Pioneering Course 2011

Hi guides,

On the 12th of March, Saturday, the y2-4s had a pioneering course, planned by the company leaders and PLs.

We started off with a lecture on the basics of pioneering, where our guides gained insight into pioneering as a hallmark of guiding. The guides also got to learn about planning a pioneering project, basics lashes and possible pioneering projects. After the lecture, the main part of the activity started!

The theme of the pioneering course was "building a village". Our guides were told that they would be constructing a "village" for our guides company.

Before starting on the "village", the PLs led their patrols in practising their lashes and covering all the common equipment used for pioneering. During this theory and practical session, our guides were able to brush up on their basics to aid them in the actual pioneering later on.

Before lunch, instructions were given for the 10 patrols to erect their patrol flagpoles, as a symbol of their patrols. Then, we broke off for lunch.

After lunch, the buidling of the "village" began. The guides were divided into different groups to build their individual structures, with the help and guidance of their mentors, which were PLs put in charge of the different structures. The structures built are as follows:

1. gateway, representing entrance to the village
2. shelter, representing the town hall
3. tower, representing the watch tower
4. company flagpole
5. kitchen area, consisting of fire altar, kitchen dresser and dustbin
6. living area, consisting of table, chair, shoe rack and baggage rack

The guides worked on their structures for 2 1/2 h. A debrief was then given on each of the structures and the village as a whole.

The mentors and OIC feel that the pioneering course was a good chance for everyone, be it y2s, 3s, 4s or even the mentors, to brush up on and revise their pioneering skills. The mentors believe that everyone has learnt and taken something away from this pioneering course, in the course of learning from one another. For the guides, I'm sure many of you learnt anchorage with arthurs and excaliburs for the first time and gained insight into many pioneering structures. As for the mentors, it was a good chance to revise many pioneering tips and practise leading a group of juniors in pioneering. As said, a leader functions in times of uncertainty, while a manager funcions in times of certainty.

Some learning points to take away from this pioneering course: Firstly, there may have been many hiccups throughout the pioneering course, be it the lack of manpower for the spar structures, insufficient time, problems with logistics, etc, but overall, the improvisations made and flexibility shown by our guides is commendable. In addition, all of the guides showed eagerness to learn and enthusiasm.

However, guides, do take note that your sense of urgency needs improvement. While things take time to do, there was a lack of sense of urgency-you trying to be the fastest you can. For example, when tying lashes, your actions should be swift-a good lash is one that is quick and tight. On the other hand, when dismantling structures, you do not need to remove every lash round by round. Do improve on this. Guides 不是跑就是飞, wherever you are going, whatever you are doing, be the fastest you can, do the best you can.

In all, it was heartwarming to see our guides work together to build the village and hand in hand, learn more about pioneering. Hope that everyone will continue to challenge themselves in pioneering and have fun with it. Good job guides!

Initiatives and PA

Hi guides,

for the past 2 weeks, the patrols alternated between initiatives and patrol activity.

On 4th march, patrols 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 had initiatives. The other patrols then had their initiatives on the following week. This time, our theme for the initiatives was "our world centres". We took this chance to let our guides learn more about WAGGGS and our four world centres, four places around the world where guides come together in friendship and learn about each other's history and culture. After a short lecture by the ACLs, the patrols moved on to do different activities relating to the countries where our four world centres are situated. Patrols 1, 3, 5 did yarn painting-a type of mexican craft and patrols 7,9 cooked rosti-a swiss dish. On the other day, y1s and 3s from patrols 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 did indian dance while their y2s and 4s did english embroidery.

As for patrol activity, the PLs planned various activities for their patrols, but the focus was to prepare their juniors for the pioneering course on Saturday.


Below are some reflections from the guides:

p3/7's activity:

On 11 March, we had a combined Patrol Activity. Firstly, the Year 1s combined and started learning and perfecting the lashes we learn in guides, which are very basic and fundamental towards building any structures.

The Y2s and Y3s were separated and given 3 minutes to get whatever we needed to build a patrol flagpole, and then we had to build it. Initially, we had to ask for several time extensions because we were rather slow and could not finish it in time. After taking around 15 minutes to finish it, we then went to each other’s patrols and learnt about how a standard flagpole should be, and how we can improve. Our next try at tying a standard flagpole turned out to be much more successful, and this time we managed to finish it in 8 minutes. Good job! This activity indeed allowed us to recap on the proper way to build a standard flagpole, a representation of an area belonging to a group. :)

After the flagpole, we then ran through the way to build an emergency shelter most efficiently, using the resources we were provided. Y4 seniors then taught us the suggested or ideal way to tie an emergency shelter alone, which is especially important if there is a lack of manpower.
After that, the Y1s and Y2s had to tie a standard baggage rack and shoe rack. Through the activity, they learnt that they should move faster to get things done, work together with others in order to do things efficiently, and that the Y2s should always be clear of what to do and what logistics are required. After which, they Y2s then taught the various guides songs to the Y1s.

Concurrently, the year 3s were to tie a kitchen table. At the start, we were quite slow in tying the 2 tripods. As we progressed, there was an improvement in our sense of urgency, but I believed we could have done better. Towards the end, we had trouble tying the chairs on to the table as we did not arrange the mu properly such that we had sufficient space to tie the chairs to the ding jiaos. Overall, the seniors felt that our knots were quite tight, which was good, but we had to improve on our sense of urgency and tie the knots more quickly.

p10's initiatives:
Last Friday, my patrol had initiatives as it was an even numbered patrol. The year 1s and 3s combined to learn Indian dance while the year 2s and 4s joined together to learn English embroidery.

For Indian dance, we learnt three different dance forms which include the Bhangra and J-Ho. The dance instructor started us off with some simple steps and after practicing for a few times, she turned on the music. Every time she switched on the soundtrack, we would all follow her dance moves as closely as we could and after completing the steps up to the portions that we know, she would introduce new steps and all of us would try to stumble along.

All of us had come to the lessons with different thoughts, ideas and experiences. I guess most of us were rather skeptical and had no much interest towards this course. However, since after the first round of music, many of us had been won over. We were having loads of fun and were laughing at our awkward moves. I feel that, one of the main lessons we took away, other than the dance moves, was the fact that different dances can be enjoyed by different races and cultures all over the world. It can help us connect to our fellow guides in India, and other countries.

After the instructor has left, we were told that the purpose of this initiative was to allow us to learn more about one of the world centers which is in India, called Sangam. The WAGGGS association has four such world centers all over the globe, namely Pax Lodge, Our Cabana, Our Chalet and Sangam. The rest of the company will learn about the other three world centers. The initiative have allowed us to experience what others are doing and connect better with our world center, and we have learnt much from it. It had been a very interesting and enriching experience.

As for the year 2s and 4s, they had English embroidery. They learnt to embroider pictures on to cloth. Mostly, it consists of stitching flowers and tracing out shapes on to cloth, with the help of tracing paper and carbon paper. The activity ties in to the world center that they are learning about, which is the Pax Lodge, located in London. For them, the experience was something that they did not expect as well, and very interesting.