This week we are getting back into the swing of meetings and review Safe Guide and the love-hate relationship that guiders have with it.
Safe Guide was first issued in September of 2008, however, Taryn and I both agree that there must have been a version of Safe Guide in place beforehand. According to the 200-page document, “Safe Guide supports Guiders at they offers each girl the opportunity to be everything she wants to be.” In the simplest terms, Safe Guide is activity planning and safety
management. It is a system and set of forms that prepares guiders for any situation that may arise during an activity or event. This is especially important for when units participate in riskier activities, such as skiing, trampolining, or overnight camping. The Safe Guide also cover us in terms of insurance, as parental consent is required for "yellow" and "red" activities (overnight events, use of specialized equipment, etc.).
The system also gives special attention to an individual's health, water activities, and international travel. It ensures that guiders are given pertinent information about girls, such as allergies, health conditions, and mental illness, which if left unknown, could lead to dangerous scenarios and put everyone's safety at risk.
If you are a girl guide or scout living outside of Canda, what does health and safety look like in your organization?
For our famous former girl guide, we talk about the award-winning author, Margaret Atwood, who has written some the most thought-provoking books of the 20th century.
Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa on November 18, 1939. She grew up in Quebec, and spent her adolescent years split between her family's permanent residence in Toronto and the sparsely settled bush country in Northern Ontario, where her father conducted research as he was an entomologist. Atwood received her undergraduate degree in English, with minors in French and Philosophy, from the University of Toronto in 1961. She also earned her master’s degree in English Literature from Radcliffe College at Harvard in 1962.
Her work has been published in over 45 countries, and is the author of more than 50 books of fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. Her novels commonly centre on the lives of women, and explore issues of our time in a satirical light and many are set in dystopian worlds. Atwood's first novel, The Edible Woman, was published In 1969.
One of her most notable works, and popular topic of discussion in recent years, is The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). This novel is constructed around the written record of a woman living in sexual slavery in a repressive Christian theocracy of the future that has seized power in the wake of an ecological upheaval. It won her the Governor General's Award, among many others, and was made into a film in 1990, adapted and produced as an opera by the Royal Danish Opera Society in 2000, and a TV series produced by Hulu in 2017. The show was largely filmed in Canada, including in Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville, and Cambridge, Ontario.
Margaret has written about her time as a Brownie in some of her writing, including the non-fiction book Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing, which grew out of a series of lectures she gave at the University of Cambridge. On page 149, Margaret recalls:
“When I was nine, I was enrolled in a secret society, complete with special handshakes, slogans, rituals, and mottoes. The name of this was the Brownies, and it was quite bizarre. The little girls pretended to be fairies, gnomes and elves, and the grownup leading it was called Brown Owl. Sadly, she did not wear an owl costume, nor did the little girls wear fairy outfits. This was a disappointment to me, but not a fatal one. ”
Listen to the full episode to hear more about Margaret Atwood, including her written works and the controsversy surrounding her name, or by reading her biography in the Canadian Encyclopedia.
And finally, we found a campfire song that Taryn doesn’t like - Alouette, a French classic to help teach children the parts of the body in French.
Although the origin of the song is uncertain, the most popular theory is that it is French-Canadian because the first published copy is in a song book from McGill in 1879. Alouette means Lark in French, which is the unofficial bird of French Canada.
The song is about plucking a lark (alouette) and goes over all the parts of a bird, the head, beak, wings, tail, etc.. It is used to teach children about body parts, much like Head and Shoulders. Sadly, the song has a bit of a gloomy side to it since lyrics talk about plucking the feathers off of each of the lark's body parts. As native english speakers, we both learned this song in school, but were not made aware of the meaning behind the French lyrics.
Lastly, we want to give a shout out to Sheryl Robinson, a member of GSUSA and podcast host of Hearts of Gold, a podcast that celebrates Girl Scouts who are earning their Gold Award. In a recent episode (Minisode 21 - Girl Scout Podcasts to listen to and learn from), Sheryl mentioned that she listens to and loves our podcast! We're super excited to hear that, and we think you should check out Hearts of Gold.
It's a great source of inspiration and a great source of ideas if you're looking for service projects. Check it out the episodes on YouTube for the video format, or on your favourite podcast platform if you prefer just the audio.
You can listen to Episode 29 of Guides' Own now, and catch up on previous episodes, either right here on our website or on your favourite podcast app (Spotify, Apple, Google, Anchor, etc.).
We would love to know what your opening and closings you use in your units. Leave a comment below, or send us a message on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you'd like to contribute to an episode of Guides' Own, send us your ideas for topics, program, campfire songs, etc. send a message to guidesown@gmail.com.
Stay safe,
Marissa & Taryn