Keeping in touch with parents of girls on your waiting list helps to maintain their interest ahead of a potential place in your unit.
You can use these response templates to reply to new enquiries, or as inspiration to write your own standard message.
It is good practice to keep a standard message ready for new enquiries. This helps you to include all of the information each time and makes lighter work of preparing a response.
Managing enquires
Don’t forget to change the new enquiry status on GO to Contacted, or Meeting Arranged. This allows you to see which enquires you have responded to, and any new ones you haven’t. It also means that GO will not email you, and your division commissioner, to tell you that you haven’t responded within a reasonably period of time.
Message opening
Introduce yourself and your unit, including the meeting location, day and time. Ensure your meeting place, day and time on GO, under unit details, is up to date. The parent would have seen that when registering and it is often a deciding factor when choosing a unit. They may remember your unit initially from its meeting place, day and time, rather than its name. Including this information in your message acts as both a reminder and confirmation that this is their chosen unit.
Hello,
Thank you for registering your daughter on the Girlguiding website.
My name is *Name* and I run *Unit*.
We meet at *Location* on a *Day* during term time at *Time* to *Time*.
No places available
If your unit is unable to offer a place within a reasonable time period, it is good etiquette to provide an idea of the potential waiting time, and advise that another unit may have a place available sooner.
Do take into account that, if the young member is not yet old enough, and possibly attending a lower section, they may not need a place straight way.
At the time of writing, GO does not tell parents, during registration, whether a unit has spaces. That is only shown to leaders during the transfer process. GO obtains this from the maximum unit size, on your unit details page, against the total number of active young members. Even so, it is best to keep your membership information update to date, and have an accurate number for your unit’s maximum size.
Unfortunately, we do not have any spaces available at the moment. I anticipate a place will become available within the next *Time Period*.
I can place your daughter onto our waiting list. Alternatively, if you prefer, I can transfer you to another unit which may have spaces? Apologies for the inconvenience.
Offering a place
You may be able to offer a place straight away, or can provide an exact start date in the near future.
I am delighted to say we have a space available for your daughter to start [straight away] on *Day* *Date*. If your daughter would like to attend this meeting, please let me know as soon as possible and I will make the arrangements.
Not old enough
For girls that are not yet old enough to start you could provide a simple acknowledgement and give an indication of when you will next be in touch.
Girls can start Rainbows at age 4 / Brownies at 7 / Guides at 10 / Rangers at 14 years old.
I have placed your daughter on our waiting list and I will contact you again approaching/following her [4/7/10/14]th birthday with further information.
The cost
If you are offering a place now, or in the very near future, do include the cost of subs, and any other additional fees or charges that will apply. Don’t forget to say when these will be payable.
To attend Rainbows/Brownies/Guides/Rangers, *£* will be due at the start of each term. These usually align with school terms, typically consisting of *Number* weeks.
Inviting volunteers
Encourage volunteering enquires in all of your communications. Often it is the combined effect of social media posts, paragraphs in emails and letters, as well as posters, that get results.
We are always open to welcoming a new volunteer into our unit. An additional volunteer would enable us to invite more girls to join us for meetings. If you or anyone you know are interested in this, please do let me know.
Signing off!
I look forward to hearing from you,
Best Wishes,
*Your name*
*Guiding name?*
*Unit*
*Contact details*