Representing Girlguiding at WAGGGS Growth Conference in Budapest!

By Brandi Lee Lough Dennell

My early morning flight from Edinburgh to Budapest, and bus to the city centre, delivered me to downtown Budapest in time for some sightseeing before I headed to my final destination. The weather was sunny and warm and I gleefully set out, with my detailed airport map and index card of key Hungarian words and phrases, to see what the capital city was like. Since I only had a few hours to find lunch and travel to the conference, I decided to leave indoor visits like museums for another trip, and instead walked all afternoon. Although I intentionally visited the largest synagogue in Europe and found a vegan food truck, just wandering the city with open eyes was great. The city is bisected by the River Danube, with a series of very busy bridges connecting traffic, and also has many parks and green spaces amongst the historic and business buildings. I was excited to see a lot of public art: I found a colourful ‘pop-up park’ with benches, tables, and games installed, and found statues, murals, and beautiful buildings every time I turned the corner onto a new street. Since I enjoyed exploring the city so much, I bypassed public transportation to get to the conference that evening and walked there via the Chain bridge, along the river, and through the more residential side of the city.

The conference

I checked in to the European Youth Centre and headed to find my room before meeting other conference participants at dinner. As I walked to my room, I reflected on how attending a WAGGGS event has been on my ‘to do’ list for a long time. Many years before moving to Scotland I joined Girl Scouts USA at the age of 5, was a member all the way through high school, worked as a camp counsellor at a Girl Scout Camp for 7 years, and was a leader for two Girl Scout troops. Now, I’m a Guide leader in Stirling and a member of Girlguiding Scotland’s Growth Group, which looks at how we can bring girlguiding to those who haven’t previously engaged and continue to support members to take up further opportunities within Girlguiding.

This conference was a three day event organised by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) for member organisations in the Europe Region to focus on growth and development. Not only was I excited about hearing how other countries are sustaining and expanding guiding, but I was also thrilled to be representing Girlguiding. At dinner, I met a handful of other participants and we spent the evening together talking about our member organisations, our home countries, and our observations about the world today.

Soon, Friday morning came around and brought with it the official start of the conference. As the 6 WAGGGS facilitators and 24 participants introduced ourselves, it was clear that we brought a range of experiences with us. Some of us were volunteers with specific roles for growth, volunteering, or an area of the organisation’s development, or even national commissioners for their whole member organisation, while others were paid positions with similar development roles. Some of us had been members of our organisations as children, others joined when their children become involved and others were fairly new to the organisation when they saw a role advertised. We represented 16 member organisations from 15 different countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Georgia, Germany, Ireland, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and United Kingdom. What was clear across all these differences, was the commitment to the WAGGGS values that underpin our organisations and brought us together that weekend.

Throughout the conference, we took part in a range of sessions: speaking with the chair of the Europe Region Board about WAGGGS’s aims for 2020; hearing about a research project that took place in 9 countries; learning about a WAGGGS leadership programme being piloted; and, sessions on diversity, planning, branding, and reaching new volunteers to name just a few. One of the sessions that inspired me the most was on the first day when we each presented briefly on our membership organisations. My input on Girlguiding included the following:

• Our central membership database (GO), upgraded last year, which helps us understand the demographics of volunteers and members and keep track of badges or qualifications earned. 
• The new programme launched this autumn. 
• Focusing on growth of the organisation at a county level, with county growth plans to be informed by local factors. 
• Our annual volunteer recruitment campaigns. 

During this session, I heard about scouting and guiding across the 15 countries and was struck by the similarities in issues we’re all facing, like how busy lives affect the capacity to volunteer consistently or the general age range when young members often leave. I also learned about the unique social, cultural, and political circumstances that shape the way the organisations deliver their programme, including:

• Malta is so small that when young members begin studying at university, if they have remained in the country, they are still very close to their original units.
• In Belgium, they have a high percentage of young people involved in their organsation because their minister for youth and their king were both involved as children.
• Denmark has such a strong outdoor culture that it is easy for them to find local spaces for unit meetings with very young children in woodlands and parks that have access to indoor toilets and running water. 
• Recent political problems in Armenia and new regulations about outside organisations meeting in schools have meant that many guide units have had to close. 

Aside from the insight from session discussions and the hilarity of programmed games, the most memorable moments of the conference were the time we spent together in between sessions, at meals, and in the evenings listening to one another animatedly talk about inspiring work taking place, connecting over shared life experiences, taking in the beauty of Budapest at night on group evening wanders, or belting out songs together at the tops of our lungs. It’s hard to describe what it felt like to go to a foreign city with an unfamiliar language (although the conference was in English) and unfamiliar currency and have it feel so deeply like ‘home’ because of the people around me but that is the amazing thing about being part of Girlguiding, or any WAGGGS member organisation. No matter where you meet, if you meet another WAGGGS member, you’ll have quickly opened up a whole world of conversation and established a level of trust because we live by the same values. That’s the magic of guiding and it was wonderful to experience it at an international event.

What’s next? 

Now that I’ve had a chance to catch up with myself (I definitely prioritised hanging out with other participants over getting enough sleep) and typed up all my session notes, I will be sharing my learning with Girlguiding. I’ll also present on the conference at Girlguiding Scotland’s Growth Group meeting. From there, we’ll think about what information to share with local commissioners, leaders, and other parts of the organisation to make sure we are creating opportunities for every girl.

Get involved!

If you’re interested in getting involved in an international opportunity, there are many options available. You can take part in an international camp right here in the UK (like Camp Brave in Scotland during August 2020), with your unit abroad, or go on International Opportunities (IntOps) to other countries with members from across the country. If you’re 18-30, you might be interested in a Guiding Overseas Linked with Development (GOLD) trips. Read up on Girlguiding's international opportunities and start planning! There are also plenty of opportunities to get involved with international activities directly through WAGGGS, just scroll down to the bottom of their webpage.

Helen Storrow Seminar 2018

By Becca Rodgers

At the beginning of February I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel to Switzerland and take part in the WAGGGS Helen Storrow Seminar at Our Chalet. The Helen Storrow Seminar is an annual event where young women from around the world come together for a week to learn about leadership, change and the environment. It was founded in August 1986 and is named after Helen Storrow, and important figure in the early Girl Scout movement in America, and the founder of Our Chalet.

This year was the biggest seminar yet, with 42 participants, and 40 countries represented at Our Chalet. They have a tradition of putting the flags from all the countries present in a little flag log. They had to drill more holes into the log just for this event! For many of the participants it was the first time they had ever seen snow.

Throughout the week, sessions were held on the WAGGGS 6 leadership mindsets, examples of environmental leaders and change makers, as well as creating our own change plan to implement in our own community. It was great seeing the wide variety of change plans people came up with. They ranged from reducing trash on the streets and encouraging recycling to combating deforestation. I will be working on creating a badge to teach guides about environmental issues, and the changes they can make in their everyday lives to reduce their environmental impact.

As well as the seminar at Our Chalet, mini pop-up seminars were run throughout the world. During the seminar we were able to interact with some of these pop-ups via video call. It was inspiring to see what these other groups had been doing.

It wasn’t all work however. We also got to go sledging. It was great fun and a nice break from the more serious sessions. Every evening a session was run by the Our Chalet staff. These included a Swiss night, with a visit from an alpine horn player, an international night, with presentations and swaps from all the participants, and a “Who Wants to be a WAGGGS Millionaire” quiz. I also managed to find time to complete the Our Chalet Challenge.

It was an amazing experience I will never forget. It has given me a great group of friends from all over the world, as well as helping me develop my leadership skills and confidence.

Activate at Our Chalet 2018

By Roxy Thompson

In late January I was given the amazing opportunity to travel to Our Chalet in Switzerland to be trained in the WAGGGS resource “Voices Against Violence”. I have been interested in this resource since its launch and so was thrilled at the chance to learn all about it alongside new friends from many different countries. Four of us travelled from the UK to take part in the event.

I’m from Girlguiding Ulster, so of course it was inevitable that the first of my fellow participants that I met would be the delegation from the Irish Girl Guides! We arrived just in time for dinner, where we were quickly immersed in the international life of Our Chalet, joining volunteers from Zimbabwe, New Zealand and the USA for the meal. It was an early night after a long day of travel and an informative tour of the centre, and we wanted to be well rested for the start of the event the following morning.

Bright and early on Monday morning, we all came together in the conference room. An eclectic mix of participants from Ireland, Greece, Lebanon, El Salvador and, of course, the UK were joined by volunteers from Germany, Austria, the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Iceland, Venezuela and Hong Kong! We created a code of conduct for the training, and then began our journey.

We began by learning about the Safe Space and how to challenge harmful views respectfully. This included having a go a few short activities from the pack to help start the conversation about stereotypes and Gender Based Violence. In the afternoon, each group was given a form of Gender Based Violence and asked to match its causes, consequences and harmful myths to the heading. We then presented this to the rest of the group.

After dinner we enjoyed the Swiss night. We began with a group of volunteers (including myself) acting out the story of William Tell, then sang a song in Swiss German, did a quiz about Switzerland and enjoyed some delicious chocolate fondue.

On Tuesday the sun finally appeared, allowing us to fully appreciate the beautiful surroundings in which we were training. Participants could often be seen pausing at windows, and when moving between buildings, to take photos of the snowscape. 

We spent the morning breaking down myths about gender and Gender Based Violence, hearing some shocking facts and figures about the treatment of girls and women around the world - some of these shocking figures came from our own Girls Attitudes survey! In our groups we explored and then presented the sorts of myths and harmful beliefs surrounding the forms of Gender Based Violence and ways to challenge and defend against these myths.

We then moved on to looking at Gender and Diversity, examining the difference between sex, gender and sexuality. Even the youngest among us learnt some new terms! 

After lunch we started to look at facilitation skills, such as the difference between facilitating, teaching and lecturing. We discussed the importance of the code of conduct in keeping groups under control and enjoyed some examples of the different teaching styles from our trainers. We then looked at group dynamics and how to recognise and deal with certain behaviours, as well as the typical ways that groups build relationships. Then we were split into groups to plan an activity from the resource to run with the rest of the group the following morning. We had the evening to plan and prepare a short 15 minute activity, with each of us given a specific age group and part of the resource to work from. 

Tuesday night was my birthday, and I was surprised at dinner with candles on my dessert and getting to hear happy birthday sung in 10 different languages - English, German, French, Spanish, Icelandic, Finnish, Arabic, Greek, Cantonese and Irish! 

Wednesday morning saw us back in the conference room ready to run our activities - activities that talked about diversity, stereotypes, human rights, sex and relationships and violence. This also gave us the opportunity to discuss how to involve boys and men in the activities, as the pack is intended for all young people - a daunting prospect for those of us from girl-only organisations, but as the UN’s HeForShe movement shows, women alone cannot end Gender Based Violence. 

After lunch we had a Skype call with Nefeli and Jean-Anne from WAGGGS, who spoke with us about advocacy within WAGGGS and how Voices Against Violence fits into the wider picture. We learned about how to set up an advocacy campaign and practiced planning the first steps of a campaign in small groups.

Then, enthused and ready to take on Violence Against Girls and Women in our respective countries, we headed for our final meal all together, before heading out to an international campfire in the snow! Participants from all countries shared their favourite songs, and we discovered that some of them are even the same! We spent one last great evening hanging out with our new friends, before we has to say goodbye, as some of us had a very early start the following morning.

Stephanie, Victoria, Sarah and I returned home inspired and enthused by our experiences at Our Chalet, and look forward to sharing what we have learned.