Wednesday

'Activate’ was the theme of the fourth day of the European Guide Conference, and the opportunity for the delegates to discuss the WAGGGS’ advocacy campaign on adolescent health and how they could implement work on the key messages in their own associations.   
 

The morning began with a meditation by the Hungarian Girl Scouts on HIV/AIDS, reminding the delegates of a major issue affecting the health and life choices of millions of young people, particularly girls and young women.  A panel discussion introduced the delegates to some of the issues surrounding advocacy on adolescent health issues: why it is important to work on adolescent health; how WAGGGS is working on these issues at global level; the contribution Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting can make in these areas; and the work which WAGGGS is doing at global level on these issues.

WAGGGS’ Advocacy Café

The delegates were then invited to the WAGGGS’ Advocacy Café to discuss some of these issues themselves. At the Café, which was only open for the morning of the Conference, they were able to discuss “What is advocacy for WAGGGS?”, “How to work on the key messages in a co-educational setting;” “How to involve young people in advocacy” and how to advocate on each of the areas in which WAGGGS is working.  It was a key opportunity for delegates from Member Organizations to learn more about these issues and exchange ideas and best practice on how they could work in these areas in the future.   
 
Sharing best practice was also the theme of the ’Open Forum’ session which followed. Associations from France, Switzerland, Denmark, Belarus and  Belgium presented their projects on working with diversity, the environment, leadership development, membership recruitment and the celebration of the Scout centenary.     

Today also saw the election of the new Committee, who will implement the decisions of the Conference, and oversee the work of the region over the next three years.  Midge Coombs (United Kingdom), Lara Tonna (Malta) Finna Sigurdardottir (Iceland) Medeea Negutescu (Romania), Yauheniya Beliakova (Belarus) and Fabiola Canavesi (Italy) are the new members of the Europe Committee WAGGGS - Fabiola was re-elected for a second term.

European Guide and Scout Conference 

In the afternoon, delegates moved from the separate conferences to the European Guide and Scout Conference. In an interactive session with lots of audience participation, Elspeth Henderson (Chairman of the World Board of WAGGGS) and Therese Bermingham (Vice-Chair of the World Scout Committee) presented the joint work of WAGGGS and WOSM at global level, and the delegates heard directly from associations already involved in joint projects such as the Open Minds Project and the Amahoro-Amani project in the Great Lakes of Africa. Their presentation was followed by an update from World Centres of WAGGGS and WOSM.

The final session on Wednesday enabled associations to organize a number of round tables to share best practice and find new ideas on a range of different topics which they had chosen themselves – topics included: Involving external partners in Guide and Scout projects; Introducing quality management into basic training for leaders; and Supporting Leaders at Local Level.