Speech
Girl Guiding AGM
To: Jenny Burrow, National President, Annette Kirkwood, Vice-President and Cathy Hemsworth, Acting Chief Executive; International representatives; Board Members, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, - Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu,Taloha Ni.
As Patron of GirlGuiding New Zealand, I am very happy to be with you for this Annual General Meeting in your centennial year. 2008 has brought with it serious concerns for global economies and Governments are now speaking about a global recession. It may not, however, be all bad for GirlGuiding NZ. Hard times encourage more people to cycle and walk, fewer people over-indulge with food and drink, more time is spent with family and more time is spent locally and in the community.
GirlGuiding is very much part of the community and well placed to support girls and young women. I believe that this organisation will play an ever-increasing part in building a bright future in New Zealand.
Of those women who were involved in Girl Guides and are written up in the Dictionary of Biography, one of the most striking features of their lives is that they were also involved in lots of other organisations. For many, Guides acted as a springboard to community involvement.
Mona Burgin started a Girl Scout troop in Epsom in the early 1920s and began the Rahiri Ranger Company for older girls almost two decades later. The Guide movement took her to England for further training and after the war she worked with youth in the camps for displaced people in Europe. After she came home, she wrote the first New Zealand handbooks for Guides and Rangers. And while she spent her working life as a teacher, she was still acting as a Duke of Edinburgh Award adviser into her seventies.
During the Great Depression, Lena Ruru established Brownie, Girl Guide and Ranger groups in Te Karaka in Poverty Bay. Later still in Gisborne, she formed the only Māori Ranger Company in New Zealand. Lena later helped establish branches of the Māori Women's Welfare League, was a member of many community groups and became a district councillor. She was also a representative hockey player and a gifted pianist particularly at RSA functions.
Mona Burgin and Lena Ruru were both helped by the Guiding Movement to fulfil their potential - and they in turn helped the Movement fulfil its potential by continuing to take an active role through the decades. I pay tribute to you who continue in this tradition, giving up your time to help New Zealand girls and young women today. I know that you are focussing on the question of how the role of GirlGuiding will evolve in the years ahead and this focus must be ongoing.
With any dynamic organisation there is always a need to meet the demands of the time - and GirlGuiding New Zealand is certainly doing this. I would like to wish you all the best for another century of striving while maintaining your famous sense of fun.
No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tēnā koutou katoa.