Catholic Guide Advisory Council Annual General Meeting.
Date : April 13th 2012
Venue: Coldash Retreat Centre. Coldash Berkshire.
Present: Fr. Peter Newby (National Chaplain), Geraldine Dorman(Chair) ,Mary Taylor(Secretary) ,Teresa Hurley(Treasurer) , Claire Rutter(Faith Awareness), Mary Hulme, Ann Johnstone, Di Parnell, Carol Pryce, Liz DeFreitas, Josie Daniels, Padraig Cronin, Tereza Lobo, Val Mabbett, Christine McLeod, Jane Shuffley, Eileen Forster.
Apologies: Luiza Lobo, Molly Smith, Vivienne Oates.
The meeting was opened with a prayer led by Fr. Peter.
Minutes from last year’s meeting were read and accepted.
Chair’s Welcome: Geraldine welcomed everyone and thanked all for attending the weekend. She explained the rationale behind the issuing of the medical forms. Liz was thanked for acting as our First Aider for the weekend.
Correspondence: Geraldine read out a letter received from Kate Chapman, Chair of the Southwark Guild. This was a copy of a letter sent to the Catholic Herald notifying of the closure of the Guild.
Tereza and Val had attended a meeting in October and had been informed that the account has been closed.
Kate Chapman had contacted Claire asking for advice as to what would happen to the account if the Guild closed. Claire informed Kate that the CGAC would hold the money in case the account reopened, in which case, all monies would be returned to the Guild.
Val informed the meeting that she had been given a cheque from Southwark Guild for £100. Val has forwarded this amount to the C.G.A.C.
Claire gave Geraldine contact details for the Southwark Guild.
Margaret McDowall ,from the National Catholic Scout Fellowship, has contacted Geraldine on a number of occasions. Such contact included sending copies of The Catholic Scout’s Link Magazine. Geraldine shared copies of a recent publication.
Geraldine informed the meeting that details of the C.G.A.C. weekend had been in the latest edition of The Link.
Annual Scouting Mass: Geraldine had received an invitation to attend this Mass. Mary and Geraldine attended the Mass in St. George’s Cathedral Southwark on March 12th 2012.
Three guides from Kent were presented with their Baden Powell awards.
Geraldine presented each Guide with one of our centenary badges.
The Annual Scouting Fellowship Mass for 2013 is on Saturday March 2nd in St. George’s Cathedral. It is hoped that more will attend on a Saturday. All members of The Catholic Guide Advisory Council are invited to attend this Mass.
Diamond Jubilee Camp May 25th -27th 2012: Geraldine gave information about this camp. It is to be held in Savio House, Bollington. Cheshire. Bishop Richard Moth and Fr. John Seddon (Catholic Scouts’ Fellowship.) invite all sections of Catholic Scouts and Guides, as well as other denominations, to join this camp. Details were made available.
Rainbow and Brownie Celebrations: Geraldine asked whether we would like to celebrate the forthcoming anniversaries and asked for suggestions as to how to celebrate.
Those present agreed that the centenary celebration of Guiding in London was a lovely day and felt it would be good to do similar.
It is proposed to have an anniversary Mass in Fr. Peter’s parish on either Saturday 21st or 28th September 2013. Fr Peter advised that as lots of people get married in his church it would be preferable to decide upon a date as soon as possible.
Geraldine suggested that we organise a simple challenge for Rainbows based on the colours. The activities would be Faith related. It was agreed that this was a good idea.
Contact Details: Members were asked to complete a contact sheet to enable us to update contact details.
Website: Geraldine informed members of the current situation regarding the web site. We had met to think about the layout of the site and had forwarded our initial ideas to the person who will set up the site. More information regarding content, strap lines, logos, etc is required.
Geraldine asked whether anyone had any further ideas or suggestions, or whether anybody could actually help with the site.
We need to design a logo for the site. Claire suggested using our centenary badge without the 100 years on it. Claire will e-mail a copy of the badge to Geraldine.
Claire also asked about adding a Faith Awareness section to the website. Ideas from the 100 years badge could be used as suggestions foe celebrating our Faith. This was agreed. Claire will arrange this section in her capacity as our Faith Awareness Advisor.
Ki-Ro Badge: Geraldine asked whether members would be interested in having a metal Ki-Ro badge similar to those worn by Scouts. This was agreed.
Reports from Diocesan Guilds:
Cardiff-Report given by Cardiff Chair, Jane Shuffly.
The annual Guild Mass was in St. Peter’s Parish Cardiff in October. The theme of this Mass was sharing. It had originally been planned to celebrate this Mass in Cwmbran.
Jane had e-mailed every Parish Priest in the Archdiocese in the hope that notices would be placed in newsletters in an attempt to encourage more people to attend. No response was received from this effort.
St. Peter’s Brownies celebrated their Diamond Jubilee earlier this year with a parish church parade, as well as a sleepover.
They were presented with a Papal Blessing to mark this anniversary.
A letter from Buckingham Palace was also received declining an invitation for The Queen to attend the sleepover, but extending best wishes on their jubilee.
Birmingham Guild- Nothing to report.
Westminster Guild- Nothing to report although Di reported that she had tried to get others to join us, but this had proved difficult.
Treasurer’s Report: Teresa gave out copies of our annual accounts.
The balance of the current account is £1323.55
The balance of the business account is £16,425.46
Sichem 2012 - Lourdes
An international jamboree to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Catholic Girl Guides is to be held in Lourdes from October 29th to November 2nd 2012. This is being organised by CICG-ICCG. These are the only details available at the moment. Further details will be forwarded as they become available.
Geraldine asked whether anyone was interested in going. If so, people would need to book their own transport and possibly hotels. Suggestions were made about possible hotels but this would depend on which hotels would be open. (Claire mentioned a hotel used by her parish, Mary spoke about a hotel used by a group with The Welsh National Pilgrimage.) Mary had attended a Lourdes Hospitalité meeting in November. It was said at this meeting that the “Lourdes season” for 2012would be extended to include this week. Members will be contacted as soon as we hear more from ICCG.
Next Year’s Conference: Friday 5th – Sunday 7th April. Geraldine had rung around various retreat centres nd had received favourable replies from 2. One was in Ludlow and the other in Leamington Spa. Mary T had information about 3 other centres. Mary H and Claire have offered to visit the centre in Leamington Spa.
However, Broneirion Guiding centre(Mid Wales) was suggested. Geraldine has since contacted, and provisionally booked Broneirion.
A.O.B.: Diane asked if the minutes could be circulated a.s.a.p. so dates could be noted.
Geraldine closed the meeting by inviting members to enjoy the weekend and to share any thoughts, comments or suggestions about how the weekend should be organised.
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