Summer 2023 Newsletter

News & Views

Summer 2023

Something from the commissioner...

As our thoughts turn towards a break from Guiding for the school holidays it was wonderful to celebrate with leaders from across the county their amazing achievements at the recent awards night. We celebrated 22 leaders completing their leadership qualification, 84 leaders were presented with long service awards notching up an amazing 1375 years of service between them, and 3 special awards. Congratulations to you all.

The girls have also been enjoying the football skills sessions – some had better weather than others, but all left exhausted and smiling having learnt new skills, met girls from other units and played a mini game of football. June also saw 21 Rangers and Young Leaders having a post exam blow out camp. Pyrography, inflatables, outdoor cinema were some of the activities on offer. Again, the girls arrived in small groups and left with new friends.

None of the events that have happened in the last year would have been possible without all the hard work of the programme and outdoor teams, and support of unit leaders – offering to take their girls and help at events, So a huge thank you to you all and I hope you enjoy a summer break from guiding and those going on camps, holidays, in the UK or abroad have a brilliant time.

What's happening where and when?

Click on the Event for further details!

Sat 2nd -3rd Sep	Gullivers Brownie Sleepover-FULL
Fri 18th - Sat19th Nov	Backwoods Challenge at Overstone

Training Diary

Click on the training description for full details.

July
Mon 24th July 7pm-9pm	Mentors/Commissioners
Thurs 27th July 6.30pm-9.30pm	Safe Space Level 3
Aug
Sun 13th Aug 10am - 4pm	First Response
Tue 22nd Aug 10am - 4pm	First Response
Sept
Sat 9th Sep10am-4pm	First Response
Tues 12th Sep 7pm-9pm	Mentors/Commissioners

Almost 400 girls from Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers celebrated the game of football in partnership with Northamptonshire Football Association ahead of the Women's World Cup this summer. Events across the county allowed the girls to have fun as well as learn a few new skills!

Design a Badge Competition

Well Done to Ellie from 1^st Broughton

Brownies for winning the design a badge competition for the FA football skills session.

2024 Annual subscriptions

To help units plan for the 2024 subscription, county has set their 2024 amount. Hopefully units who include subscription in their termly subs can budget accordingly and for those who ask parents to pay separately in January or February each year can let parents know in advance. The county levy didn’t increase in 2023. In 2024 there will be a small increase to £13.

HQ and Region have already set their figures

HQ £31

Region £ 8

County £13

Total £52

With all the varied unit meetings and opportunities Girlguiding offers their members £52 is still good value compared to other after school activities girls do. Perhaps now is the time to change how you ask parents to pay, possibly moving to a twice termly or monthly contributions will help your families budget for the costs – especially those who have siblings in multiple units.

Some of Rothwell rainbows have been completing their helper badge, they decided to hold a cake sale as part of it to raise funds for the Rothwell Schools regeneration project.

They raised an amazing £140!

Guides, Rangers and Leaders joined a very colourful Northampton Pride Festival to celebrate and stand in solidarity with LGBTQ communities.

MacQueen House Needs Your Support!

For over 40 years MacQueen House has been our county holiday home. Many units have visited and have fond memories of staying there.

During Covid MacQueen house had to close and since it reopened it’s been booked most term time weekends, but units are smaller – so contributing less and there haven’t been as many non-guiding bookings. Despite the hard work of the dedicated committee it is struggling to make ends meet.

Unfortunately, there has also been an issue with the electricity provider. Eon reduced the direct debit payment during covid and combined with increasing electricity prices and not paying sufficient for the current usage means Macqueen currently owes £8520 to Eon. MacQueen currently pays £1433 per month - £473 towards the debt over 18 months and £970 for current use. The debt was taken to the energy ombudsman, unfortunately the debt needs to be paid, and MacQueen received £150 as compensation for poor service.

Prior to Covid Macqueen had a healthy bank balance and was always able to pay its bills, but for the last 2 years county has paid the annual £5500 insurance premium for the building.

Ultimately it is all county money whether it is held in MacQueen’s bank account or the county account. County has to keep the equivalent of one years expenditure in reserves to comply with the charity commission regulations. The only way we raise our income is through the annual subscription, which County doesn’t want to increase more than necessary, and hasn't included anything for MacQueen in the 2024 subscription figure.

So MacQueen needs your help, perhaps you can book your next sleepover or camp there? Over the coming months County and MacQueen will be fundraising, please try and support when you can. The first event is the summer BBQ on Saturday 12 August 2-8pm. Hope you can pop along.

The house is in use throughout the year. If you are interested in staying here more information & availability can be found

HERE

20th July - Summer Buffet

12th August - Summer BBQ click for details

1st August - Cleaning day 10am-12.30pm

1^st August - Cleaning Morning 10-12.30

Many hands make light work.

Just turn up if you can help in any way.

MacQueen House Promotional Flyer

Well done to everyone who organised the Rangers Blowout Camp!

Girlguiding Midlands

is looking for 18-22 year olds to represent the region as part of the UK contingent heading to Roverway 2024 in Norway.

Roverway is a unique event, organised by the WAGGGS and WOSM Europe region teams. The event takes place every 3-6 years hosted by a country within the Europe region. Roverway will take place in Norway in the Summer of 2024.

Roverway 2024

Well done to all our members who have been working hard and achieved their Training Brooches.

These brooches are to thank leaders who give up even more of their time to make sure they keep up to date for their volunteer role. This includes both e-learning, virtual training and face to face training - so doing your safe space, first response or simply attending our county day will give you hours towards your first brooch.

Training Broches - Record Card to start recording your hours

Bronze	Silver	Gold
Nicole Hughes-Chen
Julie Ashby
Amy Jones	Amy Jones

Rothersthorpe Guides

Another successful evening for

1st Rothersthorpe Guides celebrating more awards. Guides went out to dinner at Poppyfields restaurant after which parents came to watch presentations.

Gold, Silver, Bronze certificates plus several other badges for most girls all were presented by our District Commissioner Helen.

Jubilee Campsite

If you want to stay at Jubilee there is more information and availability

HERE

GUILSBOROUGH BROWN OWL VISITED BUCKINGHAM PALACE

On 3rd February, a letter arrived from the Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire, James Saunders Watson. It was an invitation to His Majesty The King’s Garden party at Buckingham Palace on 9th May. As you can imagine, I was so surprised and honoured to be nominated. My name was put forward in recognition of my 45 years as a Brownie Guider, with 41 years as Brown Owl with 1st Guilsborough Brownies. I have had so many Brownies over the years!

My husband Graham accompanied me to the garden party which was a “once in a lifetime” experience, a day which I will never forget.

Mary Fowler, Brown Owl, 1st Guilsborough Brownies

Badge design competition #BC23

Have you heard of the Backwoods challenge 18th - 19th November 2023. This is when Scouts, Explorers, Guides and Rangers in small teams work to present three edible meals, cooked backwoods style, over the course of the Challenge, and to create a shelter that is fit to sleep in on Saturday night.

We need a badge for the #BackwoodsChallenge23, and we would like the Scouts and Guides who are taking part to have the opportunity to create the winning design, whether it’s for a badge or a camp blanket pennant.

Design a Badge Application Form

See our website to see further details on registering for the

Backwoods Challenge

on 18 November until 11:00 Sunday 19 November.

The office will be closed for the summer holidays, but we will still check emails when we can.

The next Newsletter will be in September.

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