Girlguiding Centenary

Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to Scottish Parliament on Thu 10th Sep 2009

I, too, thank Jeremy Purvis for securing the debate and I welcome the guiding community to the gallery. I congratulate Girlguiding Scotland on reaching its first centenary. I had a very pleasant break this afternoon when, with some of my colleagues, I popped out to meet the representatives who had rallied outside Parliament. The dancing and the festive feeling to the afternoon were really pleasant. As Maureen Watt mentioned, last weekend 1,500 rainbows, brownies, girl guides, adult volunteers and former members marched through Inverurie-one of my local towns-to celebrate the centenary. There was a real carnival atmosphere to the procession, with banners and a steel band. Those numbers are, in themselves, enough to show how vibrant the girlguiding movement still is.

The movement now sees groups of positive-thinking girls in virtually every community in Scotland. In the north-east of Scotland, there are waiting lists for girls who want to join the rainbows, brownies and guides. I therefore issue a plea to communities across the north-east to think about volunteering and working with girlguiding groups. Accommodation is not a problem-there is plenty of that-but it can be difficult to attract volunteers to train as leaders, and without leaders the units cannot increase their capacity. I know that modern work and family pressures make it hard to find the time to volunteer, but I urge people to give it a go. Every leader to whom I have spoken has commented on how much fun it is and how rewarding it is to work alongside their packs in that environment.

Guiding groups not only offer opportunities to girls and young women, but help, through the strong networks that they build, to sustain neighbourhoods and communities. It is therefore disappointing to note that in Banff and Buchan there are 97 girls on the waiting list and we are looking for 24 leaders. In the Gordon section, 221 girls are waiting to take part in the activities and we would need about 55 new leaders to allow them all to participate. In Kincardine and Deeside, 164 girls are on the waiting list; in Angus, 190 girls are on the waiting list; and in Aberdeen, 310 girls are on the waiting list. We need a lot of new leaders, so I hope that the extra publicity that the centenary will give the organisation will encourage people to come forward. Perhaps former guides will think about coming back and helping a new generation.

I was proud to learn that three Scottish girl guides were in the first all-girl crew to sail the Lord Nelson in the tall ships race out of Liverpool to Måløy, in Norway, last year. The crew of 40 girl guides were of mixed ability, with a proportion of them having sensory or physical limitations. Their achievement was very commendable, indeed.

As other members have said, guiding has changed over the years to keep up with the times. Not only is the uniform a lot more trendy than I remember, but there are lots of choices within the badges and the work that the girls do, which allows them to reflect their own personalities. Like Nanette Milne, I am quite envious of the range of options that are now open to the girls and young women. The badges that they work so hard for are creative and visionary, and they include serious things such as environmental issues. The five principles on which guiding is based-putting girls at the centre, focusing on shared decision making, respect for the individual, commitment to a common standard and participation in a balanced

and varied programme-are all things that stand women in good stead throughout their lives.

As a former brownie and girl guide, I know that there are many benefits to joining the girl guides. I was delighted recently to be invited by the Gordon guides to be an ambassador. Given the least opportunity, I am happy to advocate for guiding and to explain its benefits of self-development, experience of team working, leadership development, development of the ability to challenge and the wide group of friends that a girl can get from being in the guides. Those are all things that we need to foster if we are to have an active and successful society.

I have enjoyed the festivities in Edinburgh today, and I hope to share in some of the forthcoming centenary events in my area. Once again, I congratulate the girl guides.