Justgiving

Please look at the Surrey West website www.girlguidingsurreywest.org.uk and click on the "make a donation" button on the right hand side. You will be helping several people to have a mountain top moment as you will be funding their Channel Swim. Please give what you can.

Planning Permission

We have got planning permission to build a new toilet and shower block on Herons Wey and to put up a fantastic playframe. We already had PP for a large toilet block but we revised this as it was going to be tough to find the money for; the new PP replaces this and makes the building programme more manageable. We still have to find money though. The playframe should go up shortly. It will be behind Weyside but we are adding to the copse between the playframe and the gate to shield the neighbours from noise of the screaming variety (their words).
It is good news for all of us and will allow us to modernise the facilities as well as being "green".

I'll keep you posted of details

The pleasures of letter writing

So often now we just wing off an email to someone in response to something but how rarely do we sit down and craft a letter? Maybe it is a generational thing because the Trefoil Guild are very good at writing letters and we had many lovely thank you letters after the Tea Party last year. I am not complaining now, but this contrasted to the event the next day when we got a few emails saying it was lovely but these were very few and no letters at all so far.
Following last week's rather gruelling Parish Council meeting, I have carefully drafted a number of letters addressing most of the points raised. What a pleasure it is to develop an argument and create proper sentences to explain yourself. To respond courteously and reasonably. To be clear and concise.
I write the letters then read them out loud to make sure they flow well. It may be old-fashioned and slow but it is so cathartic and creative. I also like to write the things I really want to say just to get them out of my system - and then delete them. Or sometimes I write them to my friends and we have a good laugh then I write my very proper letter.
I find this works with complaints too - you appear eminently reasonable while saying "no".
No doubt you knew all of this.

Patience is a virtue

They say that having children teaches you patience but I find that actually it is working with adults that does that. Interpret that as you want!

Snow

Snow looks very lovely and is a joy unless you have to travel or work. We have two snowmen in our front garden, one of which is 6 feet tall and has ab muscles.

The snow is gradually melting now, of course, so we may be able to walk to school and the railway station without slipping and sliding! I prefer working at home anyway and it has been acceptable in the last few days, but tomorrow I will go to the office if only to print things for my Guide meeting on Friday. I also have to go to Tilford tomorrow for the Parish Council as I am trying to get to know our neighbours at Herons Wey. Having had to be pushed out of roads in Guildford this morning, twice, in my car I am keeping a careful eye to make sure it is safe to go.

2010 and regular Guiding

I have sent an email to all of the Exec to passon so I hope that within the next few days you will recieve something from me telling you about all of our plans. However, if you don't get it then I am attaching it below (if technology permits) for you all to read...

To all my friends and colleagues in Surrey West – Happy New Year!

What a year we are entering as we celebrate the Centenary started last September at Wet and Wacky. How many fabulous events and opportunities lie ahead of us! But we shouldn’t forget that every week Guiding continues across Surrey West just as it does every year; hundreds of Leaders delivering the Guiding programme supported by hundreds of Commissioners, Advisers, Co-ordinators and other Helpers; thousands of girls learning new skills and developing their potential.

In 2009, A group of Commissioners, Advisers, Trainers and others from across the County got together to decide what Surrey West was for – what we had to do to help all those Leaders working with girls. What we visualised was that every girl who wants to and could benefit from the Guiding programme in Surrey West should be in the position to do so. However, that makes some demands on us at County, Division and District level; are there enough Leaders? Can we help them develop skills to deliver the best programme? How do we inspire those Leaders to carry on helping?

A small group, the Guiding Development Group, have been thinking this through and have come up with lots of ideas that should move us in the right direction. As we enter 2010 I’d like to tell you a bit about what we have planned – it is not a complete list as we will be working further on the ideas throughout the year but I hope it will give you a flavour of what is to come.

Attracting people of all ages to help the girls who join us participate in our distinctive, stimulating and enjoyable programme of activities;
We will help you recruit more adult helpers by offering you the guide to recruitment we wrote last year with Surrey East; Take a look and use it!
We will take advantage of PR opportunities to publicise what we do – you can do that locally too.
We will promote flexible Guiding.
We will encourage potential helpers to give whatever time and skill they have as a Leader or in some other way.

Training adults and Young Leaders in the skills they will use in Guiding;
The new Leader packs introduced last year will be used to welcome new volunteers;
New to Guiding trainings will be available throughout the year.
We will find and train mentors in all areas of Guiding – would you be interested?
We will find and support “trainers” and “Trainers” to strengthen our training team. Is this something you could do?
We will offer training courses as required. One of our members suggested Minibus training and we have organised it – is there something else you think we should offer?
We will start to train Commissioners to support their Division or District as best they can – if they need it.
We will make sure everyone knows about and can take part in training sessions, so keep an eye out on the Weekly News.

Inspiring them to continue giving us support;
We will make sure we recognise what you do and thank you for it; celebrating your success publicly. You can nominate and thank your own local heroes as well.
We want to keep your skills even if you can no longer be a Leader so we will make sure someone talks to you about it long before you leave and we will keep in touch.
We will make a special effort to keep in touch with our Senior Section as they go off to University – and we will make contact with Students at the Higher and Further Education Institutions in Surrey West.

Facilitating delivery of Girlguiding UK’s programme through the provision of and access to essential resources;
We will make sure you have the funding to do what you want to do, if it is available – look on the website or Weekly News and if you hear of funding then why not let us know?
We will make sure you have the advice and support you need from our advisers and co-ordinators by making sure we have the Advisers we need and they have the skills they need.
We will make sure you know where to find help – the County website is up and running and we hope you will use it more and more this year.
We will offer an exceptional Programme of activities for all ages – this year the Centenary will be the theme and you will be hearing a lot about it through the year. This will include things for adults which we hope you will support. If you have ideas then let us know. We can’t promise we will do everything but we know that out there people are saying “why don’t County....?” so don’t let it be a rhetorical question!
We will manage Herons’ Wey so that it provides an exceptional place for all our members.

Underpinning all of this is our wish to provide a flexible and supportive environment; and combine respect for the individual with having fun.

You will be the best judge of how any of us match up to this! At the end of the year look back and see whether we have done what we said. Have you shared your thoughts with us? Are we meeting up to your expectations?

I always love to talk about Guiding and you are welcome to email me on countycommissioner@girlguidingsurreywest.org.uk or phone 07884 110 677 with ideas, comments and news.

In the meantime can I thank my wonderful Guiding Development Group for these ideas; Alison Watson (Chair of Adult Support and Assistant County Commissioner), Denise Clark (County Treasurer), Bronach Hughes (Esher Division Commissioner representing Commissioners), Rachel House (joint Chair of Marketing and Information) and her predecessor Julie Alexander. This year we hope to add a Chair of Programme to our team who will represent Advisers.

Happy Guiding in 2010.

Georgina