Welcome to the new Guiding year!

Autumn time, when the evenings begin to shorten, and the turning leaves herald the start of a new Guiding year….

It’s hard to imagine that anything will come close to the excitement of the Brownie Centenary celebration, especially the 3,500 IGG members partying at the Brownies’ Brilliant Birthday event in the Phoenix Park and the cutting of the cake by Ray D’Arcy. When you think of all the Centenary Brownie camps and all the Regional, Area and District celebrations, it’s unimaginable to think we can top this. But the Guiding way is to embrace a challenge and we will do our best to be even bigger and better this year!

The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) / Dove ‘Free Being Me’ programme for 7-10 year-olds and 11-14 year-olds is a new initiative which challenges young women to stand up and take action to build both body confidence and self-esteem. Following the programme and doing the Take Action project will earn you the ‘Free Being Me’ badge, and we all love earning badges!

Last weekend saw the launch in a few Units of the pilot stage of the New IGG Programme . This New Programme will be officially unveiled next March at something else I’m really looking forward to - TWIGG.  Many of you will already have seen the ‘save the date’ advert in September’s Trefoil News, but for anyone who hasn’t TWIGG stands for ‘Together We’re IGG’. It is the launch of the New Programme and the National Conference all rolled into one. In a way a mini type of Branch Weekend, hence TWIGG.

Ladybirds have the fun of the Table Quiz to look forward to in October as well as many exciting adventures in the coming year.

For Senior Branch the coming year holds exciting changes on the way involving the New Programme, and it’s an Explorer Belt year too.

Trefoil Guild are busy looking at new ways in which to fulfill their aim of supporting those interested in embodying the Guiding ethos whilst not actively involved as a member or Leader. I hear of the possibility of a Student Guild, a Craft Guild, a Hill-Walking Guild, and a Theatre Guild to mention just a few. So these are exciting times indeed!

As you can see, this Guiding year 2014/15 is sure to be fun-filled and has something to offer everyone. I, for one, can’t wait to get started.

My first job is to jet off to the Guide Gold Awards to celebrate with the 86 recipients of this prestigious award and it’s one I’m really looking forward to. 

~ Maureen Dillon, IGG President