IT'S PARADE NIGHT AGAIN!

3. KEEP THE BALL DOWN! Activities as boys arrive

The Officers' Handbook suggests that as Anchor and Junior boys arrive for their weekly programme they should go to their group corners where subs are taken, attendance recorded, membership cards examined and boys inspected. In practice it seems many sections have abandoned this practice. There are probably many reasons for this: lack of staff, subs paid in advance, boys not attending Sunday School so there is no need to check membership cards, boys arriving late etc.

Instead boys are often allowed to kick a ball around. This is sometimes a soft one, but on occasions the boys get hold of a plastic one and the cry soon goes up "Keep the ball down or else you'll break the lights or windows!" Whilst there is nothing wrong in football, in itself, is this the best use of the time? The boys can become quite excited so that it is difficult to achieve the appropriate atmosphere for the start of the evening proper. Ask yourself this question:

"Can I make better use of the time at the start of the evening?"

If you think that there is merit in re-organising the start of your programme then you may like to consider the following thoughts:

1. Encourage the boys to arrive on time! Then you can start the programme without delay. In practice this may be impossible to achieve since you rely on parents to bring them!

2. So instead, start the evening off with a suitable activity which requires little preparation and which boys can join in as they arrive.

3. If you are short of adult help try to recruit a parent or church member to take this for you so that you are free to talk to parents. Alternatively there may be a Company Section lad who has the confidence and ability to do this.

4. This activity can be a physical one. Circle games with a ball are an obvious choice. See the appropriate BB publications for details.

5. Alternatively the activity can be paper based. On-going work on word searches, colouring and simple craft-work are examples. Again see the relevant BB publications.

6. Try to provide some variety. Boys will soon tire of the same activity week in and week out.

7. For Company Section boys some companies have introduced elements of club night (billiards, table tennis, darts etc., but not football!) at the start of the evening and have their Opening Parade half an hour, or so, after the initial start time. If you haven't got a separate games room then this may not be possible. However it may be possible to have other activities: what ideas would work for you?