Trefoil Guild

I received my County Chairman badge from our Scottish Chairman Anne Aitken at our county AGM in Paisley. I would like to thank my predecessor Jean Aitken for her help and wise words during and after the changeover and her hard work as chairman over the previous five years. Jean has devoted much of her life to Guiding and Renfrewshire Trefoil Guild is most grateful to her for the gift of the Trefoil Guild banner. Maisie Ballantyne the county secretary stepped down and thanks are also due for her work. Maisie is succeeded by Raye Wyllie (Renfrew) and I am most grateful that Margaret Camelford continues to be our treasurer.

We were inspired to think about the Centenary by Caroline Matheson and heard about a very special Scout Centenary adventure from Carrie Gibson, a local Scouter ( and former Guide) who reached the summit of Everest.

All the guilds have had very interesting programmes with the usual focus on food –ranging from dinners, Burns Suppers to barbecues (weather permitting).  Several guilds had open meetings for all nine guilds in the county. Renfrew showed us how to be ‘All wrapped up for Christmas’ with some wonderful packaging demonstrated; Kilellan and Cardonald had Toggery meetings and Kilbarchan entertained us with the history of a long established Glasgow sweet shop---the tables of sweets for sale disappeared very quickly as the Trefoilers did their shopping !

International themes were also popular and guilds learned about Pakistan, Ghana, Malawi, Sweden and the Cape Verde Islands and Thinking Day was marked with a quiz , taste and try recipes and discussion on disease challenges in the world.

When we reviewed our programmes there was much hilarity when we heard how the Pink Floss Ladies of Kilbarchan had helped BAA with their Fun Day and the Homecoming Supper at Renfrew with ‘local entertainers’.

Various crafts were demonstrated and Bishopton looked at the arts--- with a talk on the Britannia Panopticon (musichall) and an insight from a local crime novelist on her sources of information and inspiration.

We have tried to keep active with bowling (Cloch and Scotscraig) and very gentle yoga.
In keeping with our aim of supporting Guiding, we have helped at coffee mornings, been involved with unit activities, made donations to South Newton and supported UK trefoil fundraising for Sangam. Starter packs for new units are another way of supporting guiding—commissioners make the initial application, and a local guild can link with the new unit.
We have sought to ‘Change the World’ by making donations to local hospices, a school in Pakistan and raised money for Mary’s Meals.

In April there was a very successful Scottish AGM in Glasgow when Pat Ascroft spoke about Tall Ships and the Jubilee Sailing Trust which will provide one of the Centenary Adventures. For the last year guilds throughout Scotland have been collecting twenty pence pieces in Smartie tubes; after all the county chairmen had deposited their county’s cheques in a giant Smartie tube a cheque for nearly £11,000 was presented to the Scottish Deputy Chief Commissioner, Heather Hallum to help Scottish Guiding celebrate the Centenary; Renfrewshire contributed over £700.

While the AGM in Glasgow was blessed with a sunny day, the national AGM in Telford was rather damp but the Renfewshire ladies had a good time and enjoyed meeting new and old friends.

Challenges remain as guilds have had to find new meeting places with associated increased costs which are especially heavy for small guilds. All the guilds would welcome new members ‘Guiding for Adults’.

I write this just ahead of the launch of the Centenary of Girlguiding which will be a very special time for everyone.

Mar Rae
Chairman
Renfrewshire Trefoil Guild.