As County Commissioner you are responsible for developing and promoting guiding within your County as a whole. This can involve recruitment, role handovers, social events, County events for girls and fundraising. Large parts of this can be delegated. Getting everyone involved can help with ideas and make developing guiding in your area fun and enjoyable. To help create your vision, try formulating key messages outlining everything the County wants to achieve and its guiding principles.
- Make these as clear and concise as possible.
- Consider what are the main services you offer as a County.
- Who are the main beneficiaries?
- What unique service does your County offer?
For example, Girlguiding’s key messages are:
- We are for all girls
- We give girls their own space
- We give girls a voice
- We change as the lives of girls change.
From here you can move into more detail about what you wish to achieve in your time as Commissioner.
- Which areas are you happy with and how will these be maintained?
- Which areas do you feel need development?
- Current membership figures broken down by area and section.
There is a full package of useful resources in the Recruitment and Growth Toolkit, including a County Planning Template.Â
County Commissioners are appointed for five years, giving you a fantastic opportunity to influence and grow guiding in your area. What would you like to be your lasting legacy to guiding in your County? Have multiple aims for the County that are achievable within different time-frames giving you a sense of achievement when each goal is accomplished. Try not just to make plans that will be completed during your time as Commissioner. Creating longer-term goals will have a positive and lasting impact on the County, its members and those that follow them. Develop these plans with your County Team. They will all have different experiences and skills and may view things from a new and unusual perspective. If a member of your team is unenthusiastic about a plan, try to find out why. It could be that they have genuine concerns based on previous experience or it could just be that something has not been attempted in the past. Is it just one member of the team with concerns or the whole group? It is important that you take the opinions of your County team into consideration, but sometimes a fresh perspective is needed to create change in a County. A business plan is a useful tool to help you clarify your vision for the County. It outlines clear goals and enables you to see whether plans are achievable.