Pioneering and Foot Drills Training, 14th July

Hello Guides!

We did pioneering for 集合 on the 14th of July, with the objectives of improving the standards of our lashes, promoting greater patrol bonding and encouraging creative thinking and effective communication.

Here is the overall storyline: A hurricane has destroyed your house and all the furniture in it. Now that you have relocated to the D Area, as a 团, you need to rebuild the furniture with whatever logistics you have to ensure a place for living. P1, you are to build a sofa, P2, a table, P3, a bed, P4, a 2-tiered bookshelf, P5, a wardrobe without doors and P6, a kitchen dresser. However, due to wet weather conditions, the location was changed to the area outside the Multi-Resource Library (MRL).

Reflection from a Year 2 of Patrol 1:

During Friday’s 集合 on the 14th of July, our patrol did creative pioneering and we built a sofa. All of us were very happy with the final product as our lashes were tighter than usual and we did not overrun. The sofa did not turn out to be very appealing but it was sturdy. I feel that we did a great job at pioneering and it was certainly one of the better structures we built compared to all the others. We also remembered to ask for a time extension before the time was up which I think was an improvement from the previous 集合, during which we forgot to ask for a time extension at all. However I felt that we could have cheered more as we were rather quiet throughout the activity. Cheering would have lifted our spirits and boosted our morales but we still needed our seniors to prompt us to cheer. Hence, I think we can work on that issue. Overall, Friday’s 集合 was good and I feel that we outperformed ourselves on the pioneering part. There is, of course, more room for improvement and I think that we should strive towards being the best that we can be.

Suggested solution for Sofa:

Reflection from a Year 2 of Patrol 2:

On Friday, we had creative pioneering. Our patrol was required to build a creative table out of 红木, 黄木, 青木 and a table board. During the given time, my patrol managed to finish before the time was up and we also 起ed the structure quickly. Through Friday's 集合, we managed to improve on communication among the patrol and it really allowed us to step up and to guide the Year 1s. It also allowed us to test our pioneering skills and our time management. All in all, it was a meaningful activity and it helped my peers and I improve on both our hard skills and our leadership skills.

Suggested solution for Kitchen Table:

Reflection from a Year 2 of Patrol 3:
We did creative pioneering on Friday. We were supposed to build furniture for a house and my patrol was assigned to build a bed. Our idea was to tie a cuboid and raft 白木 across the rectangle to make a bed. We actually got this idea from Monday’s PA as we built a cube during PA and we thought it would be a good idea to use the same concept. We improved on tying the two frames from Monday's PA as our frames were more identical and that made the structure slightly more stable. However, even though our lashes improved, it was still not tight enough. We had to add many diagonals to make the structure more stable. Additionally, we built the bed too high and thus we had to spend time building steps to climb onto the bed. I think we took too long to tie our lashes and that we should improve on our speed when tying lashes. I think we could have 报时-ed and cheered more while building our structure. We definitely need to improve the stability of our structure as when we were done and when we tried to go on the bed, it was still very unstable. We also did not manage our time as well because we 过时-ed and had to ask for a time extension. I felt that this 集合 was really fun and interesting. It was more fun as it was differed from the usual things we do in 集合 like simply building traditional structures, whereas this time we could choose what to build. It was also very fun to explore the structures of the other patrols to see how they built their own furniture such as a sofa or a wardrobe. I hope we will have more 集合s like this where we can do creative pioneering.

Suggested solution for Bed:

Reflection from a Year 2 of Patrol 4:

When we were doing pioneering, the situation was chaotic throughout. I think that this is because we failed to maximise the planning we could do during the 10 minutes given to us. This led to most of us being unclear of what to do during the activity because we had to make up instructions as we progressed. I felt quite frustrated back then as I had lost my voice and could not voice my opinion out loudly. Since we all did not know what to do, we had no initiative which resulted in a lot of people slacking who had to be guided, one by one. The patrol also had very low morale as we rarely cheered and did not cheer as a patrol, which caused our sense of urgency to be quite low at the start. In my opinion, the communications also suffered a breakdown at some point as there were some discrepancies in the design, between the patrol leader and patrol second, which led to mild arguments and time wastage. The constant change in the design and shifting of structure made it extremely unstable, which caused slight panic later on. Overall, I think that many areas still need improvement, such as morale, sense of urgency, planning and communications.

Suggested solution for 2-tiered bookshelf:

Reflection from a Year 2 of Patrol 5:

My patrol had to build a wardrobe for pioneering. We were given 11 红木 and 8 青木 to build the wardrobe. We were given time to discuss our plan on how to build the structure. After that, we had to go and retrieve the logistics. Due to our lack of manpower, we had to ask for time extension to take the 木. After that, we were given 1 hour and 40 minutes to complete our structures. I was assigned to be the Patrol Leader (PL) and I felt very stressed. I wasn't sure of what to do initially but with some help from my patrol mates, I was able to assign a task for everyone to do. However, because we were lacking in our sense of urgency, we were the only patrol that had not 起-ed our frame by the 45 minute mark and I was starting to feel pressurised. The timing was shortened to 1 hour and 20 minutes because we were too slow and we had to work a lot faster. Towards the end, we realised that our structures was very slanted as we only looked at the big picture from one angle and did not consider other angles. It was too late to re-build the structure so we had no choice but to continue tying it. In the end, our structure was very tilted. After everyone had built their structures, we had 2 minutes to visit the structures of each patrol. The other structures were fascinating and we took a lot of pictures with the structures. Even though our structure was tilted, we were proud that our structure was close to the suggested structure on the proposal. Through this activity, I also gained much experience on being a PL.

Suggested solution for Wardrobe:

Reflection from a Year 2 of Patrol 6:

For Friday's 集合, all of the patrols did pioneering and our patrol was assigned to build the kitchen dresser. We had a rough idea of how it looked like, having built it for our patrol activity on Monday. However, the logistics given were different as instead of 木, we were provided with spars. Thus, it took our patrol some time to discuss how we could use these different logistics to build the structure. During the discussion, I was also happy to see that the Year 1s also contributed their ideas. Despite the constant reminders from our seniors to 抽 the lashes tighter and to hold the tension of our lashes, our structure was still quite sub-standard as the tripod was very shaky and even our 顶脚 could be easily removed. Not only that, I felt guilty that our PL had to plank for us in order to ask for a time extension. Thus, I feel that all of us could have worked faster so that our PL would not need to be punished because of us. Other than tying my lashes tighter as well as working faster, one other area of improvement for myself is that I could have 报时-ed more as this allows us to be aware of how much time we are left with and ensures that we will be able to build our structure on time. Despite all these setbacks, I am still quite proud that we were able to finish our structure on time.

Suggested solution for Kitchen Dresser:

After finishing the structures, the Guides were given time to enjoy the structures of every patrol. Debriefs from the seniors were also given, on how the Year 1s and 2s could improve during future 集合s and good points displayed.

After the Year 1s and 2s had dismantled their structures and put all logistics back in their respective locations, we then proceeded to have a foot drills training session.

Here are some reflections from Year 2s,,
I did not expect us to be doing foot drills as we rarely did foot drills except for when there were special events, such as World Thinking Day. This activity helped to refresh my memory for some of the commands as I had not done foot drills in a long time. I think that we do not have to do foot drills every 集合 but doing it once in a while is indeed helpful. This would also make us more prepared when events such as World Thinking Day and UG Day are coming. The Year 1s would also be more prepared as it would not be their first time learning the drills.

The foot drills we did after pioneering was really not up to standard as we did not march in sync and we did not do the drills correctly. I felt that there could be a lot of room for improvement and that foot drills should be emphasised on more as it is important to a Uniformed Group like Guides. I feel that as a batch, we could work towards more standard foot drills and being more organised.

Hope that everyone found this 集合 enjoyable and fulfilling!

Published By:
Arielle
49th Batch Secretary

Patrol Activity, 10th July

Hello Guides!

We had our first PA on the 10th of July! Here are some reflections from the Year 2s :-)

Reflection from a Year 2 of Patrol 1:

This was the first PA after the Passing Down Ceremony and I feel that as Year 2s, we have a lot more to learn. Firstly, we failed to manage our time properly during the creative gadgeting session, during which we needed to ask for time extensions continuously. Also, there was a lack of communication within the patrol, resulting in misinterpretations of instructions among the members and hindering our process of completing the task. However, I was satisfied by the teamwork and patrol morale shown during the missions where we cheered and cooperated together. We were unable to complete the flagpole and 8-men tent as we did not delegate the roles efficiently and thus we were unable to finish it in time. Additionally, we were unsure of some skills. In conclusion, this PA had been a meaningful learning experience for me, as someone who needs to start leading the patrol with my fellow batchmates. As a Year 2, there is so much for me to improve on as an individual and also much for my patrol to learn.  I hope my patrol mates and I can achieve the goals and expectations set by seniors during the next PA.

Reflection from a Year 2 of Patrol 2:

On Monday, Patrol 2 and 4 had a combined patrol activity. In this patrol activity, there were two stations -- inspection and gadgeting. Through these two stations, we learnt numerous hard skills such as how to improve our lashes and soft skills like time management, cultivating a sense of urgency and how to step up more to lead and include the Year 1s. Although we met many challenges along the way such as having insufficient 木, it was definitely a meaningful activity that helped my peers and I to learn more things and improve ourselves.

Reflection from a Year 2 of Patrol 3:
Today we learnt more about how to tie a stable structure. Our first task was to build a structure to elevate our belongings. We built a baggage rack. However, there were quite a lot of areas we could have improved on. Firstly, our A-架 was not tied tight enough, causing the structure to be easily tilted and resulted in it being very unstable. We also did not really manage our time and manpower well as we 过时-ed and had to ask for a time extension. However, I feel that we made an effort to 报时 and cheer so that is something I think we did well on :) After building the baggage rack, we were told to build a structure that could fit half the patrol and had to have six faces. What we did was to build a cube with two frames and we connected the two frames with 木 to form a cubic shape. Our lashes on the frames were not tied tight enough and made our structure not very stable. We also did not manage our time very well resulting in us asking for a time extension twice. We learnt to add diagonals across the structure to make it more stable but we should have done it after completing the overall shape of the cube before adding the 顶脚  in.  All in all, I think today's PA was pretty interesting as I learnt something new, which is that one of the most important things of building a structure is to ensure that it is stable. To do so, it starts from our foundation such as how tight our lashes should be. Adding diagonals also helps to make the structure more stable.

Reflection from a Year 2 of Patrol 4:
For the Patrol Activity on 10 July, my patrol, Patrol 4, had combined activities with Patrol 2. After gathering the logistics, we were separated into 2 groups with an even distribution of Year 1s and 2s. First, Group 1 built a baggage rack while Group 2 carried out inspection concurrently. Group 2 were first given 7 minutes to lay out the logistics, which was then reduced to 5 minutes and 3 minutes respectively during later rounds. Overall, I feel that while the inspection was a little chaotic at first when deciding the layout, it was carried out more smoothly during the later rounds. However, we should keep in mind that the layout must be compact and reduce the amount of open space. We should also quickly pack the logistics into the 配备 instead of individually putting them inside, which was a mistake made during the first round. Afterwards, the 2 groups were switched and Group 1 carried out inspection while Group 2 built a fire altar. Originally, as we did not have enough logistics, the tripods were made from 中木 instead of 中长木. Thankfully, the Year 3s brought the necessary gadget poles and we re-tied the tripods. While we built the fire altar, one person was sent out every 4 minutes to complete a task. As some time was already wasted beforehand, we had to ask for a time extension. Towards the end, the two groups combined and worked together. Although the structure was successfully built, there were many unsatisfactory points. We could have asked for fewer time extensions with longer time given, carried out communication better and distributed the manpower more efficiently. More importantly, we should have took better care of our logistics to reduce repercussions and 报时-ed more often to keep track of the time.

Reflection from a Year 2 of Patrol 5:

We did Creative Gadgeting for PA. We were supposed to build a structure representing a famous building anywhere and another structure which represents a famous building in Singapore. We were given 45 minutes to complete both structures. Our idea was to build the Eiffel Tower and Marina Bay Sands. We had to have constant 报时 and take care of our juniors and belongings. For every time our senior had to remind us to 报时 or when they took any of our belongings, we had to do 5 jumping jacks and 5 burpees respectively. We thought we had a lot of time so our sense of urgency was low. In the end, we had to ask for a time extension. This taught me to have a higher sense of urgency and to not take the time given for granted. Our lashes were also quite loose but we did not have enough time to re-tie so in the end, the structure ended up very shaky. After the creative gadgeting session, we did a 10 minutes Physical Training (PT) session, along with the seniors. This made the PT more enjoyable as we were able to do this activity together as one patrol. After the PT, we played Captain's ball. We split into 2 teams and started playing. Nobody was keeping track of the points and everybody was just having fun. At one point, the ball was accidentally hit into the pond and the seniors had to retrieve it. Overall, PA was really fun and we also got a chance to bond over this PA.

Reflection from a Year 2 of Patrol 6:

For this PA, we were split into two groups. I was the Patrol Leader (PL) for the first group and we did Creative Gadgeting and Physical Training (PT). This was also my first time leading the Year 1s as well as direct my fellow Year 2s. The experience was relatively refreshing, as I have never had the chance to lead the group. Being a PL exposed me to many different challenges and difficulties a leader faced, but it also trained me to take on more responsibilities. Being a PL was supposed to train me and gearing me up for next year when we will have to take over the current Year 3s. I felt that being a PL was hard work as it was difficult to take care of so many people and the situations, as they all came as responsibilites. This was challenging as I usually followed the commands of my peers and being a PL meant stepping up more and I feel that this was a good opportunity for me. As I was rather indecisive about what we wanted to achieve, I had neglected my Y1s as well as my batchmates. For example, we were given 10 minutes to complete our Physical Training (PT) and this included water break intervals. However, I had completely forgotten to allow my patrol members to take a break while doing the PT. As a result, I felt really bad as I did not take care of my patrol members to my fullest ability and the only thing I had in mind was to complete the two full sets of PT. As I did not manage my time wisely, our group only managed to complete just one set of PT in the end. All in all, even though I did not do as well as I wanted to, I am still very grateful for this opportunity which I was given.

Hope everyone learnt something from this PA!

Published By:

Arielle

49th Batch Secretary