It is always amazing to be surrounded by volunteers. Each enthused with the same Guiding spirit and determination. We had come from all over Europe to be a part of the communications conference. I felt quite humbled, most of the other girls spoke English as a second language – fluently. My short flirtations with learning French and German at school let me ask questions at train stations at best and at worst leave me embarrassed, mumbling and in a flap. I really need to polish them up. That’s on the to do list.
All involved made me feel very privileged to be there, I had initially questioned the point of applying – I thought I was under-qualified! However, it seemed that everyone who went had something to offer. Some were the International Commissioners for their MO’s. Others have careers in advertising and graphic design. We also had Rosemary, Jeanette and Irene from the Europe office and Nina – a wonderful member of the Europe Committee, who were there to help when needed and to provide support and greater knowledge of the Europe region when needed. All of us are dedicated to the WAGGGS mission, the main thing that brought us together to our little hotel in Bratislava, Slovakia.
The core group and the planning team had worked hard to give us a good grounding in the areas we were to discuss, with chances at every part of the week for us to ask questions and make suggestions. We had such a wealth of experience to tap into. These women are passionate about what they do and it was impossible to remain unenthused whilst in their presence! Workshops, group discussion, games and post-it notes were all used to create a solid action plan for WAGGGS Europe communications for 2015 and beyond. On the second to last day we even had a guest speaker, who had flown from London just to speak to us – Jude Habib, previous employee at the BBC and founder of sounddelivery – a digital media training, production and consultancy company with a passion for digital storytelling. Our minds were opened to a whole new world of possibilities, social media from a fresh, new angle.
We have the strategic plan. We will have a proper facebook group and blog where we can share the stories of the people involved in Guiding and Scouting at every level. We can (and will) reach out to more and more people than ever before. Through social media of all types, we can make a difference. Hopefully, we can help every girl realise and achieve her fullest potential.
This is our aim. Now we’re ready to do it.
Growing Through Guiding 