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Kia ora koutou
It was a pleasure meeting many of you over the last couple of weeks in our open meeting series. As we come to the end of another busy week we thought we would provide you with an update.
Staffing
The past six months has seen a number of changes for our team, Lauren McKinnon was appointed into the CEO position last year, and went on maternity leave soon after. Angela Reeve, who is an existing employee and has prior experience in this position, has agreed to take on the Acting CE role while we find cover for the remaining period before Lauren returns.
We lose Donna Arps and Claudine Tonga today. Both will be missed hugely by their colleagues and volunteers alike. Donna has been with us for many, many years and is known for being the font of knowledge for all things Guiding! Claudine may have been with us for a shorter period, but she will still be missed having made a great impression on all of us during her tenure. We are actively working with Belinda in Volunteer Recruitment on how we meet both the short term and longer term needs of this team.
The wider staff team continue to move through the restructure process, and their feedback on the draft proposal is now being considered with final decisions being communicated next Thursday. Thank you for supporting them during this difficult time, they really appreciate it. To ensure that we know who is the right person to contact, the staff contacts on Leaders Hub has been updated and will continue to be as things progress.
Town Hall Meeting Series
The Board have held a number of ‘town hall’ meetings with various groups of volunteers over the past ten days. During these meetings they have addressed the concerns raised by staff and volunteers and communicated the pathway forward. We are recruiting for Board vacancies including Board Chair, Association Leader Representative, and a co-opted role. We also need nominations for the Selection Committee to help us recruit for the Board Chair. We have a quorum and a committed Board but we need to strengthen our team. More information on these roles can be found on Leaders Hub, or by emailing [email protected]. We ask that you will share the news far and wide among your networks ensuring we get the widest pool of qualified candidates possible, or consider it for yourself.
Our Plan – Next Steps
We are on track with our plan, and we are pleased to share our progress. Below is a copy of the plan we are working to. Moving forward each of us have a role to play but critical to this is a commitment to engagement; that as part of the rebuilding we re-establish the strong links between our national volunteer roles and staff team and also ensure that our ‘drums network’ with RC’s, LC’s and support for leaders is being used well so that we can all support each other. We can only do this together!
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Board |
RC/s LC/s and National Advisers |
Forum Members |
Staff team |
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Key Dates
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Filling Key Roles CE |
Strategy Beyond 2023 – the bigger picture – getting back into our rhythm 15/16 March – getting on the same page and addressing immediate questions /needs( what we are doing today) 31 March – Remits for Forum to be submitted. Including a revised draft strategy for discussion 2023-27 May 10 / 11th – Workshop series on strategy and initial feedback. 24 May – Board meeting – review feedback and finalise strategy recommendation 25 May – Updated strategy shared |
Forum
We have commenced planning for the meeting of National Forum members on Saturday 17th June. We intend to share our long term strategy and vision at this meeting and look forward to robust discussion and feedback as we prepare for next chapter in the future of GirlGuiding.
Other news
And like we said, absolutely we need to work through some key challenges, but there is also so much good news and great stories about what we are doing across the country that is making a difference! When our Board actually reviewed everything we’ve been doing, we listed a range of achievements and developments, all of which highlight the very real value of GirlGuiding and all of which should be celebrated. Take a look at this, this is by no means exhaustive:
Griffins / Countdown – Pink Biscuits launched last week! Have you got yours?
Volunteer and Girl Members We have gotten off to a good start, with an increase in girls and leaders joining compared to last year. Over Jan / Feb we had onboarded 268 new guides and 28 new volunteers. By comparison to last year, that was 170 girls and 19 volunteers. Current pipeline of 141 leads that we are working through.
Updated Programme – Rangers The new Ranger programme was launched on schedule and budget, with great feedback from members.
RAP – The Ranger Advocacy Panel was be relaunched and is a great way to encourage advocacy and leadership for our young Rangers.
Queens Guide Presentation in Auckland – with our new Patron
Badges – A Matariki badge has been designed, with accompanying activities. Water for Life badge – is being updated and ready for feedback and testing. Free being me (updated) – is being rolled out with facilitation training for trainers scheduled for March with WAGGGS
Thinking Day Awesome to see units celebrating our day across the country, using the WAGGGS resources and celebrating our part in our global movement
Leader Training Virtual training calendar set, first aid courses have been booked with providers across the country for the year
Events Units have been making the most of the summer with outdoor events and camps happening nationwide, with on average 10 camps or outdoor events happening every weekend for the last couple of months
Responded to the National Emergency – and delayed invoicing to acknowledge other priorities for our members at that time
Tried New Things – Go Crew events over summer
We acknowledge that this is a challenging time, but we are also on the precipice of huge change and innovation which will bring with it exciting opportunities for our members. We want to thank you for continuing to support us and are glad to have you with us on this journey.
Angela Reeve Mirjam Oord
Acting CE Deputy Board Chair