Weighing the cat

There is an article on the bbc website about procrastination including a short story about someone who was found to be avoiding starting something by literally weighing the cat. Apparently he didn't feel he could proceed without this vital bit of data. Therefore, the family now referred to procrastination as "weighing the cat". And that is what I am doing at the moment....I have a large pile of job descriptions to evaluate but I am finding it rather difficult to start. However, I did read an excellent piece of advice some years ago when in this situation - if you are finding it difficult to start something just start it and the rest is easy. So I may be about to finish weighing the cat and just starting work.

Old friends

In Horsell Scout and Guide HQ there is a notice baord with all the names of those getting Queens Guide between 1971 and 1983 or so. The first 4 names are Shirley Lovelace, Kathryn Green, Denise Cheeseman and Georgina Cheeseman and today the four of us were altogether to celebrate Horsell Guides 40th birthday. To be truthful the first 2 were from 3rd Horsell Guides - which is the unit whose birthday it was - and the second two from 1st Horsell Guides - now closed. Also there was one of the first leaders, Jill Wadley, as well as another of the original Guides - Lorraine Harvey. What is amazing is that we hadn't changed that much. There were still fond memories of Guiding and a lot of news to exchange. We had a great time!

4G - great evening lots of posts filled!

Anytime you plan a major event you need a lot of help. For Camp 4G in August next year we need people to help with activities, PR, camping grounds, service team, admin etc. However, with a lot of hard work we are gradually filling the key roles - watch this space for further news!

Twitter

I am now on Twitter so you can follow me on #georginafch

21st Century Comms

Surrey West are bang up to date as we launch a DVD on You tube and a facebook page aimed primarily at girls of Senior Section age. Look at facebook.com/GGSurreyWest and you can see both. Next stop - Twitter!

A great role model

On June 22nd one of our Trefoil Guild members in Walton on Thames reaches 100. To celebrate she is doing a sponsored swim. If that isn’t amazing enough, I am told she is an amputee. They make them special in Walton, don’t they!

Sorry for the long gap

Sine the last post appears to be from March - and I have only just released the April one - it does seem a long time since I blogged. However, things have been busy in life, work and Guiding.  Life - boomerang children are keeping us on our toes.  I like having them but I am not too keen on the boxes, extra furniture etc.  And there do seem to be an enormous number of shoes in the hell nowadays.
Work - angry client keeps asking me to do work but we are very very busy and I am working in Zurich quite a lot at the minute so the last thing I want to do is help her when I just get beaten up about things.  So I work out what things will cost then double it - might as well get paid for the aggravation.
Guiding - seems to be booming at the mo.  Commissioners and Advisers Air and Share went well - lots of ideas for growing guiding etc.  Census still dragging on with the final few still to pay.   Our numbers are now just short of 10000.  A great Geocaching badge launched.  Lots of work done at HW - including a clean sheet for the water supply.  Best of all though - we have permission to have the song we wanted on the DVD we are  making.  And lots lots lots more.

The bullying client

I have been quiet recently because since getting back from Wales (See previous post) I have been trying to cope with a very difficult client. I should have been warned at th start when she phoned me and threatened to report me to my Chairman for not returning calls - which I had 3 times and have the phone records to show that. Unfortunately due to a mistake by colleagues I got data for a report very late and so the report was a rushed job and, as it transpired, the data they sent me was wrong. Since then, no matter what I do they find fault - X is NOT happy/X is angry/This could have been written by a 6 year old/I could have produced these charts (well of course you could - it is your data but you asked me to produce them...).

There comes a point where you have been polite, defended yourself, pushed back on the more extreme comments and then you think it just isn't worth it anymore so you stop saying anything. However, their last demand is probably going to be the tipping point - I must join a conference call during my holiday next week where they will, no doubt, tear me off another strip. I have pointed out it is my holiday but they don't think that is a good reason - my husband on the other hand, rightly, says I should refuse. None of the other people on the project are willing to help me out so I am stuck. I really am at my wits end on this one.

Still Surrey west is 2.3% bigger than it was a year ago....must look on the bright side.

Tan - that's Welsh for Fire

I was doing some work in Wales this week and staying at a place called Abercynon north of Cardiff. On Thursday evening, because it was a beautiful day and I had been indoors, I decided to go for a walk over the hills. As I set out I noticed a plume of smoke so walked towards it to see what it was. I walked past the hotel and past a golf course when I saw, in a stand of trees a quarter of a mile further on, a fire that looked a bit big for a bonfire. So I called the Fire Brigade. Not being local I had difficulty explaining where I was but got there eventually. In the meantime the fire was spreading. I sat and watched it for 20 minutes or so when I decided I might be safer at the hotel given a golf course would be quite a good firebreak.
The next day I drove past where the fire had been - right where I had stood to call the Fire Brigade. 40 or 50 acres were now black where the bracken had burned. I was told by my client that they had had to close the railway line as the fire spread down towards it. Even in Wales it is a dry year it seems.

You came 2nd in a knitting competition -and won £1.50

I have been knitting a cable knit jumper for a few weeks. I enjoy knitting as you can easily pick it up and put it down again. Anyway, I heard that they were short of entries for the Allotment Society show so I decided to enter my jumper. At the time it needed sewing together (the bit I hate) so I spent Friday evening at Guides doing that. I entered and came 2nd! The winner was also a cable knit but much finer and almost certainly more carefully sewn. Next year I will allow myself more time - and aim to win.

Bigger than ever

At the County Commissioners conference last weekend, Gill Slocombe asked us to get one more girl into our units - and it looks like we are already doing that: yesterday I discovered that Surrey West have 9800 members and recognised volunteers on Go! Our numbers have been creeping up but never before been above 97xx. Hurray and well done!
It was also a relief at last to meet with County Commissioners of as big and some bigger Counties at the conference. In the session where we joined in size groups I was with Leicestershire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire and one of the CCs said what a relief it was to not feel like a freak. I know what she means. Being so large, Surrey West has to be efficient and as professional as it can. Equally it is able, should it choose, to pay for services. Many smaller Counties can run in a much more informal way. Trying to tell them about how you have a County Office or use an accounting package is not relevent for them so I was finding that networking consisted of me telling them things they weren't interested in and them telling me things that we have moved well beyond. I spoke to Gill Slocombe afterwards to suggest a Large Counties conference so we could share ideas and experiences. I am sure we would find it really useful.

Subscription progress

Well done everyone who has paid their subscriptions - 76% so far although I know others have paid following Margaret's reminder but the cheques are still to be processed. However, we need to have 80% paid before we get money back......so let's have another push.

Full house in the County Team

For the first time in my time as CC we have a complete set of County Advisers and Division Commissioners. How about that? Not only that but we have some roles most Counties don't have like a Climbing Adviser (shared with Surrey East) and Social Media Editors (Very very recent appointment). What is great is that many of the recent applicants have been young Guiders (sorry - if I say young Leaders it could confuse) and Senior Section. That is a massive breath of fresh air for the middle-aged group they are joining and exactly where we should be going to find the next generation of County appointments.

Photos and films

Today we held an all day session to get some photos and videos suitable for our campaign showing how Guiding can help your life. We had Leaders who told their stories about Guiding - whether it was Guiding helping them swim the Channel/find a husband (yes really)/ start a business/ learn new skills/ have fun ..... and we had some great girls who played, did crafts, got very wet in the rain and, I hope, had a good time. We should have a lot of footage to form the basis of the DVD we are making. We should also have some great shots we can use in annual reports etc. Not only that but all the seed pots I need for my allotment were made by Rainbows, Brownies and Guides so I am ready to plant this month in plenty of time.

Press Release - Guiding is Growing

As you may read in the paper or hear on the radio today, Guiding is growing by 1 new member a minute and remains the largest youth organisation in the UK. Hurrah! And it is the same for Surrey West where are numbers are now higher than ever with a total membership of well over 9700 of whom about 8000 are Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Senior Section and the rest are leaders and other volunteers. The great thing is that, since Go became fully operational, we have been able to map this and will be able to in future.
Of course, someone will bring up the Scouts - aren't they bigger/don't girls prefer them etc and the answer to the first is "No" and the answer to the second is that we welcome any girl joining the youth organisation that suits them. For some girls it will be Scouts but for others it will be Guides - others will prefer Girls Brigade, Red Cross, Sea Rangers etc etc and every single one of those organisations are giving them great life chances just as we are. I am happy if a child, girl or boy, is being helped to make the best of themselves - this isn't a numbers competition it is about our children's future.
PS - all of my children joined scouts or guides but only one is still involved and she is now a Guide Leader with Cindy in New Haw. My 2nd daughter was a keen actress at Yvonne Arnaud Youth Theatre and my son is an Army Cadet. They have all learned a lot from whichever they chose.

Allotment 3 and a cold

We now have compost bins, manure, raised beds ready to be built and a half painted shed. Now we are on the hunt for top soil. We couldn't do much last weekend because of the cold.

Drove to Pax Lodge to join Camberley Division for dinner. Because it was already snowing I left early and drove home using motorways because I thought they would be gritted. Ha ha. You couldn't actually see the road surface and the "lane" I was driving in could have been anything although it felt about the right distance from the edge.

Now I have a really bad cold....the first for ages. Hot and cold flushes, very bad chesty cough, and a clamp around my head. I caught it from my son.

This week is a quiet work week, fortunately, but I am seeing a creative agency on wednesday who are offering 8 hours free consulting for charities. It is based in Guildford and I aim to get some sort of steer on the best way to promote ourselves. I'll let you know how it goes

Allotment 2

We have cleared half the ground,dug out an oak tree, replanted the rasperries....there is a shed in my garden waiting to be transported to the plot. What we need is a compost heap so there is a nee to seek out pallets or similar. We have the wood for raised beds and stakes for the corner of the compost bins so we are getting on.

My Allotment

A week ago I took ownership of an allotment - or a half as those who know anything about these things would call it. I did have quite a long think about whether this would be a good idea given the state of my diary but I decided that, with help, it would be OK. So I called daughter 1's boyfriend to ask if he would help - and he said he would. We went and visited the site to plan what we needed to do - daughter 1 tagging along in a very cold and reluctant way. Then I asked daughter 2's boyfriend if he could provide us with raised beds - he works in a timber yard so there was method in my madness. Then I talked to my husband - who is not a keen gardener but will rake leaves or mow if forced. However, he seemed a little bit interested and even volunteered to come and get manure for the compost heap. We now have a small heap of this on site but compost bins need building when I get some pallets.
I have also ordered a shed but am waiting for permission from Walton Charities to put it up.
Actually I am quite excited about it - and even gave daughter 1's boyfriend permission to grow potatoes - but only earlies.

Just a youth club - but with a uniform?

I have been thinking about how Guiding is perceived and whether people are aware that we have a programme that is designed to encourage girls and young women to develop their potential and to take an active part in the community. All leaders should be aware of that too! But do we tell others? Probably not, which means there is a perception that Guiding is a "good thing" but no-one is sure why. So I would like this to change in Surrey West. My Annual report will focus on it and will use case studies of girls and women who have developed in Guiding and this has influenced and helped their career and educational choices. For example, Becky Smith has been our photographer at SWING and is now a professional photographer; there is a group of women who Surrey West supported to swim the Channel; one of our Guides sang to a packed crowd in Wembley at the Big Gig having won the Guiding Star competition. I am sure there are more - and I would like to hear about them.