June 8, 2012
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So where was I?
Oh yes. On Brownie camp. Or preparing for Brownie camp. Or recovering from Brownie camp.
I’m still recovering from Brownie camp. And I’ve rather stupidly agreed to be Div Comissioner for the next 3, or is it 5 years? Heck. I dunno. The last two haven’t stayed the full course, I’ve been Guiding 9 years, so I think it’s 5 years. Drat. It’s OK. I’ve already been given a thorough telling off by my father about it all.
Brownie camp was damp, noisy, trying, and occasionally rewarding. But I do wish parents would send their children with wellie boots that don’t require a ten minute wrestling session to apply because the dratted things are too small. I am glad that almost all arrived with waterproofs (which may, or may not, have actually been on the list). And I’m pleased that one parent has actually managed to put a thank you into writing, because, I can tell you, the verbal thanks that were given at the train station didn’t make it to me until I had an entire meltdown on twitter and threw several items round the kitchen and expended a LOT of energy on some extremely vigorous tidying up approximately 24 hours later when I realised that not one single parent had thanked me. And you know, as a volunteer, being thanked is a Pretty Enormous Deal. Because, frankly, that’s the only reward we actually get.
N’s on his way over. He forgot the tickets for the theatre tomorrow, and had to go home to get them. Faced with an evening in on my own, I got all excited at the prospect of downtime – there’s been Too Many People this week, and now I can’t wait for him to get here, because I’m not liking this being on my tod malarkey. Contrary? Me? Oh yes.
xxx
Comments (6)
And if ever you have your own daughter in the troop, you can add her whining “I don’t want to be here” to the ungrateful parents meltdown. You know, just in case you want to go nuclear. Glad you survived, and you will be a very good Div Commissioner. I think the U.S. equivalent is Service Unit Manager, and I never worked with one who was organized and on top of deadlines. You will be great and very much appreciated for those two qualities alone.
I think it’s wonderful that you’ll be Div Commissioner. Not only will you be excellent at it, but you’ve been writing with pleasure about Brownies so long that I feel confident that you’ll enjoy it.
Div Commissioner is better than Service Unit Manager, but I had it in my head (from reading British novels, the source of most of my highly inaccurate knowledge about the UK) that British Brownie leaders had much more picturesque names, like Brown Owl. Not so?
If you’re going to go into meltdown and throw things round the kitchen on the response (or lack of) of 18 sets of parents, are you sure the Div Comm role is right for you ? I suspect that it will be three years of meltdown – which wouldn’t really be that fun.
@Frogspawn21 - Round the kitchen being something of an exaggeration for dramatic writing effect. Most of it was cutlery in the sink, the rest was mop back into the sink tidy as every other adult in my flat (3 of them, mark you) seems to be incapable of that. Next time I’ll make sure I’m at drop off: that’s the time that people remember to say thank you, and if you’re not there, you don’t hear it, and it is excessively demoralising on not enough sleep and a wet canvas tent at the parents.
Do you want to be next Div C?
@fibermom - I’m Brown Owl for my unit, but taking on the next role up for a bit. And that is less picturesque namewise. I’ve been doing the job unofficially for the past 6 months.
@saintvi - I’m hoping to avoid that… if necessary by sending her to the next Division over if that’s feasible! Mum and daughter in the same group seems to have a 50% success rate based on personal observations….