GIRL GUIDES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3506, 3 July 1926, Page 4

GIRL GUIDES.

COURT OF HONOUR. (Reprinted from the “Girl Guide Gazette,” February, 1926.) Captain felt bothered, distinctly bothered! The leaders sat in a semi-circle, twiddled their pencils and looked pensively at their empty notebooks. Captain’s plea for plans and ideas had fallen on barren ground. After all the Company was not new, it had been running' five nr six years, and they ought to have known better; hence something had to be done, and that right quickly. Suddenly Captain waxed eloquent, the Leaders ceased to twiddle their pencils, notebooks foil unnoticed to the floor, a gleam of astonishment flitted' over their faces. What Captain had said at great length was really summed up in the following phrase: “In future you will hold your own Court of Honour, and I shall only come for a short time and fetch the details of the following evening’s programme.” Captain gaves a dramatic pause (probably through sheer fright!), rose from her c'hair and disappeared into the adjoining hall. A few minutes later she peeped into the room to see how tilings were progressing, and found to her amazement, Jiut entire satisfaction that the Leaders had thawed, the note-books were being filled and an air of brisk determination had settled upon the small group! The procedure we now follow is:— 1. The Leaders for the first few minutes prepare the meeting’s programme for the next week. 2. Arrange any special outings such as hikes, tracks, etc. etc. 3. A little later Captain and Lieutenant appear and the minutes are read and approved (usually!), and the programme is submitted, and gratefully accepted by the Guiders! 4. Any special notices for the Leaders are given out. 5. : The meeting of that evening is discussed and the weak points pounced upon and made note of. Once a month the programme of the “Court” is varied by each Leader -reading aloud a report of her Patrol, i.e., recruits enrolled; how maiiy Second Class and Proficiency Badges gained. The njatteiv perhaps of how Lizzie can’t learn her Morse is recorded and a remedy is usually vouchsafed by another Leader, and so on. In support of the above arrangement of our Court of Honour I would just like to say this: 1. It makes the Guides more dependent upon themselves. 2. It encourages freer discussion and expression of opinion. 3. Last, but not least, it keeps Captain from the temptation, when all are silent, of bringing out ideas for the Guides, perhaps so easy for her but nothing short of fatal to the initiative of the Leaders! In conclusion, I don’t advise everybody to run their Court of Honour as we do, simply because it may not'be necessary. Your Leaders may be able to speak, discuss and plan when called upon in your presence. Mine, much as I love* them, can’t, or rather didn’t until the above plan was adapted. To those who are troubled as I have been those w*ho have no such difficulties may I humbly offer this suggestion, and to I say —“Carry on!” E.E.O.N.