After the shirt storm

It has now been a month and a half from a very exciting week in Australian Guiding, and I thought I'd update you all properly. I might actually write this out in dot points just to get it out there and then once my Honours presentation is done (Tuesday) I'll flesh it out a little bit more.

I also want to preface this point that I acknowledge that much of the drama occurred without malicious intent and I know these things are messy. But I'm excited to be on this train ride to recovery because I think it really can go great places.

As of today (3rd Nov), 504 views :)

• Immediately following writing my blog post, three things got spurred into action. The first was the creation of a Facebook group dedicated to address the environmental-stewardship-shortcomings of Girl Guides from a concerned-leader grassroots position. We now have about 40 keen bean members who expressed their interest to be a part of creating this document.

• My lovely Region Manager offered to support the product of said group, and offered that our document be put to use in Leader trainings within our region.

• The Our Chalet manager spotted my post about my participation in the Climate Strike and it caught the attention of the co-chair of the "Friend of Our Chalet USA" committee, who asked to share my story with their foundation and donors. I've been told I'll receive a copy when it comes out. The GSUSA were vocal about their involvement in their Climate Strikes.

• Over that weekend I wrote a letter to Girl Guides NSW & ACT expressing my views based on the guidance I could find about Advocacy and the Environment on our own websites and policies, and the website and policy of WAGGGS, whose directives we are obligated to follow. We had about 20 people co-sign this document and it was sent off early on the following Monday. The letter included several suggested actions for GGNSW&ACT. I received acknowledgement of its being received but was told it would be formally processed by the board in early October.

• That same Monday, an internal announcement was made to Leaders from the state regarding the strike. I was told by mentors that the following paragraph was the closest to a U-turn as an organisation could make:

• A few hours later, GGA posted the following picture:

• Later that week I got to speak with Ro Derwin, the current Chief Commissioner of GGA. She updated me on the result of the weekend: the storm has prompted review of the Politics policy, particularly the distinction between Politics and Advocacy, and the Environment policy.

• On 15th October I was introduced to the 2019 Delegate to the Helen Storrow Seminar, whose special project was to rewrite the GGA Environment policy. I got to meet her online, and Ro confirmed that when policies were updated it works best coupled with Leader resources, so it looks like there will be a Nation-wide spot for the resource once it is written!

• On 18th October I received a response back from the Board, containing the following key paragraphs:

Aaaand here we are. As we speak I am putting together the Google Forms format I've decided to use to harness everyone's great sustainable-Guiding ideas and I'm a keen bean for the future!