Pip’s Perspective – a message from the Chief Commissioner
How waterproof are you? That was the question at Girlguiding Surrey East County's Starquest event a couple of weekends ago, what a contrast to the weather the 2 weekends either side of it! The resilience of our volunteers leaves me in constant admiration, whatever the weather we can be depended upon to 'be prepared' and out of our Mary Poppins sized bags will come spare raincoats, bin bags, plasters, wet wipes, tissues, sticky tape, biscuits, water, sun cream, sun hats, smiles and a vast repertoire of songs to gently (and sometimes not so gently!) encourage the girls.
Of course much of what makes our volunteers so special can't be taken out of a backpack; it's that being prepared-ness that comes from experience, from learning from our peers, from our excellent Trainers, from reading the publications and the Guiding Manual, from engaging in social media. It's the willingness to learn and to develop our skills, to take on board new initiatives, to continually assess the risk and then go that little bit further to give the girls the fun and adventure that is guiding. Thank you to ALL our very special volunteers for ALL that you do to make guiding so special.
This year is the 30th year of Volunteers Week, a great time to get talking about volunteer opportunities in your area and the huge impact Girlguiding volunteers have in their communities. Our new 'How we made a difference report' shows external audiences the huge impact our charity made in 2013.
pipmck@girlguidinglaser.org.uk
Twitter: @ PipMcKerrow
Interested in editing Raspberry Ripple?
We are currently seeking a new Editor. The role is a weekly commitment to proofread the latest issue and to co-ordinate the newsletter articles.
If you are interested, please contact Cleo (CleoD@girlguidinglaser.org.uk) at Region HQ for more information.
Thank You
1 to 7 June is Volunteer Week, and to all it is a great big thank you for all you do in guiding to give more girls opportunities to experience all guiding has to offer, so one great big THANK YOU.
How do you say thank you in your local area? It would be great to hear the ways in which the leaders in your area are thanked for all they do? Or do you give out thank yous in your units? Whether it be a thank you meal for all your parents and their support in the past year or an awards evening for your leaders it would be great to hear how you say thank you.
An exhibition project to mark International Youth Day.
The Wiener Library and Girlguiding UK’s Senior Section are offering six enthusiastic individuals the chance to curate a special exhibition in the Library’s Reading Room.
The Wiener Library holds Britain’s largest archive relating to the Holocaust and Nazi era.
What is the opportunity?
Each participant will receive extensive training from Library staff on how to put an exhibition together, from the conception of an idea to the research and selecting of objects and their installation in the Library’s Reading Room cases. Participants will be tasked with writing a publicity article about the project and exhibition which will be published on the Wiener Library Blog.
Once completed, the exhibition will be on display at the Library in Russell Square for six weeks.
The project will run from 4 August to 8 August 2014.
How to apply?
Please send a short paragraph of 500 words stating why you are interested in taking part to Katy Jackson kjackson@wienerlibrary.co.uk and your CV.
Daily contribution to travel expenses available and refreshments provided.
Living the Key Messages
Giving girls the opportunity to speak out!
Through our programme and event planning we are developing girls to speak out and giving them the chance to voice their opinions.
It is always good to give girls a choice in ideas when programme planning and this can often be easy to do: what would you like to do for Father’s Day this term? Would you like to go swimming, bowling or climbing? And we often use different techniques such as voting or playing games to find out girls opinions. Sometimes this can be a little harder to do when you are event planning, but it can still be done, and you can give the girls the opportunity to speak out and tell you what they would like to do.
For a district event recently for Brownies, each girl was given a voting slip – similar to the recent European Elections with 15 choices on it! The girls had to choose one trip that they would like to partake in or give another option of an idea they had. Each girl then folded their vote up and put it in the voting box (a decorated shoe box). The votes were then counted and the majority vote was where the district will be going on their outing.
World Environment Day 5 June 2014
Celebrate the biggest day for positive environmental action!
World Environment Day (WED) is the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the environment. Over the years it has grown to be a broad, global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated by stakeholders in over 100 countries. It also serves as the ‘people’s day’ for doing something positive for the environment, galvanizing individual actions into a collective power that generates an exponential positive impact on the planet.
In support of the UN designation of 2014 as the International Year of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), WED this year will adopt SIDS in the broader context of climate change as its theme. Our objectives are to help build momentum towards the Third International Conference on SIDS in September and encourage a greater understanding of the importance of SIDS and of the urgency to help protect the islands in the face of growing risks and vulnerabilities, particularly as a result of climate change. We believe WED will be an excellent opportunity to raise a call for solidarity with the islands.
"Planet Earth is our shared island, let us join forces to protect it."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the launch of the 2014 International Year of Small Islands and Developing States
What will you pledge to do? Will it be turning off the lights in your meeting place or ensuring everything gets recycled that you use at meetings? Let us know.
Making Money
Do you have a trip in mind but not enough funds? Take a leaf out of 1st Upper Tooting Guides book and use your Guide meetings to raise funds. 1st Upper Tooting Guides wanted to go to the theatre and decided that they would raise the funds simply through the things they do at Guides.
Different crafts were planned and they made things through activities so each of the Guides could contribute as they wanted. All the creations were then auctioned to family and friends. Things auctioned included vases, jewellery, scarves and even picture frames designed and made by the Guides.
Families and friends came together for the auction event and raised £240 – enough to pay for the theatre tickets!
They said “We had great fun and we can really recommend it as a fun and easy way to involve everyone in fundraising – it made our trip out so much more enjoyable!”
Tweet of the Week
The tweet in the past week comes regarding Sally Kettle (Girlguiding LaSER Ambassador and adventurer): ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’ as she tells our Girlguiding LaSER Champions. Sounds a bit like she should be on her way to earning her Brownie Points!
Growing Guiding – Funny Women Workshop at Leicester Square
Would you like to help Growing Guiding and get more girls involved? Let’s see how many more people we can get to support Girlguiding!
You could inspire people to become young members, volunteers and unit leaders!
Do you want to find new ways to shout about all the amazing things that Girlguiding does?
Then the Growing Guiding Funny Women Workshop is for you!
Saturday 28th June 10am- 1pm.
Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BX
This is a chance to explore how to use your unique sense of feminine humour for maximum impact!
It is important to us that girls have a voice at social and business events – to have the courage to share their experiences on public platforms! Confidence and communication skills are the best way to achieve your goals!
The workshop will be led by Lynne Parker, the founder and executive producer of ‘Funny Women’, the UK’s leading community for female comedy.
If you're interested please email Divinia on Divinia.Hayes@girlguiding.org.uk.
Growing Up Wild
Girlguiding LaSER is working on a brand new adventure for our girls – Growing Up Wild. We want to encourage our girls to engage with nature, to get excited about being outside, to explore and to investigate different natural environments. In a world where technology is all pervasive we want to encourage our girls to go out, reconnect and get excited!
The Launch of Growing Up Wild is set for September; there will be some great activities, downloadable material from our website and some surprises for each Unit! Over the next few months we’ll be letting you in on all of the fun that is set to come…so watch this space!
Did you go to the Big Gig?
We are looking for quotes, stories and photos from Girlguiding LaSER members.
If you have anything you would like to share please send them to CleoD@girlguidinglaser.org.uk.