Girlguiding UKs going to close activity centres

[Rowthe]

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Girlguiding UK is going to close and sell the 5 UK activity centres.

These centres are a great resource for young guides, brownies and rainbows.

Please click the link and sign

https://www.change.org/p/girlguiding-uk-to-review-and-reconsider-the-decision-to-sell-the-five-activity-centres?source_location=search

Signed

As much as I wish to see this backtrack, they’ve likely already got so far down the line with it and the wheels are in motion. :(

It's a ridiculous decision made. BGIFC and now this :(

Oh what a shame

Sadly, it's just not as popular any more. I remember so many happy memories of times at Pax Wood near Canterbury. In the big house for Brownies and the camping field with guides.

Another thing which has been usurped by gaming and the internet

BGIFC?!

I'm out of the gguk loop. Do they really need to sell ALL 5?

Thanks

That's what they are doing.

They say it costs too much to maintain them, but it will be a huge loss to the young girls who do go, as well as other groups such as scouts that also get discounted rates on any events booked.

Interesting that GG still have central London HQ and yet they ‘need’ to sell these other properties.

They’ve made some dubious decisions recently let’s face it.

Signed; as a leader we don’t access the centres much as our unit a long way from any of them; but have always tried to go to an event every other year.

Seems ridiculous to close all; surely reducing to three would have helped. As our brownie leader pointed out, Scouts went through similar troubles and have come out on top with their activity centres.

Not surprised. Gg is a shadow of its former self. I loved it but pulled my own daughter out because she hated the dull formulaic approach imposed from headquarters. All her friends left too. My friend was a brown owl but left because she had no freedom to cultivate an interesting programme and she felt the GG association was too heavy handed in its approach.

Will they be selling their property for HQ in Altrincham and moving to somewhere cheaper? Nope.

Beginning of the end for guides is what's being said in scouting and outdoor activity circles.

This is a good point. Why don't they move HQ to one of the TACs?

Particularly sad to see Foxleaze go - the home of Baden Powell.

”Beginning of the end”? Delighted to hear this. Has become a disgusting organisation always appearing to demonstrate they care more about cash than keeping girls safe. Assume they’re selling off all these properties that benefit girls but keeping their central London “boutique hotel”?

Might add. Haven’t always felt this way. It used to be a brilliant organisation.

… but they won’t make positive changes now. So it should all end.

What does bgifc mean

Some context would be useful here. Like how many other UK activity centres do the GG have? What are GG membership trends looking like over the last 30 years? What the organisations finances looking like? Same questions for these specific facilities.

It's not nice to lose these places but if the GG is in decline and cuts need to be made to ensure the viability of the whole then maybe these are the right sacrifices to make.

It's been going on in both the Scouts and guides for a while.
The guides sold Cudham to a scout district so it's still available for camping but Downe(which BP used for leader training g and Charles Darwin used for experiments is still under threat. friends of Downe are trying to buy it but Scout District couldn't raise the funds to buy it.

British Guides in foreign countries

The problem is that these places are so, so expensive to run, maintain and heat. To make it viable the cost of trips is prohibitively expensive (+ the cost of getting there). A long weekend at wellies and wristbands was going to be over £300 for each girl and leader - it’s just too much. And subsidising them means subs increase. I agree there have been some poor decisions and communications from hq. I particularly hate getting adverts from the shop urging me to buy branded tat. I dislike the fact that the badges and resources aren’t online. I dislike all the introspective and campaigning style activities, so depressing. But I love what most units actually do in reality!

Why do these places have to be sold? Why aren't the best located ones leased out on a very long lease and the funds raised used to keep the others going? Surely there is still money in being this type of landlord. At least they'd still be there for future generations.

My DD loves her local brownie unit and gets so much from it. I know very little of it all at national level tbh.

I can’t imagine anyone taking out a leasehold on these sorts of properties.

In my naivety, I was coming from the angle that someone thinks they can buy these properties and make a profit from them, so why doesn't the GG do whatever the buyer would instead? There must be some fantastic GG alumni who could advise.

Anyway, just musing. I've signed.

Hi,

Appreciate that this is an older thread but for those interested in supporting the people trying to help save the various activity centres from closure, please consider looking into the new organisations being formed for each centre for that purpose.

For Foxlease that is Foxie's Future, see www.foxiesfuture.co.uk and they have a Facebook Group which you can find by searching for the Foxie's Future Facebook Group.

Thank you!