Girl Guides to sell off 5 activity centres.

[Thelnebriati]

''18 May 2023
Girlguiding’s board of trustees...has made an important decision about the activity centres Girlguiding owns. This is because of the investment needed, and the reduced number of members using them in the past decade.
They’ve made the recommendation to sell the 5 activity centres - Blackland Farm, Foxlease, Glenbrook, Waddow Hall and Ynysgain.''

https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/information-for-volunteers/updates-for-our-members/activity-centre-announcement/

Sad but true!

They are selling the centres because they are so expensive. To cover the cost the activities/ weekends would have to be prohibitively expensive.

there is a massive difference between the wokeness coming from hq and what actually happens at a local level. I don’t know of any units that actually have any boys that believe they are girls in them so in reality, in most places guiding is still single sex.

Parents have asked if they raise the money needed can the sales be stopped, and GG have said no. So its not really about the money, is it.
They aren't selling the London HQ which is prime real estate.

I went off GG for this reason. A friend's parents ran scouts so I'd go to things such as discos with her.

Then we both joined venture scouts and loved it.

The inebriati- parents could maybe raise the cost for the repairs needed (unlikely though) but that doesn’t help with ongoing costs though - the cost of heating is huge! I agree that the London hq could go and keep foxlease instead.

Somewhere there will be an entire group having their boundaries eroded. Those girls matter. We cant just write them off because its only a few.

I love Ynysgain. I used to take the cub scouts there, and my pack was 50:50 boys and girls. It is an amazing spot.

DD is a guide. She goes as a couple of friends also go. But has almost quit a couple of times.

The badges are shit. They are not inspiring, don't encourage learning of new skills and are predominantly handwaving waffle. They need a complete revamp.

The new badges are not what I want for my daughters, making mocktails and brand me seem more about preparing girls for pre drinks for nights out and curating their social media profiles. No thanks. Bring back camp fire cooking, crafts, etc

Mocktails? FFS - let’s normalise alcohol consumption for young teens. Great idea. (I know mocktails don’t contain booze, but they imitate drinks that do).

Really sad. DD stayed in one of the centres that is closing as a brownie guide. I think falling numbers in our area are due to lack of volunteers more than anything and so many other competing activities.

Scouts have sold loads too...so not a feminist issue imho. Scouting and guiding really suffer for volunteers- frequently we get messages asking for extra parent help and that without the weekly meeting won't happen.

2 parents working long hours etc mean it's hard for families to help. We do when we can. Also scouting is mixed so maybe girls prefer to do that...I know mine does

Scouting doesn't do mock tails - that's just stupid sexism to start with

Sorry more women do themselves no favours with kids spa days etc

My dd is a Ranger (14+). When she joined, there were only two girls attending, dd was 3 and she convinced her good friend to join who is 4.

4 girls is not very exciting. They’re limited to what they can do I suppose. Dd has tried to encourage others to join, and her friends are the sort you could imagine at Guides, but none are interested. They won’t even come along for a trial evening.

I think guiding is in trouble
I left over the whole trans thing
As much as anything over the amount of money spent on legal fees on cases against leaders
Had been a Guider for 20 years
I agree lots of units are carrying on and just ignoring the guidance from HQ,to me that would be hypocritical

I've been a leader 20+ years - I gave up 2 years ago due to a family crisis. I haven't gone back - I miss the guiding of my youth - lots of outdoor, challenging activities. Yes there was twee stuff (hides that laundress badge in shame - but at least I learnt how to remove stains!!) But it was adventurous and most of all fun. I got disillusioned as a Guider the programme was too prescriptive and there was far too much tick boxing and recording. Also a lot of the programme materials were far too like school for the girls. I don't think I'll go back - scouting seems to me where the guiding of my youth went. Personally I think guiding needs a real reorientation towards adventure and outdoors while keeping the values of the Promise.

Let’s face it guiding will be hollowed out by the TRAs, some leaders have left now. Some are continuing because it’s not yet a problem for their troops. They will leave when it reaches them - and it will.

Sadly it will die, it’s a loss but the leadership have had so many opportunities to do the right thing and they haven’t.

Ironically we will arrive at what girls asked Baden-Powell for in the first place - to be (only) scouts.

Slow hand clap for the leadership of Guiding (central leadership - not the Guiders doing the hard graft at the grassroots). You have betrayed girls, and betrayed your legacy.

I think they only got £920k for selling off their Scottish centre, netherurd. I can’t imagine there is a huge market for these places. £920k might sound like a lot to an individual but it’s tiny for an organisation like this. If they sell of all 5, what are they going to get, £5 million? It’s not very much.

I was sad about what Girlguiding had become a couple of years ago. Now I see they’re hellbent on continuing to make it a f*ed up organisation, I’m delighted to see it all falling apart like this.

Interesting I believe they still have their central London “boutique hotel”. Not sure how that benefits the girls, but appears to be a priority to be kept. I think it’s clear where their priorities lie, and it’s not with girls and women.

I think some of those old "girlie" badges were quite good. Knowing how to take care of clothing properly isn't as idiotic as many people seem to assume. It might be a reasonable thing for a scout to learn as well, of course.

Just as an aside - Guiding here in Canada is also dying out. It's lasted most in areas where the kids are more working class, their parents can get them to activities and such, but don't have a ton of money for expensive things like dance.

The badges suck though, it's all about self-actualization, and very little skill learning, nothing concrete. It's quite difficult to even figure out what the badges are or what you need to do to earn them.

Yup.
our guides did stuff like manicures while the scouts got to go build fires, camp etc. appalling.

My daughter was in Guides- never did manicures- built fires, camping, wild camping, paddle boarding, pot holing…..

Fair point DemiColon. From an objective view I think Guiding has come full circle to what Girls wanted in the first place ie to be scouts and that opportunity is out there. However I think if guiding disappeared scouting would have to change too - we know there is a real value in the girl only space and while offering equal opportunities there would need to be recognition that girls (and boys) need chances to do things with their peers. I think also there should be some opportunity for girl only troops where cultural/religious reasons might bar girls from taking part if mixed sex. Its a tough nut to crack - I think once scouts went coed in the 1990s Guiding has had a real problem defining what it is for - reinforce a gender binary or truly offer empowerment to young women and girls.