Blog / June 1st, 2023
Options for assistant leaders
You’ve shared that some of the communication around the changes to the assistant leader role is confusing, we heard that you’d like to have all the options in one place. In May, Girlguiding sent a couple of emails to volunteers with assistant leader roles offering the chance to change this to a leader role using the current scheme if you wish. We heard this was confusing, especially as some assistant leaders are leaders in other units and Girlguiding sent another communication to clarify. We want to support you to consider your options.
Option 1 – do nothing
The new leader development programme doesn’t differentiate between assistant leader and leader. As people complete this training, there will be no new assistant leader roles, but existing assistant leaders can stay as they are.
If you need to hold an assistant leader role because you would not be able to hold the responsibilities of the unit finances, there will still be an option to discuss this with the inclusion team and keep a role that is suitable for you.
If you could be a leader but just don’t want to think about this right now, that is also okay. There will be options in the future so you can decide to do nothing at this point.
Option 2 – already qualified
If you already have module 4 of the leadership qualification and would like to change your role to leader, just contact your local commissioner. Some people think that you can only have 1 leader per unit or leaders must oversee the finances. These things are not true. You can have any number of leaders and divide the tasks however the leadership team decide. You might decide that the main contact for your unit isn’t a leader and could be someone like your treasurer if you are lucky enough to have one. You might delegate the finance jobs to the treasurer and the other record-keeping tasks to a unit administrator, or you might decide to split them over three leaders.
Option 3 – complete module 4 of the leadership qualification
You can still complete module 4 of the leadership qualification until this option is removed in September this year. It can be completed by downloading it from the Girlguiding website. It consists of 9 clauses on record-keeping and effective communication. It normally takes one or two terms to complete, although you may find that you can do it much quicker than this if you already do some of the tasks.
Option 3b – complete module 4 with inspiration at our Kickstart your module 4 training session
If you are the sort of person that likes a bit of trainer guidance and an action plan, you might like to attend our final Kickstart your module 4 training session. It will take place on Saturday 24 June from 9.30am – 1pm. It won’t complete your module 4, but it will give you all the knowledge needed to do so, and many people will be able to book a discussion with their mentor very shortly after this to sign off the module. Participants on previous sessions have told us that the training was very inspiring.
Option 4 – wait for a top up learning option later in 2023
Girlguiding have said that there will be an option for assistant leaders to complete a new top up learning option which will be released later in the year. We don’t know what that will look like yet but it is likely to be online, with a mixture of eLearning modules to complete in your own time and live webinars to attend in an online classroom such as Zoom.
Whatever you decide, the region is here to support you. Do get in touch if there is anything that we can do to help.