Welcome to the Autumn term! This term is going to be crammed with lots of exciting activities for you and your units. Take at look at what’s coming over the next few months.
Brownies Go Explore
3 of our wonderful Brownies Go Explore events have already passed. Girls from across the region have had adventures at Shuttleworth air museum, Colchester Zoo and Hautbois Activity Centre.
Just our London trip to go in September, bookings for which are now closed. We can’t wait to see all the fun our Brownies will be having whilst exploring London.
Plus, more and more of you are taking on the Brownies Go Explore challenge pack in your units and at home. Don’t forget to share your photos with us on our social media channels. We always love to see what you’ve been getting up to! Will you be planning the Go Explore challenge into your Autumn term activities?
The challenge pack contains lots of fun and exciting activities based on the different locations of the events and the themes: aviation, conservation, out and about, and landmarks and royals.
Social action challenge
We’ve loved seeing all the feedback from the social action challenge on our social media channels! Have you started planning the challenge into your Autumn term?
If you haven’t had a chance to take a look at the pack yet, click here. You’ll discover all kinds of fun activities to help you empower your girls to become change-makers in their community.
The challenge badges are now available for you to buy from our wonderful region retail shop.
Winter Quest
The Winter Quest is back for 2023, looking shiny and new! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to complete as many of our 24 mini activities this winter as possible. The activities in this pack can be done in a number of ways:
- In unit meetings across the autumn and spring term as a team
- At home as a traditional advent calendar with a challenge every day in December
- At home with family during the winter break away from your Girlguiding family
Our activity suggestions are intended to inspire you. Feel free to adapt them to fit with your unit and that day’s theme. Many of the activities included could also link to the Girlguiding programme.
To complete this badge, you need to complete as many of the 24 activities as possible. There are spots to tick off the activities you’ve completed, to help you keep track of what you’ve done. There are some bigger activities that could fill a whole meeting, and some 5 minute ones that can act as fillers.
The quest pack is ready to go, and our fabulous new badge will be launching soon!
Coming soon
Spot-tacular Children in Need
This year, get ready to make Children in Need absolutely spot-tacular! We’ll be sharing resources to help you fundraise in your units and your local community. We’re also going to be having some exciting events going on. Keep an eye out as we announce more.
UK Parliament week
UK Parliament week is 6 – 12 November 2023. This year we’ll share some great resources you can use to help your girls talk about topics that really matter to them. Keep an eye on our website and social media channels as we share more.
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We’re delighted to be sharing our 2022 impact report! We’d like to begin with a big thank you to all our staff and members here at Girlguiding Anglia. While the impact of the pandemic is apparent, guiding in Anglia has certainly bounced back this year and our activities, events and opportunities highlight the special place and impact Girlguiding can have.
This article is a round-up of the top stories from the 4 pillars of our Together We Inspire strategy: members’ experience, members’ voices, delivery of guiding, and resource and capacity. We are proud to share all that we have achieved as a region, and you can read more about our impact in these 4 core areas in our full 2022 impact report.
Members’ experience impact highlight: Super Rainbows 2022
In 2022, Girlguiding Anglia set out on a mission to remind Rainbows that they are super and can do anything. The project idea was an event in a box, delivering everything that a unit would need to run an exciting event, even if the country went back into a COVID lockdown.
Due to the accessibility of the Super Rainbow box, over 4750 girls joined in the fun. This is the highest number of Rainbows recorded taking part in a region section event. Even units in Girlguiding Scotland and Sweden placed orders for the event boxes!
The team also opened orders to parents of Rainbows on the waiting list. This was the first time an offer like this was made, with a brilliant response of over 250 boxes ordered, allowing prospective Rainbows to get a taste of Girlguiding and earn their first badge.
We also, for the first time, set up an event-specific Facebook page to engage leaders and support effective communication between the volunteer team and grassroots leaders.
Read more about our impact on members’ experience in our full 2022 impact report.
Members’ voices impact highlight: Celebrating our patron in 2022
Platinum Jubilee
During the celebrations of the Platinum Jubilee, Helen Green, at Girlguiding Norfolk county’s Archive Resource Centre (ARC), featured on the BBC. Helen answered question and shared information about the Queen’s historical connection with Girlguiding. The filming took place in Stalham, Norfolk, with Rainbows, Guides and Rangers from local units in attendance.
Jubilee beacon lighting
We were lucky enough to host one of the 70 beacons that were given to Girlguiding to celebrate the Jubilee. The beacon was lit at the home of Girlguiding Anglia, Hautbois Activity Centre, and we celebrated alongside members from across the region with fireworks, food and fun.
The passing of our patron
With the sad passing of our late patron Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, we were quick to respond with our support for the royal family and to pay our respects. At region and county level, we implemented a social media blackout, sharing the message: ‘It is with profound sadness that we at Girlguiding have learned today of the death of our Patron, Her Majesty the Queen. Our deepest sympathies are with the Royal Family at this very sad time.’
Our members had the opportunity to share their memories and stories of Queen Elizabeth II. Many also volunteered to support Girlguiding’s involvement in the funeral proceedings. Region members paid their respects in many ways, from visiting Sandringham to lay flowers, to queueing for many hours to see Queen Elizabeth II laying in state.
For more information on Girlguiding Anglia’s experience following the passing of our Patron, including photographs, interviews and press coverage, please visit our article.
Our retail team supported the region with sales of the commemorative badges released by Girlguiding throughout 2022.
Read more about our impact on members’ voices in our full 2022 impact report.
Delivery of guiding impact highlight: Together we inspire
Almost 400 of our volunteers responded to our first region Together We Inspire membership survey. They shared how they’d celebrated the 50th birthday of Girlguiding Anglia, and also their thoughts and ideas on future projects. We were most interested in how they thought we could support them to deliver great guiding experiences.
From a region website slider, to the newsletter, across social media and in our email footer, we made sure to share the survey in various ways. We also included a QR code for the questionnaire on our World Thinking Day postcards. Over 3000 were sent out to all our units. We found this was the most inclusive way to reach our members, as we still have many who don’t use social media or have access to a computer.
To respond to the data we collected, we ran a series of posts on social media in the countdown to the Easter holidays, with the theme ‘you said, we heard’. Through doing this, we demonstrated to our members that their voices had been heard and what they had shared was informing future projects and decisions.
Read more about our impact on our delivery of guiding in our full 2022 impact report.
Resource and capacity impact highlight: Region and counties one team
Every year we hold a region conference as an opportunity for our chief commissioner to bring everyone together. They use the day to review resources, analyse data, promote informed decision-making, and facilitate a one-team with volunteers and staff.
2022’s region conference, Anglia shines bright, took place in October. A strong focus for the day was to reflect on the turbulent years of 2020/21. The team also wanted to move forward with the messaging: be brave/be bold. The conference focused heavily on strategic planning, including challenges and upcoming opportunities.
A few sessions focused on capturing feedback from attendees and reminding attendees of Girlguiding Anglia’s Together We Inspire strategy. The team considered any comments given and they were later used when producing the 2023 business plans. There was a further session on grants, which included 2022 funding and looking ahead to 2023.
County support
2022 saw the recruitment a county administrator, fully supported and managed by the region team. By the end of 2022, three counties had each signed up to 7 hours of administrative support each week. Both the region and counties saw huge benefits from this role being centralised.
We’ve been working to support counties with graphics and artwork to ensure brand consistency at all levels in Anglia region. This included the introduction of both photo and graphics image banks. It also included an expansion of an area on the website for PR and recruitment stand resources to support counties and grassroots.
There was a fantastic uptake of the resources in quarter 4 and we imagine higher download numbers moving forward into 2023 as members attend more events. We’re always moving towards better brand awareness and making Girlguiding Anglia a more sustainable area of Girlguiding, and supporting our counties to do the same.
Read more about our impact on resource and capacity in our full 2022 impact report.
Girlguiding Anglia retail shop
In 2022, your incredible retail team continued to support members with programme support and quick turnaround of orders. There were regular Facebook posts and features in the Signpost newsletter to let members know of new products and updates.
To assist with this, the team implemented royal mail click and drop for 1st and 2nd class mail, and Apple and Google pay in the shop. Click and drop has provided a direct link to website orders via WooCommerce, streamlining the postal service. It has also facilitated professional labelling, tracking and automated invoicing.
1658 customers placed a shop order on the website in 2022. Of which, 503 shopped with us more than once 17 shopped with us more than 10 times. The team saw a total of over 65,750 items purchased online in 2022. Website gross sales in 2022 were £88,692, and total gross sales for 2022 were £228,225 – an increase of approximately 30% on 2021’s figures.
Badges were exceptionally popular, as always. New badges for 2022 included 30 and 40 nights away badges, the Winter Quest badge, Chief’s Challenge badge and Warm Welcome badge. The total number of badges sold in 2022 was over 126,500. Badges took 9 spaces in the top 10 products of 2022 for the retail shop – see the full list in our full 2022 impact report.
Hautbois Activity Centre
2022 saw a record-breaking summer for Hautbois Activity Centre. July had the highest income, bringing in more than the winter months combined! Activity participation figures for 2022 were 45,485, with a final bookings income of £806,583.
What does this mean for Girlguiding members? The number of Girlguiding members on site throughout 2022 totalled 6190. A third of all visitors to Hautbois in 2022 were Girlguiding members! In 2022, over 100 adult members took part in outdoor training sessions at Hautbois funded by Generation Green. This included, canoeing, paddleboarding, archery, outdoor first aid, campfires and much more. Giving our members the confidence to pass their newly acquired expertise on to thousands of girls.
The activity centre team saw regular ongoing maintenance and improvements to the estate. This has included re-wilding some areas, planting hundreds of trees, creating new hedgerows, and encouraging our water meadow to revert to its natural state.
There were also activity updates in many areas on site. The nightline course in particular, has seen an update which includes improved obstacles. Alongside the activity areas themselves, documents for the centre’s pond dipping, 90 challenge, initiative tests and junior orienteering have been updated and transferred to non-paper-based resources for durability.
To read more about Hautbois Activity Centre in 2022, head over to read the full article in our 2022 impact report.
What’s next for Girlguiding Anglia?
2023 holds some incredible opportunities to build on public relations, brand awareness and the charity’s sustainability. We can’t wait to get stuck in! As always, we’ll be having plenty of adventures, finding new friendships, and having exceptional experiences. Plus we’ll be welcoming new volunteers and young members into the Girlguiding Anglia family.
Look out on our website and social media channels to keep up with the stories as they unfold. Join us for next year’s impact report to see all the highlights of what will be an amazing year for Girlguiding Anglia.
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I hope you are looking forward to the spring and the lighter evenings. I do love spring. There’s something about a bright sunny morning (usually when the Formula 1 season is starting) that just makes me smile.
This month, our region team will be sharing more information about the recruitment campaign starting on the 8 May with a sponsored abseil event day – I am slightly nervous about abseiling down the Forum in Norwich, but it’s a new adventure and something I’ve never done before. I can’t wait for Brownies 2023 to take place, although I can’t decide where to take my own Brownie unit! I do hope to be able to attend some of the events so come along and maybe meet a member of my team or me.
I am delighted that my team was announced in March and what a team it is! Claire Course takes on the role of deputy chief commissioner, and Chris Skinner and Charlotte Bennett as assistant chief commissioners. We are all really excited to be able to lead Anglia over the next five years. By following this link, you can watch a short video of Chris and her Brownies in a radio interview – very inspirational. Over the coming months, there will be a series of interviews with Claire, Chris, and Charlotte featured in Signpost, Girlguiding Anglia’s newsletter. Please tune in to find out more about them, the sections they volunteer with and a bit about them outside of Girlguiding.
I was recently honoured to present a Buckinghamshire county good service certificate to Elaine Thorogood. Until recently, Elaine ran a Rainbow and a Brownie unit in Ivinghoe and Pistone. After nearly 25 years, Elaine has decided to retire from her units and support Girlguiding Buckinghamshire. Elaine truly deserved her award, and I was delighted to be able to present it to her on behalf of Sheila Beales, Buckinghamshire county commissioner.
From one inspirational lady to another – Andrea Oughton. Andrea has now stepped down as deputy chief commissioner. I’m lucky enough to have known Andrea for nearly five years, having first met her just after she started her role as deputy when she visited a county Brownie camp I had organised. Andrea has been extremely supportive of me over the last 5 years and even more so in the last couple of months, continuing as deputy chief for an extra month whilst my team and I settled into our new roles. Thank you, Andrea.
As you read this, you may well be getting ready to celebrate Easter with family and friends. I will be hiding Easter eggs for my children who are in their twenties, always makes me smile watching them trying to find the eggs. Whatever you have planned, I hope you are able to take some time for yourselves and relax whilst eating far too much chocolate!
Have fun and enjoy new adventures along the way.
Karen
Why not take part in Girlguiding Anglia’s Christmas card competition? The winning entry will be the face of this year’s region Christmas card! The closing date for entries is 14 November 2022.
Competition Information
- The competition is open to all sections
- The card can be designed on any size paper
- The winning design will be made to fit an A5 card size, and will be used as the region’s e-card as well
- There is a printable template available should you wish to use it – you can find it here
- Please name all entries and include your unit name
- Send entries via email to commsteam@girlguiding-anglia.org.uk, or by post to Girlguiding Anglia Region Office, 7 Gt Hautbois Road, Coltishall, Norfolk, NR12 7JN
