Day 3 - A walk across the Danube!

Hello, this is a blog take over by Kat (Midlands Region) and Becky (Lead Volunteer)

Today was the second full day of the academy! We were invited by the Irish Girl Guides to walk into Slovakia for a spot of breakfast! We found a lovely bakery and enjoyed the morning sunshine as we sat on a bench and ate our yummy treats. Visiting a different country before 9am got us excited for the day ahead and an unexpected country ticked off our lists!

Walking across to Slovakia!

One of the sessions today was entitled "In the shoes of the migrants: playing the 'game' of their journey to safety". It was an exciting and eye opening session which centred around a board game that had been created to help us understand the plight of the refugees. We learnt a lot of things about the refugee crisis and it's definitely a resource that can be used within our units when we return home.

Each day we are able to sign up to an optional 30 minute 'Points of Light' session and several of us chose "1 in 3 Voices against Violence". We learnt about the different types of violence, the warning signs of violence using scenarios and how we could use the resources to educate girls in our unit.

Today we were given a Hungarian Challenge to complete during our time at The Academy! We have to complete them before the closing ceremony on Saturday evening! The first challenge was to eat some hot chilli pepper sauce - a few of us stepped up to the challenge straight away, but regretted it!

Kat, Becky & Siân trying hot chilli pepper sauce

During the lunch break, a few of us had time to visit the city's Basilica which is the 3rd biggest Basilica in the world and the tallest in Hungary. As part of the challenge, we climbed an impressive 580 steps to the top of the dome - just for a selfie! It was a beautiful building and the sight from the top was well worth the climb.

After the afternoon sessions, it was time to get ready for the International Evening; a chance to showcase delicacies from around Europe and we didn't disappoint! Everyone made a great effort and showed a lot of enthusiasm. We created an 'afternoon tea' vibe with scones, jam, clotted cream and of course, pims and lemonade. The Scouts also complemented this with gin and biscuits from around the UK. Needless to say, our stand was extremely busy the entire evening! We all worked together as a great team and it was fantastic that even though we only met each other in person a few days ago, we pulled together and created a great stand!

The UK and Irish Delegation

Our afternoon tea stand

Day 2 - Let's get started!

Hello!! This is a blog take over by Jenny (North West Region), Emma (Ulster Region), Siân and Kat (Midlands Region).

Today was the first full day of The Academy! We attended two workshops, peer group sessions, had networking opportunities and attended the opening ceremony.

All four of us completed the “Influencing Youth Policy on National and Local Level” session. This was run by Elena, a team leader for external representation with the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM). We learnt how to develop a strategy via setting a goal, highlighting stakeholders, working with partners and identifying potential resources. Our facilitator then gave us time to create our own policy relevant to youth within our organisation. This allowed us to learn from other organisations from around Europe as well as focus on something Girlguiding relevant.

In the afternoon we split into different workshops: “Building Bridges between partnership organisations”, “Opportunities for Guides and Scouts on Political Platforms” and “Social Impact”. We were able to take away relevant skills to use in our local areas on our return to the UK.

Opening Ceremony

We were treated to a traditional Hungarian flag ceremony in the venue’s courtyard to officially open The Academy. The WAGGGS and the WOSM flags were raised to ‘Ode to Joy’, the Anthem of Europe. From here we went to the local restaurant to try a variety of Hungarian foods including their famous Goulash! This gave us an opportunity to mix with other Guides and Scouts from Norway, Romania and Italy. We celebrated 10 years of The Academy via a Stars Wars themed video of previous pictures and speeches presented by facilitators.... topped off with Happy Birthday and cake!

The UK Delegation

10th Anniversay Speech

We are looking forward to what tomorrow brings... more sessions, the start of points of light and special interest groups as well as International evening.

L to R: Siân, Rosie, Kat, Becky & Emily

Meet the delegation - South West Region

Meet the delegation - Maz Matthews

Hi, I'm Maz (or Ratty in my unit!) and I'm a Leader at 1st Boscombe Down, Stonehenge District. I'm looking forward to meeting so many volunteers and listening to all their experiences within Guiding.

My Favourite Guiding Memory

I actually have two! My first was at our Region Day at Legoland in Windsor. Everywhere we went, either another unit behaving wonderfully (hearing members of the public commenting on their behaviour was nice too) or recognising Leaders and units from either Foxlease (where I work), my County or various other Guiding adventures.
The second is being at Stonehenge at 7am for a special occasion and seeing so many Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Leaders in their uniform with their families and other members of the public. My mum asked me how I knew a lot of people at the event and the answer was simple - Guiding!

Meet the delegation - Rhi Bull

I'm Rhi from 2nd Cricklade Guides and 1st Purton Rangers. I'm looking forward to meeting so many amazing people from across the globe!

My Favourite Guiding Memory

Visiting Switzerland when I was a Guide myself and making my promise at out chalet when I was a Ranger too.

Meet the delegation - Midlands Region

Meet the delegation - Siân Adamson-Osborn

Hello, I'm Siân and I am a Leader at 1st Longdon Brownies, 1st Rugeley Rangers and Rugeley Chetwynd District Commissioner. I’m excited to be given the opportunity to develop my skills within Guiding and meet other passionate volunteers from across the world who work with Guiding and Scouting.

My Favourite Guiding Memory

My favourite Guiding memory (gosh it’s a hard choice), was helping at our County’s centenary celebration and getting to see over 7,000 Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers, Leaders and Trefoil having the best time at the biggest party ever and completely taking over our County Showground!

Meet the delegation - Kat Leeming

I'm Kat from 19th Shrewsbury Brownies and Shropshire Senior Section Coordinator Midlands Region. I am really looking forward to meeting other likeminded people from European Guiding and Scouting organisations and hearing all about their personal experiences. I’m also super excited to visit Hungary, to explore the numerous and very interesting sounding sessions that are being presented at The Academy and most of all bringing these ideas back to Girlguiding to aid developments in local Guiding and maybe further afield!

My Favourite Guiding Memory

I have so many fantastic Guiding memories to choose from so picking just one is a little difficult!! There is something though that absolutely stands out…. I was part of a trio of Senior Section members to organise the Midland Region camp ‘Carnival Fever’ for the Senior Section Spectacular in 2016. It was a 2 year project which I have so many happy memories from - our unforgettable and crazy silent disco, fireworks to ‘Reach’ by S Club 7, a carnival procession, watching Team GB win their women’s hockey gold medal at the Rio Olympics with the Chief Commissioner and Chief Guide, as well as gaining two life-long best friends! I'm sure that this week at The Academy will only add to my growing list of things that I can say 'I did that with Girlguiding'.

Meet the delegation - Rosie Austin

Hi, I'm Rosie and I am a leader with 147th Birmingham Brownies. I'm looking forward to meeting new people from across the world, and being able to share experiences and knowledge with each other.

My Favourite Guiding Memory

I have so many Guiding memories it is hard to pick. I love going to unit meetings each week and seeing the young people grow and develop as individuals but I think my favourite memories are from international adventures especially a trip I went on as a Senior Section member to Kandersteg.

Meet the delegation - Kat Tilley

Hi - I'm Kat and a Leader with 1st Bills Wood Brownies, 6th Shirley Rainbows and Bills Wood District Commissioner. I'm most looking forward to exploring the city and meeting new people.

My Favourite Guiding Memory

My favourite guiding memory was running the water sports experience at Girlguiding Warwickshire's International Camp, Arden 2014! It was five action packed days of activities, adventure, challenges and fun!

Meet the delegation - Ulster Region

Meet the delegation - Emma Taggart 

Hello, I'm Emma and I am a Young leader at Kilrea Rainbows and Kilrea Senior Section. This week I'm really excited to learn more about how WAGGGS operates on a global level. Also, I can't wait to participate in the extensive variety of workshops that are available during the week.

My Favourite Guiding Memory

As a Girlguiding delegate for the British Youth Council I had the opportunity to present a motion on axing the tampon tax at this years' Annual Council Meeting. Speaking out about such an important issue was not only empowering for me but also allowed me to raise awareness of the discriminatory tax which affects thousands of people throughout the UK.

Meet the delegation - Roxy Thompson

Hi, I'm Roxy and a Leader with 93rd Belfast Brownies. I'm most looking forward to meeting Guides and Scouts from other countries and learning more about their organisations.

My Favourite Guiding Memory

Best Guiding memory - very hard, there are so many!! I would have to say going to Estonia with GOLD;  I got to spend 3 weeks with some awesome ladies, exploring a new country and meeting Estonian Guide Association members! We had loads of laughs, and some great sessions discussing the Rover programme with some of the Rovers.

Meet the delegation - International Team

Meet the delegation - Emily Fisher

Hello, I'm Emily and a Leader with 6th Abingdon Guides, Anglia and the Lead Volunteer for International Events and Funds. I am also the delegation lead! I’m most looking forward to making some new international Guiding and Scouting friends, and building my skills to help me perform better in my Guiding roles!

My Favourite Guiding Memory

My favourite Guiding memory is difficult to pick as there are so many, but my favourite thing is seeing girls achieve something they didn’t think they could.

Meet the delegation - Becky Patten

Hi, I'm Becky and I am a Leader at 2nd Ashton-on-Mersey South Rainbows in Greater Manchester West County, North West Region and I am the Lead Volunteer for International Communications and Engagement. I'm really looking forward to developing my skills, especially to help me in my lead volunteer role. It will be great to meet other WAGGGS and WOSM members too and find out about how they deliver a great programme to their members.

My Favourite Guiding Memory

My favourite memory is leading a North West Region trip for Guides; the first time this has happened. We took 18 girls to Helsinki and took part in a community action project in Nuuksio National Park. It was a privilege to watch the girls gain in confidence and learn more about themselves and help them to take part in their first international adventure with Girlguiding.

Meet the delegation - North West Region

Meet the delegation - Jenny Long

Hi, I'm Jenny and I am a Leader at 206th Liverpool Senior Section, North West England. This week I am really looking forward to learning how Guiding operates internationally, what other countries and regions get up to, and what opportunities there are to get involved with Guiding globally. I want to learn everything I can!!

My Favourite Guiding Memory

My favourite memory was earlier this year when I got to visit Buckingham Palace with my unit. My girls got to meet Prince Charles and we had a great day in CHQ!

The Academy 2017, Hungary

Next week, over 200 members of WAGGGS and WOSM will join in Esztergom, Hungary for The Academy 2017!

Who's Going?

The UK we are sending a delegation of 11 lead by Emily Fisher, Lead Volunteer International Events and Funds. She will be joined by Becky Patten, Lead Volunteer for International Communication and Engagement, Marianne Matthews and Rhiannon Bull from the South West Region, Jennifer Long from the North West Region, Emma Taggart and Roxy Thompson from the Ulster Region and Siân Adamson-Osborn, Rosie Austin, Katherine Leeming and Kathryn Tilley from the Midlands Region.

Over the coming days, the delegation will introduce themselves and you can find out more about what they are most looking forward to at The Academy.

What is The Academy?

The Academy 2017 is a unique Scout and Guide event designed to enable participants to get high quality training and networking opportunities around the core priorities of the European Regions of WAGGGS and WOSM. The event is open to anyone holding a role at national level in a WAGGGS or WOSM Association, ranging from members of working groups up to Chief Commissioners.

How can you keep up to day with our experience?

Keep up to date with everything that we get up to at The Academy by followoing us on Twitter and Instagram: @ukintguides or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/GirlguidingAtInternationalConferences/

Thursday - Motions, Voting and Coming Together for Her World

Thursday 

After a fantastic day at Forum workshops sharing experiences and learning's between MOs, on Thursday morning it was back to the governance side of things with voting sessions on the proposed motions and amendments. You can read more about the motions in more detail in Document 6b here: https://www.wagggs.org/en/about-us/governance/world-conference/36th-world-conference/documents/ 

During the opening business of the conference on Monday, (which seems quite a long time ago already!) we voted and passed the first set of 10 motions, including those that affect the constitution of WAGGGS. During today’s session we had a grand total of 23 proposed motions and amendments to get through. Huge thank you and acknowledgement of the Conference Chair Sandra and her team as well of the procedural team led by Helen. They did an outstanding job at explaining the governance points, allowing meaningful debate and still keeping us to time. 

This was even more impressive when you remember that conference voted in favour of allowing motions to be proposed during the conference, with a Tuesday deadline ready for vote on Thursday! 

Some of the key motions that were passed by the World Conference: 

- 🎉 the World Board will conduct an investigation into the barriers preventing young women from applying for WAGGGS governance roles and develops concrete actions to address this 🎉

- Uganda 🇺🇬will host the 37th World Conference in 2020

- WAGGGS to continue ongoing work of cooperation with WOSM through advocacy on global issues affecting Guiding and Scouting📣

- WAGGGS recognises the importance and advantages of a girl-only environment and undertakes to protect this important aspect of girl guiding and girl scouting 🙋

- World Conference fees will continue to offer discount based on under 30 delegates and wealth band💷

- Development of tools around girl guiding and girl scouting educational methods for different age groups👭👫

- Recommendation to host a Girl Guide/ Girl Scout Experienced Forum in the next triennium👭

- Arabic is now the 4th official language of WAGGGS alongside English, French and Spanish 📢

- Kusafiri is continued to be supported with a dedicated programme of events, budgets and scholarships🌍

- Agenda 2030 and Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security is integrated into the 2018-20 Global Strategic Plan ☮️

- Coordination of International Commissioner contact details on an annual basis📝

- the World Board encourages the preparation of MOs for future World Conferences✏️

We were particularly excited about the response to proposed motion 32, which Bekky had written in partnership with Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Austria and co-signed by a further 11 MOs. The motion passed with 103 in favour, one of the largest majority’s of the morning and received a standing ovation from the floor.  

The voting session finished with passionate debates around the final two motions relating to our relationship with WOSM and the importance of girls-only space. As the UK delegation we were really pleased that both motions passed and spoke to support this during the session. As a girls only organisation with a good relationship with our WOSM counterparts, UK Scouting we are strongly in support of a girls only environment but also recognise that co-education is important and other models are of equal value. It is important for each MO to chose a model that is right for their situation and we are confident that WAGGGS can continue to support the girl only environment and to work closely with WOSM on issues affecting Guiding and Scouting.  

“Coming together for Her World” was the fantastic afternoon and opportunity to hear from many of WAGGGS partners and provided us with lots to think about in our own work.  

We hear about the Sustainable Development Goals and how WAGGGS’s expertise and priorities of non formal education, leadership development and advocacy are shaping what we do. 

We also heard from U-Report, TheGoals.org, UPS Foundation, Dove, UN Women and an exciting new fundraising platform set up to support WAGGGS – the World Guide Foundation. 

Wednesday - Forum Day!

Wednesday

Today marks the half way point to the 36th WAGGGS World Conference! We started off the day of course with our delegation morning meeting over breakfast. We are all enjoying the wonderful waffles and pancakes the hotel has on offer. It's was great to spend the morning together as we were all doing different things for the rest of the day.

Today's is a unique day for the conference as it consisted of various forum workshops that were taking place which were on so many different topics, it was hard to decide what to do!

We decided today would be the day we wore our lovely Girls Can t-shirts. We decided early in the morning to take our delegation photograph before we all split up (or spilt something down our nice white t-shirts!). We made some lovely friends from Palestine whilst we were outside in the sunshine, after spending quite a bit of time inside in the cool rooms with air con the heat was a little bit of a surprise to our systems.

Lots of photos on our Facebook page here - https://www.facebook.com/GuidingWAGGGS36thWorldConference/

We were excited for session two as we hosted our very own forum session on the topic of Social Action. We had 50 attendees to our session who were keen to learn about what Social Action is and how they can get involved themselves. We gave examples of different social Action projects that have already taken place in Girlguiding UK including a project to make Ivybridge in Devon a Fairtrade town and Girlguiding’s Action for Change project.


After hearing a little about what Social Action is the attendees were challenged to come up with their own ideas for Social Action project ideas and shared stories about projects they have done themselves. It was really great to hear the variety of projects that had already happened around the world as well as the inspiring ideas groups came up with.

At the end of our session we gave our attendees their very own Girls Can badge which they were keen to wear proudly on their scarves and conference lanyards.

We all enjoyed greatly all of the other forum sessions that we attended and thank the forum session leaders for all their hard work and inspirational messages.

The majority of the conference delegates spent the evening off on their adventures in either the markets of New Delhi or at a Bollywood evening. Our UK delegation decided to use the night off to spend some quality time together after spending the day apart. We enjoyed a lovely evening meal in the hotel as well as plenty of laughs and giggles.

Time for bed to get some very important sleep ready for tomorrow!

~ Leah

Tuesday - discussions, markets and networking

Tuesday

Another jam packed day at Conference!

Morning business was all about the proposed motions and amendments submitted prior to the Conference. Whoever has proposed the Motion has the opportunity to give a short introductory speech about the background and rationale behind the motion before the discussions are opened up to everyone. Every MO is only allowed to speak once on each motion for 3 minutes and we had a morning of lively debates and in depth discussions about the finer points of the proposed motions.

You can read more about the Motions that we will be voting on the WAGGGS website here: https://www.wagggs.org/en/about-us/governance/world-conference/36th-world-conference/documents/

Depending on the type of action or change being put forward either Full or Full and Associate Members can vote. For example, a change that affects the WAGGGS Constitution can only be voted on by Full members and needs 75% for the motion to be passed.

We discussed a wide range of motions - from approving a name change for Luxembourg Scouts from Bureau de Liaison des Associations des Guides du Luxembourg to Letzebuerger Guiden a Scouten, Membership Fees and how they are decided, to who should host the next World Conference!

After lunch it was time for the Market of Ideas - an opportunity to share some of the fantastic work happening in Girlguiding and learn from others around the world. We'll share some of the really interesting ideas and projects we heard about later in the week!
We also had the opportunity to participate in Networking meetings including MOs running the Free Being Me programme, the largest girl-only MOs and learning about mentoring new countries.

The rest of the evening provided an opportunity to go speed dating with the World Board candidates! It was a great chance to talk to each candidate more in depth about their skills and what they will bring to the board.

Monday - new members, strategy and opening ceremony

Monday 

The first official day of Conference with a Extra-ordinary General Meeting to tidy up some business from the 35th World Conference that took place in Hong Kong 3 years ago. This was related to a change in where and how WAGGGS is registered as a UK Charity - a very technical way of getting Conference started but an important part of our governance.

After this we were able to get started with the opening of the 36th World Conference and moved quickly on to the first votes; appointing the Chair of the Conference, Tellers and some interesting constitutional amendments. The conference voted in favour of a series of motions proposed by the World Board that now allow for both motions and amendments to be proposed during the Conference itself, this will allow much greater opportunity to Member Organisations (MOs) during the week to raise and act upon important issues that arise from discussions.

Our electronic voting pad for the week!

This also means the Procedural Team (who make sure everything we vote on fits within the rules and regulations of WAGGGS) and team of translators have a very busy time on Tuesday evening getting all new motions and amendments prepared for distribution in time for discussion and voting on Thursday!

Several of the blog readers will know about the incredible team of interpreters and translators that work very hard throughout the conference and we're really proud that Jo, from Cheshire Border, North West England is the Chief Interpreter and doing an excellent job.

One of the most amazing and important voting sessions of the conference also happens on the first day, and that's voting in of new associate and full members so they can fully participate throughout the rest of the conference. Excitingly the conference voted and passed a motion that now allows a prospective MO to go straight from no membership to Full Members without needing to go through the Associate membership step.

Albania and Niger both became Associate Members, Aruba and Syria changed from Associate to Full Member and Azerbaijan and Palestine, with the new motion passed, became Full Members.

We are lucky to be sharing our conference table with Azerbaijan and share in their joy of becoming full members. Aruba has been a UK GOLD project since 2016 so them becoming a full member was a bittersweet moment, as unable to attend the conference at the last minute due to circumstances outside of their control. 

During the membership session we heard from the World Board and Region Committees about some of the outstanding work that has happened in the last trienium. Some highlights:

quadrupled membership tripled to has reached m .m in 2017 and ambition of million by 2020 in Africa

Asia Pacific Region on becoming the biggest Region at .million members and well on target for million by 2020

After a quick sugar boost of chai and biscuits we were ready for the World Board nominee presentations. Catherine did an excellent presentation (watch it here!) and it was great to hear from all 9 candidates about their skills and passion for Guiding.

Catherine with her special Candidate scarf from the World Board

The day finished with the Opening Ceremony, it's hard to describe just what it was like so I hope our pictures help!