3rd Briefing

Wow, our final briefing. Time seems to have flown by and in four weeks time we will all be sitting in the airport at Gatwick sharing resources and packing.

So that means we need to be super productive this weekend and we are being. Today we have spent most of the day sat in the HQ in Bath writing many plans for our activities. The main aims for our project are to help create a handbook for the guides, activities on the environment, leadership and camp skills. Sara and Nikki also did some finance sorting and opened our account. Definitely feeling more real.

We have an amazing to do list, which consists of a to do list covered in post it's and a done list where everything gets stuck when achieved. Each sheet has a picture so removing post it's reveal a picture. Picture shown below to convey the excitement.

As well as lots planning we have eaten lots of biscuits (seems to help the planning) and had a quick wander into the beautiful Bath. This involved fudge and old sweets and resisting the temptation to buy beads and craft supplies ;)

Tonight is a little relaxing and maybe pictionary before more planning tomorrow. Our resources are looking very exciting and can't wait to run some of the sessions, although probably need to remember camp gadgets (maybe time tomorrow as Sara as brought the wood and string).

Definitely feeling more prepared and very excited. Go Team Guyana.

Fundraising

We have all been working very hard to fundraise for the project to Guyana. As we have been mostly doing this independently (mainly because of our positioning throughout the country) we'll do a brief update separately. This is also a good way to have a better introduction to team Guyana:

I'm Hannah, a Brownie and Ranger guider in Bath. I am currently reading for a PhD in Timber Structures (specifically looking at the connections and geometry in folded timber plates). I am currently renovating and decorating a Victorian cottage which is testing my DIY skills. In my free time I enjoy making things, mainly jewellery making and cross stitching as well as geocaching and dancing.

For my fundraising I have done a range of activities. I ran the Bath Half marathon in March, thank you to everyone who sponsored me. I have also organised a Beetle drive and a Barn dance. Both of which were lots of fun and thanks to everyone who came. I particularly impressed with the baskets everyone danced :)

Hello, I'm Lizette (aka Liz, Lizzy and oi you!). I am a Guide and Senior Section Guider in Ossett District and the Programme Development Advisor/Secretary for Wakefield North Division. I am currently working at a bank, in the Digital department as a Quality Analyst (I review complaint root causes and provide analysis to the project managers). My free time is spent either knee deep in a Guiding project or guiding related interests (geocaching, camping, hiking).

I have finished my fundraising, and reached my target of £2000 by organising a range of events. I organised a pub quiz, a fashion show and a three course meal at the community centre. Thank you to everyone who came along, donated raffle prizes or donated money (if unable to attend). I would not have been able to do it without guys :)

Hey, I am Claire, I am a Guide and Rainbow leader in Dingwall, in the highlands of Scotland and in Kirriemuir near Dundee in Scotland. At the moment i have just finished my 1st year of my Theological degree. In my free time when i am not busy with my degree and guiding, i go walking, and doing crafts such as making wedding invites and doing cross-stitch.

I have now finished all my fundraising, i have done this from getting grants from certain groups, like the rotary and my local county. I also had a Christmas quiz and one of my groups of guides held a beetle drive. Thanks to everyone that helped me with all my fundraising.

Hello, I'm Elizabeth and I am a Rainbow leader in Surrey, though I am currently without a unit because I am about to move house.  I am studying and working part-time at the moment, but both of these will be finished by the time we head to Guyana.  From September I will be beginning my 'proper' graduate job in London which I am really excited about!  Outside of working, studying and Guiding, I also run a youth group, love doing Zumba and going out with my friends.

I have almost finished my fundraising and have done things like host a curry night at a local curry house (Thank you Haweli!) who gave me a percentage of their profits from the evening.  I also had a coffee and cake morning with a raffle, book sale and jewellery sale amongst other things which was a huge success thanks to the generosity of my friends and neighbours.  Thank you to everyone who has supported me!

Hi... I'm Nikki and I'm a Guide Leader in Bedford/Bath. Having just finished my degree in Maths and Physics at Bath University I am heading home to Bedford next year to start my PGCE to become a Maths Teacher. Outside of Uni and Guiding I enjoy playing hockey and chilling with friends!

Fundraising is going well. To add to the generous grants I have received from various people, I have been carol singing at Loch Fyne restaurant, held a 'Dine and Donate' dinner and a Brownie and Guide sleepover. Thank you to everyone that has helped me raise money for the project. I can't wait to go now!

Hello, I'm Sara a Guide and Senior Section leader and the GOLD Guyana 2011 team leader.  I'm from Meirionydd in North Wales but currently live work and Guide in Oxford.  I work in Environmental Development at Oxford City Council.  I enjoy being out of doors including camping, walking, cycling and traveling.

Guyana planning and fundraising is going really well.  I have almost raised enough thank you to everyone who has guessed the dogs Birthday, purchased badges and donated towards my fundraising.

In four weeks time we will be on the plane being given the safety talk!  I can't wait to be part of the second year of project with a team that have worked very hard in fundraising and planning the training sessions for project.  Well done team. 

GOLD team Guyana 2011

Second Briefing

We have just returned home after our second briefing weekend at Gillwell Scout Centre in London. This weekend involved farmer costumes and sock puppets (part of our evening entertainment), geocaches, guessing Guyanese fruits and general craziness amongst the planning and preparing. We practiced giving interactive presentations about our country (in preparation to leading workshops when we are in Guyana), worked as a team to create old MacDonald's farm for the Royal variety performance, complete with sock puppets (other teams demonstrated amazing Jackson 5 moves, reality tv, a new take on Cinderella and a good range of singing and dancing talents).

Preparation for our project was an important part of this weekend and we attended training sessions on first aid, accounting and documenting as well as the initial planning of our specific project. The main aims for our project are to run training session for the Guyanese GirlGuides on littering and the environment. While on project we are assisting with the running of the first National Guide camp in Guyana and will start writing the Guide Handbook as a resource that can be used as a resource for members to use in meetings.

The weekend finished with a goodbye to Charlotte the GOLD coordinator who has been involved in GOLD for about 8 years and has been incredible in getting projects started and making a difference to guiding around the world. That sounds soppy but I think it shows that GOLD is fantastic at sharing the opportunities that we have had as Guides in the UK with girls around the world as well as making new friends. On that note our team has increased to 7 members (although our new member does not need a ticket to travel), Charlotte and Anna (the new GOLD coordinator) have given us a mascot to travel with us (picture will follow soon). The only problem is we need a name.

This was our final briefing with the other GOLD teams as our next briefing will be planning our project in more detail. We will see some of the teams at de-brief and look forward to hearing about what everyone else has been doing.

Good luck to all GOLD teams. Have lots of fun.

Badges

Our badge has been designed, so we are waiting for them to be costed and made. The badge will appear here once they have been made. We are very excited :)

Edited - Badges have arrived and look fab. Yay :)

First Briefing

Uniform, badges, teams, roles and fundraising, just a couple of the many topics discussed during our first briefing weekend.

We have just returned home from a fab first briefing at Linnet Clough Scout Park, it was a fun filled, action packed weekend. It was a great opportunity to get to know our team and the other GOLD groups better as well as learning more about the project, what we will be doing during our time in Guyana and also what we need to be doing now. We are all busy fundraising so look out for more information about our events and badges (which we will be selling).

As well as working hard, team building was key this weekend so many games were played including a particularly good game of pictionary (we are practicing for evening entertainment during our project or maybe resource/activity ideas while we are there). One of the entertaining highlights was of course Sara dressed as Mr Blobby in order to show how great British TV has been over the last years (is that the best we could find!!!) Oh and we did win blockbusters :)

Welcome

Hello and welcome to our blog.

We are:
Sara, Claire, Lizzy, Liz, Nikki and Hannah.

We are a group of Girlguiding UK members (all volunteering with different units across the UK) who have been selected to travel to Guyana in the summer of 2011. We will spend a month living and working alongside the Guyana Girlguides to produce resources, lead training's and help at the first National camp. The topic for the resources will be focussed on an environmental theme to promote this with members in Guyana.

We are all very excited to undertake this project and hope this blog will show our progress and experiences.

Thanks for reading and supporting.