Friday, not so pretty. Guides are prone to slip, under certain circumstances, into parental mode: almost as if our own parents are about to arrive, and cast judgement upon us.

For one thing, there was rain. What a joy! (Later in the weekend, neighborhood children reported on how their schools went into “lock-down” or that it was an “emergency”… I’m keeping mum on this).

Another thing: on Friday, work that Guides felt should be getting done was not getting done, or more precisely, it was not being logged as accomplished in the ways we expected it should.

So, at Acton, we know that our role as Guides is to very much step back, and hoping that we’ve modeled the standards the Eagles have themselves asked for, give a nod to the Eagles and their huge accomplishment in putting together a set of guidelines for the Studio, and trust that this will all play out in a manner that’s ultimately beneficial to the community.

But Guides are human, and we make mistakes. Mistake number one: neglect to trust. Trust the Eagles, trust yourself.

Mistake number two: don’t rectify mistake number one.

Friday, with concern that the standards of excellence were heading south in a way that would impact the whole Acton community (and affect the plans for the rest of the session), Guides had a quick pow-wow while the Eagles had lunch. Should we re-launch the afternoon and draw some new lines in the sand about what’s necessary and what’s optional? Eagles that hadn’t chosen to set their own goals or deadlines were putting the community at risk, and it might be time for Guides to step in. We should outline the consequences of choosing NOT to to do the work that we’ve asked them to do, and within the time-frame that we’ve created. Right?

Thankfully, wrong.
The intervention needed was actually a guide-to-guide huddle, a quick re-set of the most basic tenets that we adhere to in contract and in spirit, but that can slip without accountability. So after we egged each on to come to the conclusion that it was, surely, time for guides to get parental… we realized that we were suggesting that it’s time for guides to get parental. And the real intervention was Guides using each other as a checkpoint, to make sure that never happens.

Trust, trust, trust.

It will or it won’t be okay, but your best chance to make it work is to TRUST.