combined County Scout and Guide trips abroad and the risk assessments have to be lowered to the Guiding level, which socks. Seems to be a legacy of older ladies at all levels of Guiding with no experience or desire to offer more exciting activities, slowly being edged out by younger more adventurous souls.

Waves @CSB from 26th Scouts!
It’s a well run and well attended.
Just started a third scout troop.
Tricky thing is gaps in age groups and lack of experience in the ranks of kids. Nothing that won’t sort itself out in the end though.
Always a struggle finding leaders in Cubs and beavers. Mrsdts and I having both done a fair bit.
I’m lucky, my sister and her partner are both Scout leaders, so the last thing they want is me getting involved! Happy to help in any other way though.

Big issue for any girls wanting more adventurous stuff, and why many go to Scouting I suspect.

We recruited a few from a village fair that we had a tomahawk range at. When they found out that guides didn’t run that activity they transferred.

Both our troops are c50/50 split- on summer camp at Dorset this year we went to Bovington Museum. The girls were just as engaged with it as the boys.

Our Scouts went from 18-20 ish before covid, down to 3 (or 4, now - a new one turned up this week).

We had an informal meeting just over a year ago with our "new exec" chair and treasurer... and have heard exactly zero from them since. Area is not much better.

We didn't run anything over the lockdowns - where some people had a relaxing time on furlough, the other leader and my jobs went into hyperdrive - I barely spent any time awake with my family for the first 3 or 4 months. So that won't have helped, but certainly doesn't explain all of it.

My wife works in the third sector, and she says there are reports left right and centre of community groups folding post-covid, as members and organisers have (presumably) found other ways to spend their time.

Keep pushing the word-of-mouth, please, folks about your local groups - it's usually the best way to keep them going 🙂

Back to normal with good numbers in most groups here for Girl Guiding. Mrsmidlfe runs a Brownie unit and is district commissioner too. Says numbers decent across the age ranges, packed in some. Also notes the younger ones coming in to Brownies and Rainbows seem less able and social than pre C cohorts, the missed school time quite noticeable.

*#£&!!!! Somewhat deflated/frustrated. Beaver group that's under 5 mins walk away is full, won't put my daughter on the waiting list, only putting under 6 yo on the wait list, and refuse to put her on the wait list for cubs as all places are reserved for the Beavers. So if you're not on the list before 6yo you aren't joining that scout group. That feels a bit weird tbh but I've stuck my 5yo down on the list.
I'll investigate the next nearest but family circumstances would make it tough to get her to.
*&+£#&, I feel a bad parent now, she's missed out on other stuff (not our fault) and now I've been slow she doesn't even get to try our local scout group, which looks pretty good. Sometimes I think I'm doing ok at parenting, and then sometimes I don't.

Offer to help, see if they can get another pack/colony started?
Edit, it’s not as scary as it first seems and us very rewarding. Beavers easier than Cubs btw.

Cub leader here

Numbers still up but we ran a full zoom programme thru covid

The waiting list in our district is over 100kids

The reason is that there just aren't enough leaders volunteering

And since austerity effectively ended council run youth clubs there's little else, for £2.50 a night scouting offers fantastic vfm for your kids

It's hard work, but it's only a few hours a week and it is fun & rewarding @neilnevil volunteer as a leader and you should be able to get your kids to jump the queue

As above, we are shameless in our favouritism to new members whose parents are willing to step up. Have to be for survival!

It's the sort of thing I'd love to do.... And introduce kids to some of the things I've loved, rock climbing, cycling, hiking, camping, football, science, engineering...I think I could offer a good few fun things and enjoy it. As said though, currently family circumstances are tough so my horizons, my focus, is necessarily short.

That's the odd thing, from this scout group's website is clear they are very short on leaders/volunteers of all kinds so my assumption would be were they to get another volunteer or two they could/would expand the pack.... But they refuse to run a wait list, I dunno, I'm probably just tired and grumpy but my spidey-sense says I'm not getting the whole picture.

And I'd expected to see open nepotism and pleas for assistance in the emails I got, why not, win win for all if it gets another volunteer. No. Nothing, nada. It felt like.,.
[Insert shutters being closed gif here]

Again, also shameless nepotism in our groups 🤣

Also notes the younger ones coming in to Brownies and Rainbows seem less able and social than pre C cohorts, the missed school time quite noticeable.

Seems to be a big issue in the Cub/Scout transition, current Year 8/9 pupils missed a lot of things like Year 6 residential trips and stepping up to Scout camps and have lost that experience and maturity. Current Year 7s reportedly not as bad.

My lad who has gone through Beavers to adult section assistant is pretty horrified by some of the Scouts he has to deal with, he can't wait to go back to uni

Ooo, messaged this morning to say they will put both girls on the waiting list after all.

Yes it's socialising we went for them.

Big issue for any girls wanting more adventurous stuff, and why many go to Scouting I suspect.

Scout leader here, very popular group with waiting lists at every level (I think it helps that we're in a fairly 'outdoorsy' place, so parents want to get there children into that kind of stuff). I've heard a lot of our girls saying that they came from Brownies/Guides as 'all they ever did was crafts and colouring in'.

Oh, and if anyone's interested in becoming a Scout leader in Disley, let me know.

I'm a Beaver leader, and help with the cubs too (child in each)
Beavers and Cubs are full, and scouts gained 10 new young people after the summer holiday (I think another troop folded).
As has been said up there ^^^ its the lack of regular volunteers/parents treating it like child care. We have 2 leaders and a young leader for Beavers, 2 and a young leader for cubs, and 1 leader for Scouts. Our GSL helps with cubs and Scouts but shouldn't as she is a GSL!
We have a few parents who will help as much as they can, others are more interested in going to the gym instead of the summer camp meeting arranged even though they are the main person with concerns (the place we went had an incident a few months ago investigated by the HSE)

Scout leader here too. We're pretty much full, but always willing to accommodate more.

Our sections from Beavers through to Explorers have healthy numbers, but other in the district have folded. It is down to 3 things IMHO.

1) Keeping it going through COVID via Zoom and distance based outdoor activities when we could.
2) Having a varied and active program. Our best recruiters are the kids. They bring their mates along.
3) Plenty of Leaders who are enthusiastic and want to be there. We have a couple of parents who occasionally muck in too.

I left Cubs because I really didn't get on with the Leader. However, it was his section that he started from scratch and rocking the boat would have been disruptive to the Pack and unfair on him. So, I moved to Scouts where the leadership team is a much better fit for what I want to get out of it and my personality.

Engaged Leaders are the key. If you lose your Leaders you will lose your kids and then it will fold.

Well it's always worth going on a wait list, even it seems when first you're told there isn't one. My eldest, just 7, has now been offered a 3 week trial at the local beavers pack, yay. They look great on the website, they have their own hut and look to be well equipped and active and best of all for me and my wife, the hut is a 5-7 minute walk away from home. Fingers crossed she enjoys it! If she doesn't, fine, we will carry on with brownies as she's enjoyed that so far, but that's 20+ mins walk away, not their own space, and seems to be struggling with only 6-8 brownies and this week was cancelled due to a leader being ill/lack of leaders. Could possibly do both but with girls brigade as well which we will definitely keep as is at the end of the street and both her and our younger daughter really enjoy, the week could be too full!

We've had quite a few defectors into Cubs/Scouts from Brownies and Guides.

In Cubs/Scouts we set fire to stuff and do axe throwing*. This usually clinches the deal.

*All in a very safe manner I hasten to add.

We've got two teams taking part in this over the weekend.

Making Memories! etc...

Thought I'd update this. Both my girls are still loving girls and boys brigade and go every week. They seem to have a couple of new members but numbers are still the same at 10-12 most weeks. Enough to have fun but I'm still hoping a few more join up.

Eldest seems to generally enjoy brownies bar a couple of times. That group has had one new member but still never seems to get more than 6 or 7 girls. It's odd they are struggling so much, the guides are next door at the same time and have decent numbers. My eldest has chosen not to go last couple of weeks, I'm unsure if she's decided it's not for her or not.
Beavers is brilliant! I'm so glad I pursued getting her in that lodge as it's fabulous and came at a time where she changed schools and with 4 other turquoise ninjas at her new school and in her class it definitely helped her settle. She's really enjoying the activities and now has several awards badges best of all, last night she went on a sleep over at the hut, I collected her this morning and was met by a beaming smile 😁. So will be confirming she's not changed her mind later and booking her place at group camp. I'm as excited for her!

Boys Brigade volunteer here. I don't do week to week, just the outdoory stuff where it's useful to have ML, DofE, biking tickets and experience. I also end up driving the minibus to all sorts of things

We're greatly down on numbers. We're struggling with all sorts of behaviour and lack of social awareness/norms.

A lot of the drop off I would suggest was some of the 'free childcare in Friday night' group.

A few of the lads with bigger challenges in life have parents determined that they stay in bb's and school. While I welcome that, it's posing some behaviour issues that some of the volunteers have had enough of.

As a volunteer locally, I'm very welcome and appreciated and it's shown by boys, parents and the local leadership. On a national front, like so many other youth organisations, I'm seeing a lot of extra training for safeguarding and leading outdoor/adventurous activities. I'm being asked to sit a 2-day introduction to outdoors, including navigation etc, despite a decade of BB volunteering and 30 years of leading such activities at work, and holding a lot of outdoor tickets the course leaders don't even hold... I know from other friends that scouts has similar robust to excessive training and sign off.

I thought I'd give a little update and a big thank you to all the volunteers running clubs. 7 months on and:

Girls brigade: both my 5 and 7 yo still go every Friday and love it. The ladies are lovely and just make it fun for all the kids. Mostly the faces are the same every week. Numbers wise I think they are up slightly but no more than 14-15 kids guess. Tbh I think the ladies running it like that, it works for them and they aren't pushing for more. Fine, our 2 love it and it's 2 minutes from our door.

Brownies: the eldest was enjoying it but the numbers remained a problem with my daughter being one of only 2 or 3 some weeks. She started to find that frustrating as it prevented them doing some stuff and she started to go less regularly. My wife and I understood why she was less keen and with it being a bit less conveniently located we didn't push. Then she's needed to do some booster school work on the same night and that made it too much. Dropped but not missed, although grateful that it got her out meeting others when she needed it.
The 5 yo has just started rainbows at a different pack. She loves it, mainly as her 3besties from school also joined. It's limited to 14 girls and they seem to be doing fun but simple games so I suspect her interest may drop. Tbh, I hope it does as its the same night as beavers, one ending at the same time the other starts, with a 7 min walk/sprint between them. So far that is OK as I can wfh that day and between my wife and I we can collect the 5yo and deposit the 7 yo, even if that means the 2yo gets taken out at the sort of time he is getting tired. The problem comes in June when, at 5¾ daughter 2 can take a place with beavers.
Beavers: this is fantastic and I'm so grateful my daughter got a spot and immensely grateful to the leaders. Its now my eldest's favourite club. Her confidence has grown over the time since I started this thread and I'm sure beavers is part of that. As one of, or perhaps the, eldest in the lodge now she has just been made red Lodge leader, and smiles each week as we walk home and she tells how she has kept the 'fidgets' in her lodge in line that night! When going she now wants to be left to walk the last 200m on her own (not a chance!), she loved a sleep over at the hut and is now bouncing with excitement about group camp at the end of May. Any other Croydon scout groups off to that, look out for the 61st, and the turquoise terrors from red lodge 😀
They have a full group, 24 I think, but surprisingly no one waiting to join besides my 5yo. Last half term a few moves to cubs created spaces and we were all asked to put the word out. The places were soon filled though and a couple of the new kids are in my 5yo's class. So I'm hoping that she gives it a good try and likes it as much as her big sis, and the early collection from rainbows and dash around the corner can end with her dropping rainbows. However with her besties in rainbows I suspect that dash may continue a while. Fair enough.

Anyway, we are really glad all these clubs exist and are very grateful to the volunteers that run them. I'm also very grateful the beavers group is so good, and so close by! Fingers crossed camp goes well.

When going she now wants to be left to walk the last 200m on her own (not a chance!)

Out of interest, what worries you about her walking that?

No chance of my wife agreeing. Yet. Tbf, we both know she'd get there safely but just on the slim chance of :
A. It's been cancelled late or beaver leaders are late my wife and I want to know she's in safe. Or (and related)
B. If the hut door is still shut it's common for the gathering beavers to start running about playing tag. The space by the hut seems to be one of those surfaces that can be a bit greasy and it's common for 2 minutes of tag to end with a beaver on the floor with gravel rash. If that beaver is mine (again) it's my responsibility to dust her down, tell her she'll be fine and dry any tears. I know the leaders there will do it and stick a plaster on, but if I at least am there to calm her down until ready to go get a plaster then it should disrupt less of the hour for everyone

I'll admit there's also some of she's our eldest and we've got to learn what space is reasonable.... but all the other beavers are delivered to the door still so ... maybe when the uniform changes to forest green we will let her walk ahead!

Oh and you aren't from Croydon are you poly? Se19 where we are is a nice bit, but as our local pcso told the residents association last week, Croydon is number 1 for knife crime and other stuff does go on. Only the same sort of distance from our front door but in the opposite direction, a young lad not much older was killed in a stabbing a few years ago. He wasn't a gang member, he was thought to have been mistaken for one. So although I will ensure my kids are not living in fear, I can understand my wife's concerns. We have also had a family member's life changed dramatically by being hit by a car in the last 18 months. So we are still working on road safety with our kids, and working on our own comfort in where and how we trust them.

Out of interest, what worries you about her walking that?

I'm not from Croydon but know the answer to that one and that's from someone who is lucky enough to live somewhere that we don't fret nearly as much as I might. The other issue is often "the rules" we live 200m from the Scout Hut
Until Scouts they couldn't leave without a parent. Something I'd have been doing from Cubs age.

As regards the Guides/Scouts type stuff generally I think the opening up of the Scout movement to not be gender restricted in any way has likely hit Guides hard alongside the fact that parents don't (I think) value those types of activities the same way they would have done in my youth so overall numbers are perhaps not as high as they were.

If I look at my son's group I'd say there's roughly a 50/50 boy/girl split and enough at each level that there are sub-troops at each level to spread activities across two nights. That, I suspect is where some of the Rainbows/Brownies/Guides have gone.

Our Scout group is maybe only 10% girls, we get odd little bubbles of 2-3 working their way up through the sections, then a year or two without any. Girls in a section really changes the dynamic, leaders often comment that you soon tell which boys have disters and which don't.

Not sure allowing girls into Scouts has been a problem for Guiding - it was originally only done because Scouts needed to fill up struggling groups, but has definitely been a positive thing for Scouts.

MrsMC is a Guide leader, and is firmly of the opinion that Guiding offers girls a safe, male free space they don't get anywhere else, which I kind of see.

Guiding's problem is that while they are big on empowering young women, they are more restrictive on activities and risk assessments, so many girls lose interest or move to Scouts. I suspect my daughter would have got more out of Scouting in the challenge sense than she has out of Guiding.

But the two different groups give girls a choice at least.

I hadn't really thought about the mix at beavers other than that it was good they come from at least 2 schools. 75% ish are from a school adjacent to the scout hut, and I think those beavers are almost all boys. The other 25% like my daughter come from another primary school and I've just realised they are nearly all girls. Think they are all girls currently.

Oh and you aren’t from Croydon are you poly? Se19 where we are is a nice bit, but as our local pcso told the residents association last week, Croydon is number 1 for knife crime and other stuff does go on.

sorry I forgot about this thread having asked a question, that probably came across as a bit trolly…

im not from Croydon, but I grew up in Glasgow in the 80s and fear of knife crime is not lost on me.  I’m not sure your local PCSO is actually helping the situation by stoking that fear (people are irrational - the statistic may be true but some people will respond to that by arming themselves!).   If I genuinely believed that my child’s life was at risk from walking 200 yds to a scout hall I’d be appraising if whatever else that kept me in Croydon was worth it.   I don’t believe society is more dangerous today than when we grew up, it’s just more publicised.  We risk mollycoddling our kids, and scouts (and some inherent danger there) is part of the antidote to that.  My attitude to  this stuff is slightly different (just like your wife) which is odd as she didn’t exactly grow up in a Royal Palace, although she never got threatened with knives, shot with air guns, or chased down the street with a baseball bat - all of which happened to me before I was 16 (but not at Cubs/Beavers age).

dropping off and picking up are slightly different things in my book, and perhaps dark v daylight. But I think your other concern about mucking about outside the hall is actually much more merited.  I recall standing outside the scout hall at pick up time (sometimes prompt, sometimes 10 mins late) chatting to some other parents and actually when the hall needed some DIY work done, or the kids needed taking somewhere parents knew each other to club together to get stuff done.

The question didn't seem like trolling and I hope the answers didn't. Sorry if they did.

The main difference between zone3 London now and 40+ years ago when I was that age is the traffic. I was allowed out in the street with a friend and no adult from 6+ iirc, but it was a quiet street. It's just not the same even though its pure suburbs and housing here we see more cars and a few idiots they must be approaching 3x the 20 limit. My wife is more cautious than I am but understandably as she nearly lost her mum to a road accident 18 months ago. Statistics don't help the unlucky individual.

Our troop has recently tipped to just over 50% girls- we were on camp this weekend & had 8 girls & 6 boys.

The question didn’t seem like trolling and I hope the answers didn’t. Sorry if they did.

Good - it wasn't meant to be.  I just remembered the thread and thought oops that perhaps came across as argumentative especially as I never came back - life got in the way.

I know there is anther thread about volunteering at clubs but....search is frankly **** and I absolutely must say this.

Holy Mary mother of God! In fact Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey! That was an eye opener! I volunteered to help at Beavers and do knots.... I'm going to have nightmares .....20 beavers all screaming, 'is this it? Have I done it?' While holding the biggest tightest not-a-reef-knot-granny-knot .... I need a beer!

I TAKE MY HAT OFF TO ALL WHO VOLUNTEER!

Well eldest is away at group camp ( beavers, cubs and scouts) at Frylands Wood. Just one night for her as a beaver. I took her down and did my bit for 3 hours erecting tents. Looked around and was surprised it looked 2/3rds girls at least. I counted 7 turquoise terrors of which 6 were girls. I don't know any of the cubs or scouts but numbers looked more girls then boys, another 29-30 across the cubs and scouts in total I think.

I took her down and did my bit for 3 hours erecting tents.

You have no idea how grateful the leaders will be for that! Hope she has a great time.

Mrs SC is running a scout camp this weekend.

Last weekend she was in London at a World Jamboree Camp. Single-occupancy car use is not enough to destroy the planet so she flew down.
Sunday: got back at 11pm
Tuesday: online AGM
Wednesday: local scouts (leader)
Thursday: prep so had to miss her best friend's birthday
Friday: another local scouts (assistant leader) plus camp shopping
Saturday morning - off to scout camp.

She's been to scouts this week more often than she's walked the dog (once).

Wife: we should have a family dinner on Sunday.
Me: we had one last week but you weren't here.

Just saying.

I have an idea morecash. 37 scouts across beavers, cubs and scouts, 21 minute drive from the scout hut so not far. Me and iirc 3 dad's, and about the same number of mums stayed to help get them set up.... although I looked round after about hour 45, and it may have been just me still there. I left with a couple of tents to go still I think but I reckon they could manage from there.

I suspect my daughter it's having a great time and not missing us.... but kind of feel sad at the same time if that's the case.