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.