How to keep volunteers in Guiding

Support, support, support and a bit more support!

In Guiding, you’ll hear about growth and retention. It’s important to get new members – both the kids and the adult leaders – but it’s also important to keep them and I have to say, in my little guiding world, we’re failing miserably on both counts.

My district has lost at least four adult leaders since July, by which I mean that one was scheduled to go in July and three more have gone suddenly in September alone. I’m one of them. I haven’t so much deliberately left as just kind of fallen out. The fall is no one’s fault, as far as I can tell, but I can certainly lay the blame for the lack of cushioning at a few feet.

What could have made a difference? How could we have kept those four volunteers? I can’t speak for two of them – indeed, in one case, I have no idea what’s happened – but in two cases, some support would have gone a long way. Someone checking in with us regularly, making sure we didn’t feel isolated or overwhelmed. More than the one virtual get-together throughout the entire no-face-to-face period. Emails that just said “hi, is everyone ok? Can I help? Can I listen quietly while you rant your frustrations at this whole situation?” Any sensation that there was more to the district or division than our own selves and our own unit.

I took on the Brown Owl role with only a Unit Helper as backup in January 2020. Every decision, every form, every page, everything has been mine alone. The entire Girlguiding family might as well not existed. Another leader, I know, has felt that isolation and lack of support almost since the moment she put her hand up and said “I’ll give it a go”.

Support starts at HQ and trickles down through the various commissioners, the various lead volunteers and right through your most local area into your unit. You need the people above you to be there for you but you also need the people around you to be there for you, which conversely means you need to be there for the people around you. Check in on your team. Check in on your district. Be the one who suggests a no-girls no-shop talk evening at the pub or a day doing an activity you’d normally only get to watch the girls do or a cup of tea in someone’s conservatory. We need to be the community and we need to pull together so tightly that no one else falls through the cracks.