Lead the Way Challenge
Lead an 18 to 30 Residential
An 18 to 30 Residential Weekend in London
For Lead the Way Challenge, I organised an 18 to 30 residential to London to partake in the London Monopoly Run "Live" 2023 - The countries larges Scout and Guide Monopoly Run!
The event took place on March 4th, with our residential being from the afternoon of March 3rd to the afternoon of March 5th, with some extra activities outside of the Monopoly Run. I advertised my idea and plan on two of the unofficial Girlguiding Facebook groups, the Queens Guide Award group and the North West Inspire group;
About Lead the Way Challenge
In this section you’ll try something new and adventurous! You’ll also improve your leadership and teamwork skills.
Note: I completed this section on the old Queen Guide's Award criteria, for the Outdoor Challenge, Element 1.
Assessor: Amy B, Participant
The post reached a lot of people and had positive feedback, and this is where I met Ellie, Eloise, Natalie and Amy!
None of us had met before, besides Eloise and Natalie who are already friends and wanted to come on the weekend together. Amy already lives in London, so didn't join us for the residential part, but met us in the city each day!
The rest of us stayed in a really lovely little hostel called Park Villa Boutique which was at Mile End. We were all a little nervous for staying in the hostel as none of us had stayed in one before, but this one was really welcoming and quiet and made us feel at home.
Friday 3rd March
Today was our first day of the residential! I caught the train from my town down to London, getting into Euston just after 10am! Ellie was aiming to get there around 12.30, along with Eloise and Natalie who travelled by bus from Manchester.
As I was the first one to arrive and had a few hours before the others were to arrive, my friend Tom came and met me to help me get to the hostel safely, I got us checked in before heading down the road to pick up from groceries for the weekend from Tesco express. Once we were done, we had some spare time so we headed down to Oxford street to have a quick look around the Disney store and buy some cookies from one of my favourite cookie places before the rest of the group arrived!
The post reached a lot of people and had positive feedback, and this is where I met Ellie, Eloise, Natalie and Amy!
None of us had met before, besides Eloise and Natalie who are already friends and wanted to come on the weekend together. Amy already lives in London, so didn't join us for the residential part, but met us in the city each day!
The rest of us stayed in a really lovely little hostel called Park Villa Boutique which was at Mile End. We were all a little nervous for staying in the hostel as none of us had stayed in one before, but this one was really welcoming and quiet and made us feel at home.
Saturday 4th March - Monopoly Run Day!
We started the day fairly early at 7am. The event began handing out team packs in the London Eye area from 8.30am, so we were aiming to be there for then! Ellie and I hopped on the underground to head to get our team pack whilst Eloise and Natalie finished getting ready, as we only needed 1 team member to pick up our pack.
We somehow managed to get onto the wrong tube line which, luckily, it didn't make us too much later for picking up our pack! Once we finally found our way to Westminster station, we walked over the bridge and found around 8000 other Scouting and Guiding members around the area waiting for the event to begin too!
Our start time for the event was 9.30am! We downloaded the app ready to begin our game, checked out what was in our pack, which was the information booklet, instructions and badges, and we made a rough game plan as to which stop we were heading too first. Our app counted down to our start time at 9.30am and bang on 9.30am, hundreds of Scouts, Guides and Leaders began running in all directions as the game started! We followed the crowd to the nearest station and decided to head to our first stop.
The game was absolutely incredible, we travelled along the tube, by foot and on buses to reach our destination - we managed to buy 5 properties, and rented around 14. Along the way we had team challenges to gain us extra money, these included finding a double post box, lining up in height order, etc! I don't want to write too much about the game as I don't want to spoil it for others who may take part in the future!
Our game finished at 5.30pm, and at the end of the day we had done 25,000 steps around London! Luckily, we had plenty of snack breaks and making sure we all stayed hydrated. We stopped at Costa, Starbucks and plenty of others for a rest along the way.
At the end of the day, we decided to have an earlier night, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for our tea, Eloise and I had seen something called frozen custard at the Shake Shack which we really wanted to try, so we popped in there to grab some, it was really good!! And checked out an art installation called 'Heavens Gate' before heading back to the hostel around 8.30pm.
We came 4th out of our 7 in our mini game, and 610th overall out of the 1300+ teams playing! We didn't think we had done too badly for our first Monopoly Run! We had £700 left in our bank at the end of the game.
Sunday 5th March
We had another early morning on the Sunday, we were heading down to Pax Lodge for the Pinning Ceremony. The Pinning Ceremony started at 9am, so we left Park Villa around 8am to be there on time - we were a couple of minutes late due to tube delays but we were still able to join in!
There were loads of Guides, Rangers and Young Leaders staying at the lodge, most of which were from the UK, but some were from Ireland. We watched the flags be lifted, sang the Pax Lodge song before making the Pax Lodge pledge before gaining our Pax Lodge pins! We were planning on going to Crystal Palace to see where Girlguiding began around lunch, but as we were all super tired, we decided to stay at Pax Lodge and partake in their Pax Lodge Challenge, where we got to learn more about the World Centre. We stayed until lunch before heading to costa for lunch. After this, we headed back to pick up our bags from the hostel and everyone began to make their way home!
The weekend was absolutely amazing and although we didn't know each other before the weekend, we've all made a fantastic bond as a group, we've been making plans to meet up again at Wellies and Wristbands this summer at Waddow Hall, as well as looking at the possibility of travelling to Our Chalet next year for my Outdoor Challenge Element 2!
Reflection
Describe your activity or role.
For my Lead the Way section, I organised an 18 to 30 residential in London to take part in the ‘2023 London Monopoly Run Live’. I acted as the event leader and organiser.
I ran the group for Inspire aged members. My aim was to create a weekend away, which included planning activities, searching for hotels, planning meals, etc. This was done by creating a budget, itinerary and an experience for other members to meet new people.
Why did you choose it for this section?
My Lead the Way challenge was originally completed as part of the old Queen’s Guide Award criteria for ‘Outdoor Section, Element 1’. I chose to run an 18 to 30 residential as during this time, working towards my ‘Going Away with Licence’ wasn't going to be a possibility, due to leader availability and unit budget.
What have you learnt from the activity or role?
During the planning process, I have managed to learn a lot, which I am opening to be able to take into the future when I hope to be able to complete my Going Away with Licence. I have been able to look into accommodations and reviews about stays, looking into local areas, planning for emergencies and first aid situations and more. I think a lot of these skills will be transferable, for instance, planning a larger scaled weekend in the future, going from 5 adult members, to being able to plan a weekend away for 20-30 Brownies. It was also lovely being able to be a part of an event with so many other Guiding and Scouting groups and be able to have a presence and represent the charity out in the public eye.
What core skills have you developed and how?
Resilience: As we travelled as a group we hadn't met prior to our weekend away, overcoming challenges and problems were inevitable. We hit some problems on the Monopoly Run, such as communication issues and some occasional personality clashes. As a group I think all of our problem solving skills have developed by being able to work together and solve them as a group.
Teamwork: Throughout the weekend we were a team, helping each other navigate the city and working out challenges, such as transport routes and other challenges. It's been lovely spending time together and seeing how everybody faces challenges differently.
Leadership: I really enjoyed taking on the ‘event leader’ role doe the weekend, I think I’ve been able to gain a lot of new planning skills, which I can take forwards with me, including decision making skills, I usually just go with what other people say, but I got to experience putting my opinion and options across for ideas.
Communication: Communication for us was a big one during the weekend. As none of us had really met prior, we were learning how to communicate with each other, and how each other work.
Reflection: I’m really looking forward to taking these skills to a larger scale event, and hoping to organise a weekend away for our young members at my local unit. Overall, I’ve really enjoyed the weekend and from feedback from the others, it sounds like they have too, which was really important for me to hear!
What would you change or improve on if you did this activity again?
I think next time, I will take forward the idea of coming up with more ‘back up’ activities. Although our weekend ran smoothly, we did end up going slightly off plan. If it had rained we would have needed a back up plan for visiting Crystal Palace. But luckily on this trip we didn’t get affected too much.
If applicable, how has it made a positive impact in Girlguiding
Although not directly impacting Girlguiding, the group of us who met up made a positive impact on each other I think. We have been able to learn more about ourselves, and getting to expand our connections within the Girlguiding community which was really important. We’re hoping to meet up in the future for another weekend away, possibly for one of their Queen Guide Award elements!