An interesting talk from Joanne Bradley at the club meeting on 8th March, Joanne Bradley gave a presentation outlining the arrangements for, and the purpose of, her trip to Russia on behalf of the Trefoil Guild later this year. Her background she said was in guiding, starting originally as a Brownie and progressing through the Guides and Venture Scouts to become a Guide Leader before moving to the Trefoil Guild, the adult section of Guiding, 6 years ago. Last year the Guild was looking for members to volunteer to take part in a trip to Russia as part of its TOPAZ (Trefoil Partnerships Overseas Adventures with Zest) programme which is run in association with WAGGGS – the Worldwide Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. In this case it involves working with RAGS – the Russian Association of Girl Scouts.
This trip is part of a 3-year pilot programme. A team went to Volgograd in 2016 and worked with existing Girl Scout units; the 2017 team went to Ufa and worked mainly in schools. Each trip lasts 3 weeks and this year they are going to Western Siberia – an area where, unlike previous destinations, guiding has yet to be established. Joanne was persuaded to apply to be part of the 2018 team and following an interview she was selected and subsequently asked to become the team leader.
The cost of the trip is estimated at between £2200 and £2400 for each member of the team and the Trefoil Guild has given a grant of £1600 (£400 for each team member). So they have to raise around another £8000. In addition they would like to leave something for RAGS at the end of the trip to help them to promote and establish Girl Scout units– that could be a stock of starter packs and training materials or a “parachute” – a large piece of material which is used in games to promote teamwork. If funds permit they would also like to be able to leave them with a laptop. In response to a question Joanne said that the cost of a parachute, with instructions for how it can be used, is around £50 and they would probably want to donate 3 of them.
The club subsequently pledged the sum of £250 towards the trip – contingent upon the remaining funds being raised and the trip proceeding, and we look forward to hearing in due course how it went.
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