When things don’t always go according to plan
Going online for a unit meeting is a brilliant way to connect during lockdown, but things don't always go as planned
We love seeing what units are doing online.
Online meetings are brilliant fun and perfect for keeping guiding going during lockdown.
However, sometimes things don’t always go to plan. When we're all dealing with busy homes, virtual sleepovers and new technology - there's a lot to juggle!
We asked our members for their funniest moments from virtual meetings, so we can share with you some of our favourite stories of how all you’re all laughing and learning together.
First online meeting
"Our first online meeting was a bit of a mess. Although we’d planned it, the Brownies didn’t talk. And one had the phone upside down so she spent the whole meeting standing on her head!"
"We tried singing at the end of our first meeting... the Brownies all started slowing down to be in time with each other. We leaders thought it would never finish! Now we know to mute them all when we sing.’
"The Guides normally need to tell us what to do in our Zoom meetings! Like, this is how you share your screen, click there to change your name/background etc."
"My Mum, Mrs Hedgehog, kept forgetting to turn on her computer audio when joining one week. She spent five minutes shouting over my delivery, telling us she couldn't hear anything. I had to keep muting her, which she kept unmuting saying 'why are you muting me?!'. The girls and I were in hysterics... we couldn't do anything for laughing. They still remind her of it now...weeks later."
Virtual sleepovers
"We did a virtual sleepover with 60 Brownies. When we played a video, one of the girls started to draw on the screen! They put polka dots all over the screen... I couldn't remember how to turn the annotate off quickly enough!"
Hilarious scavenger hunts
The scavenger hunt gives you plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong.
"We did a scavenger hunt and one Guide took 10 minutes to come back with an item! All everyone saw was an empty room!"
"We asked the Brownies to find something that they really liked. One girl disappeared for most of the meeting. We then heard her Mum shout ‘you’re not bringing that thing in here!’ It turns out she was trying to bring her bike into the house!"
"One girl brought her hamster in for a scavenger hunt challenge. But the rest of the meeting was taken up with the other girls asking her about it and wanting to see it."
"When we ran a scavenger hunt on Teams it only showed four people on screen at once, so we had no idea who was back first! We've now moved on to Zoom!"
And there’s more…
"One unit ran a silent disco and one Guide took it literally. She sat with headphones on all meeting, watching everyone else on screen but with no sound at all as the others danced away to each other!"
"We have one girl who consistently eats her dinner during the meeting week in, week out, with full face munching view!"
"We're regularly treated to large up close display of 'wobbly' teeth... One does it, they all do it!"
And one of our particular favourites…
"A Guide had to keep chasing chase her twin brother out of the room which resulted in a ‘Carry On’ scene of girl, brother, Dad running backwards and forwards past the open door."
Has anything funny happened in your online meetings? Please let us know through our social channels.
And if you haven’t yet started online meetings, we hope the above will help you to give it a go! It doesn't matter if things do go to plan, it's sure to be lots of fun for every body.
