FAQs

You can buy directly from Girlguiding's Trading website, or find your local volunteer-run shop here. You can make orders over the phone too - for more information click here.


Girlguiding
Girlguiding is our national charity. They look after your personal data in their membership system and produce everything from training workshops which our region volunteer trainers deliver, to programme badges for your girls to work towards. Girlguiding is a member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (also known as WAGGGS).

Countries and regions
There are ten countries and regions within Girlguiding. These all have a staff team (of varying sizes) and are there for the support of their lead volunteers. As independent charities, they follow the Girlguiding principles but have the autonomy to run their own challenges, events and campaigns.

Counties
Our region is split into 19 counties. Each county is headed up by a volunteer county commissioner who takes part in governing our region by sitting on our steering group. All county commissioners report into our region chief commissioner.

Divisions and Districts
Some counties are split into divisions which then may split off into districts. Other counties may just have districts or divisions. It often depends on the size of the county! Each will be headed up by either a division or district commissioner. Learn which divisions/districts sit within your county here.

Units
Units are led by unit leaders. Volunteers at this level tend to volunteer weekly to run unit meetings for Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers. This is often the stage where volunteers start. Learn more about volunteering for Girlguiding here.

All unit meetings are run by volunteers so we hope you can understand it is sometimes hard to juggle work/ life and volunteering. Due to the Girlguiding data protection policy we won’t be able to give out individual email addresses but if you’d like us to contact the unit leader for you, please contact the office (ideally with your daughter’s unique reference number which would have been issued on registration).

After we’ve notified you this has been done, please allow a further 10-14 days for a volunteer response.

Note: Due to over-demand in some areas places are limited and we can’t guarantee there will be room for your daughter in your chosen unit. Want to open your own unit? Learn more about volunteering here.

First, talk to your current unit leader who might be aware of other units with space in the area. If a solution can’t be found, contact our office team who will be able to contact alternative unit leaders for you.

Please note: Due to over demand in some areas, places are limited and we can’t guarantee there will be room for your daughter in an alternative unit. Please allow 10-14 days for a response from volunteers.

Contact the region office with your daughter’s membership number and we’ll ask the unit leader for you. Please allow 10-14 days for a response from volunteers.

Firstly, talk to your daughter's current unit leader as they may have connections with a local Guide unit. If you need further clarity please contact us with your daughter’s membership and more information.

Girlguiding is a volunteer-led organisation and units are 100% volunteer-run.

Due to over demand in some areas places are limited and we can’t guarantee there will be room for your daughter. The most common reasons units struggle with capacity are:

  • meeting space capacity;
  • a long waiting list;
  • ratios of adults to girls.

If the problem is the latter, you might want to consider offering to volunteer as an occasional helper! Speak with your local unit leader to see whether this is the case and how you can help or learn more about volunteering here.

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