Brownies being late for meetings

[Jude89]

Our Parents have been becoming progressively worse at dropping their brownies off on time, we meet at 5 and often I have 1 or 2 brownies turn up at 5:10, mostly unchanged, they then disappear to get changed for 10 mins, most appear after that, yesterday we had two turn up at 5:45 and then their parents' complained that we had started without them! Because we can't get started until 5:30 or later, we only have an hour, so we never finish a craft or get to play more than one quick game! Last night we got a complaint that we don't seem to do anything in meetings and the girls want to play more games! Are anyone else's like this? I am trying to write a letter but I'm not sure what to say in it!

[Yorkielass]

We do 6.15-7.45 and last week at 6.15 only 5 of our 30 girls were in the hall so I can appreciate where you're coming from.

I suggest talking to the parents and finding out why they are late. If they're coming in unchanged is it because parents are collecting them from friends/an after school club at 5 and bringing them straight to Brownies? Starting at 5 does seem quite early to me.

[Fox]

We start at 5 (but on a Sunday) and we play games for the first 5 to 10 minutes and then have Brownie Ring. If they arrive after that, too bad, they've missed something. We have a trip coming up that will involve starting at the meeting place, if they are late, they'll have to follow us down the road!

Some of our local Packs start even earlier than 5 - one is 3.30 but it's during an after-school club time.

[jolito]

It's a shame your start time is so early and you only meet for an hour. I have one Brownie who does a dancing class that finishes at 6 and she rushes in and gets changed also have about a dozen girls all from the same school that runs an after school club on Wednesdays they all belong too and have to rush in and get changed as well. We always start the evening with a game that's easy for all the latecomers to join in before we do Brownie ring followed by another game, pow-wow then our evening activity (our meetings are 6pm-7.30pm).

Ask again for the girls to be dropped off promptly at 5pm and then say that if the girls are coming from another club or such you don't mind them being a little late and getting changed but if they could do it as quickly as possible and as you only meet for an hour you try to get as many exciting activities and games in as you can but are finding it increasingly difficult due to the numbers of girls turning up late, taking their time getting changed and disturbing the rest.

[Becca]

Would it be possible for you to make the start time 5:30, so you meet from 5:30-7, or do you have other people meeting after you? If you could in theory move the time, maybe it would be an idea to do a letter to the parents saying that you have noticed that serval girls have been late over the last few weeks, and you were wondering if a later start time might help? You could say that you will go with the majority vote and do a little reply slip at the end or get them to let you know/ You could mention that you will start activities 15mins after the meeting starts, and anyone who is late may miss the start. That way you are giving the opportunity for parents to let you know if there is a genuine reason for them being late, or whether they are just not very good at timekeeping!

[fenris]

I had problems for a while with the start of the meeting creeping back - which since we only have 1hr 15, we couldn't afford. So I started doing Brownie ring at 6pm sharp regardless of how many Brownies were there to join in. Anyone who arrives late slips in quietly and joins in with what we are doing - it's only fair on those who make the effort to be on time.

I have found that Brownies and parents have realised that being late means risking missing out on activities, so now virtually all of them are there by 6pm most weeks, without us having to say anything.

[catdrew]

moving your meeting time if possible sounds like a good option. if you cant then a letter to parents saying girls need to arrive by 5 and then we will start at 5.10pm regardless of people not having arrived. you could spend your entire night just waiting for girls to arrive otherwise.

they obviously want to be there or they wouldne be complaining about not enough games.
get the brownies on side tell them that as they arrive late that is why you dotn get as many games. so if they arrive earlier they do more.

[jop]

I sent a letter out stating that Browines starts at 6.15 prompt so the girls should arrive before this. If the girls are late and I have started explaining an activity they must wait until I have finished explaining to the others and started them off before I tell the late child what to do. Start Brownie ring and song bang on time.

[cerys80]

Yep we have stragglers occasionally .. we do allow 10 mins of game/scrapbooking before Brownie ring but then that's it, if they are late then they just have to come in and join whatever we are doing as quietly as they can. As soon as we can we re-explain things if necessary. We meet at 5 pm too .. I personally don't want to start later as then I'd get no evening by the time we are packed up at the hall, got home, unloaded, had dinner and dd is in bed. Also we've got someone who follows after us in hall.

Might be a good idea just to remind them that its a 5 pm start - I do particularly stress promptness on evenings when we are out of the hall and ... of course ....... no one is ever late when we go bowling or things like that !!

[shackademus]

send a letter reminding them that you start at 5 and it is ok for them to quickly get changed when they arrive but that the evenings activites will start promptly.
then start your evening promptly at 5 each week with a fun game
if the girls dont think they will miss anything then they wont rush.
we used to get to brownies a good 10mins before it started and they were usually all on time, even early as they knew we started 6pm sharp now we tend to arrive at 6pm and the brownies usually arrive within 10mins