Congratulations Amanda

We are delighted that Amanda has been reelected to the WAGGGS Europe Committee. Amanda has worked so hard over the past three years and we are looking forward to seeing everything else she can achieve in the next Triennium.  Joining Amanda on the committee are Nina from Sweden, Corinna from Switzerland, Pascale from Belgium, Sharon from Malta and Eri from Greece.

In the picture below Amanda is surrounded by the Girlguiding UK delegation, keynote speaker Bijal and Nicola Grinstead, Girlguiding UK member and vice-chair of the WAGGGS World Board.

Future Strategy

This afternoon we have looked at the future strategy for WAGGGS Europe.  Much of what can be achieved is determined by how much budget there is.  WAGGGS Europe is different to other Regions within WAGGGS in that MOs pay an extra financial contribution to have additional services and an office in Brussels. The economic climate in Europe has been a challenge for many MOs and the extra contribution puts a starain on many countries.  The Committee is recommending no inflationary increase for the next triennium, which means a reduced budget in real terms.

The Committee propose a strategy that covers growth, gendered leadership and diversity. There will be a need to seek additional funding for many proposed projects and there's an important aspect of ensuring that the work is relevant to the whole of the Region, covering WAGGGS-only and Scout and Guide National Organisations. The Committee and staff team have done a lot of work to pull together a strategy proposal and there is lots for Girlguiding UK to think about in terms of how best out of our membership of WAGGGS Europe as well as the skills and resources that we can offer to both the Region and other MOs within Europe Region.

Body image Keynote Speech

So to kick off our Sunday morning we started with an inspiring 3-part keynote speech focusing on a key issue facing girls across Europe - Body Image.  Our first speaker was Sarah Anderson.  Sarah is a volunteer member of the No More Page 3 Team. The ‘No More Page 3’ campaign is a petition calling for The Sun newspaper to stop printing pictures of topless women on page 3, and has gathered over 90,000 signatures. It was started during the Olympics in summer 2012, when a writer called Lucy-Anne Holmes found that the largest female image in The Sun was of a young woman showing her breasts, even though Jessica Ennis had just won her gold Olympic medal.

Sarah talked to us about the representations that we see in the media in the UK and across Europe. Less than a quarter of political representatives across Europe are women and the majority of mainstream sports coverage is for male sport. In the UK only 5% of national newspapers are edited by women. Whilst that more women editors doesn't guarantee better female representation within the pages, it's got to help, right?

Dr Phillippa Diedrichs is a research health psychologist specialising in body image and eating disorder prevention. She has a PhD in health psychology and is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Appearance Research at the University of the West of England.  She shared her research, and referred to the Girlguiding UK Girls Attitudes research, that shows that how a person thinks about the way they look has a significant impact on their lives.  This is a significant issue for girls but does also affect boys and adults.  When a girl has low body image they are also likely to be impacted by other issues such as poor nutrition and difficulties with their mental wellbeing.

It also impacts on their social interactions and is a huge barrier that girls guiding and girl scouting must tackle as a barrier to empowerment.  Girls who are unhappy with the way they look are less likely to engage in social situations or to take action on social justice issues. Our purpose is to enable girls to fulfil their potential and to be a powerful force for good and so this is an area that we cannot ignore.

The keynote speech was finished off by Bijal Rama from Girlguiding UK's Advocate group. Whilst her family protected her from the kind of images in The Sun they are unavoidable at school and out in the community.  She felt judged by others against the ideal body image that was held up in these papers.  Guiding helped Bijal to develop the confidence to be herself in the safe non-judgemental environment we provide, with strong female role models.

Girlguiding UK signed up to the No More Page 3 campaign after a call from our young members. This was an issue that they felt passionately about and so we got behind the campaign.  Please join us by signing the petition.

The past triennium

This afternoon the Guide conference started with a presentation on the past triennium.  It was great to hear about the  work that the committee has undertaken, along with the staff team at the Europe office.  Volunteers like Amanda Medler, have worked hard to get around 87% of Member Organisations (MOs), helping girl guiding and girl scouting devlop. This has included developing girls as leaders through  the World Leadership Development Programme (WLDP) and supporting the development of the Stop The Violence campaign and programme (which Girlguiding UK is piloting).

It's been a busy three years, especially as there have been changes within the committee and the staff team and to make sure that the Region builds on the succeses and learns from the challenges they also undertook an external evaluation to help forward planning to be more targetted on the needs of the MOs and to ensure that resources (time and money) are applied effectively and efficiently.  A lot of work has also been done to get the finances in order to ensure that the Region knows where the money is going and is starting to look at return on investment.

Strengthening the relationship with MOs and expanding fund development are key activities at the moment.  This will ensure that we as MOs get value for money from our membership of WAGGGS, and in particular WAGGGS Europe, and that these benefits impact on the girls that we support every week.

So alot has happened, but there is still so much more to do to help more girls and young women to fulfill their potential and to be a powerful force for good. Can't wait to get onto future strategy now  ...

Raise your hands for Amanda Medler

The Girlguiding UK delegation are very excited to be supporting Amanda Medler as a candidate for the WAGGGS Europe committee. Amanda has spent the past three years helping WAGGGS Member Organsiations across Europe, finding solutions to problems and lending her hand to otherqs.  She works in partnership with others, the staff and the widere European team, as well as with WOSM.

Voting for Amanada is voting for continuing the great work of  the current committee to get the work of WAGGGS Europe coordinated and driving forward growth and quality in girl guiding and girl scouting in Europe.

Whilst Amanda comes form Girlguiding UK, a WAGGGS-only organisation, she has a strong understanding of the needs of Scout and Guide National Organisations and the benefit that they bring to WAGGGS in Europe.

If you are at conference and want to know more about Amanda just come and find any of the Girlguiding UK delegation. Today we are all in white polo shirts and red, white and blue scarves.

Opening the joint conference

And so the conference proper is underway.  After sorting out who can vote and getting the right channel on our translation headsets the conference is officially opened.  We started with a speech from two German former youth delegates to the UN General Assemby to talk about young people influencing youth policy worldwide. It is so important to start a conference like this remembering that we are youth organsiations and our focus must be on the impact we have on young people across Europe.

Their recommendation is to act local and think global, and to do this by seeking partners for your organsiation.  Girlguiding has a great example of this in the Girls in Action project. We are working in partnership with five charities to focus on issues that affect girls and young women in the UK and across the globe and helping girls to take action for other girls.  It is a fantastic project with some amazing charity partners.  You can find out more on our website or if you are at the conference visit our exhibition stand.

They also gave us a call to action to help more young people discover Scouting and Guiding.  Whilst we reach many young people across Europe there are so many more whwo don't get the opportunities that we offer.  We have a responsibility to reach out and engage more children and young people to give help them develop to fulfill their potential and to be a powerful force for change.

And let's be proud to be be Guides and Scouts!

What a first day!

The conference git off to a flying start today with an opening ceremony outside the Reichstag - what a setting! It was a great opportunity to start the dialogue about building Europe together. It ended with some fantastic stars decorated by German Guides and Scouts that came together to form the European flag, followed by scarves decorated by each delegation showing how Guides and Scouts can build Europe.

All followed by a bbq, quick drink and networking, and an early night ready for a full-on day tomorrow!