Opening Ceremony

After our first official day of the World Conference, it was time for the opening ceremony. We welcomed many honourees, including Her Royal Highness (HRH) Princess Benedikte of Denmark, CY Leung, Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Regina Leung, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Girl Guides Association (HKGGA), Pansy Ho, Chairman of the Hong Kong Organizing Committee, Daisy Ho, Chief Commissioner of HKGGA, and Mary McPhail, Chief Executive of WAGGGS. They were all welcomed with a dragon dance!

The honourees.

Being welcomed with a dragon dance.

Special effects on the dragons!

We enjoyed a traditional meal (with far too much food to finish!) and some more performances, including an orchestra with beautiful, traditional instruments, the Chinese children's opera and two dance groups. We were all amazed!

The orchestra.

The Chinese children's opera performance.

With the opera performers. Beautiful costumes!

The first dance group.

The second dance group.

Following this was the big highlight, the South Korean boy band, Uangel Voice. Everyone was dancing and screaming. They even serenaded HRH Princess Bendedikte of Denmark!

Uangel Voice! Woo!

Serenading HRH Princess Benedikte of Denmark.

This event took us late into the evening and we had to rush upstairs to bed afterwards, to make sure we were ready for the next big day of business.

The First Official Day

After a delicious international breakfast buffet, we started off the day with a choice of sessions to attend. Some were about leadership, youth learning or quota, but I attended a special session on governance that was added to the schedule to ensure the young women that participated in the leadership challenge the day before could be informed and ask questions about the changes to the constitution.

It was thrilling to see so many young women who were passionate about the governance side of WAGGGS. I'm sure that we'll be seeing many of them in various roles in the future! The discussions were focused on the changes to the constitution and bye-laws, such that WAGGGS could be incorporated as a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) by the Charity Commission in the UK, where it is based out of. This is a new designation for organizations that is designed to better protect board members and allow the organization to hire employees, rent and buy property and sign contracts.

Many of the delegates were concerned about how this designation would change what WAGGGS does for the MOs, but it was explained that it would really just affect administrative tasks in the WAGGGS office. It would be the back-end work changing, but nothing that MOs would viably see. The Australian and New Zealand delegates spoke to how becoming a CIO would allow the organization to move forward and make it easier to recruit nominees for the World Board.

The other topics of discussion included having a clause that would allow new membership categories to be proposed and vote upon to help with membership growth, email and postal voting in-between conferences and proxy voting for MOs that couldn't attend World Conferences for some reason. The main concern with new membership categories was about who this could possibly include. It seemed like an almost unnecessary issue because the new categories themselves could be proposed in a motion at future conferences and the clause could be redundant.

With the other proposals, the main concern was that the procedures were not detailed enough. Email and postal voting had the intent of being used to make important decisions between World Conferences, since the world seems to move more quickly now with technology. It wasn't clear that this would be it's only use, though, which concerned some delegates. The proxy voting motion had the intent to allow MOs who could not attend for financial, societal, geographical, etc. issues to have a say at World Conferences, but had almost no procedure written out. While we were reassured that it would be a consultative process to develop the procedures (asking for MO input, specifying the number of proxy votes one MO could make, etc.), some delegates were not convinced about the motions.

Other changes to the constitution were made to accommodate the requirements for becoming a CIO. One important point about this is that amendments would have to be pre-approved before conferences since the Charity Commission would already have had to agree to changes. These changes included things like having a 75% majority on motions (past statistics showed that all except one motion from the recent conference would have already passed with this) and minor wording and lay-out changes.

After another buffet-style meal for lunch, we were off to the orientation session, to learn about the various procedures involved in participating in a World Conference. We learned about motion, amendment and voting processes, as well as how MOs took part in the discussion periods throughout the conference. We also learned how to use our electronic voting keypads (which also had some technical difficulties during our test).

A few voting terms that came in handy were:

Voting Strength: How many votes were possible from MOs eligible to vote for a motion.

Simple Majority: 50%+1 of the voting strength.

2/3 Majority: An alternative way to pass a motion.

We also learned about the World Board elections that were to come and the procedures that went along with that.

Finally, the day moved into the opening of the 35th World Conference. The first lesson was on using social media to share our World Conference experience. We took some selfies to share with the world (and you can find more using the #35WoCo hashtag on Twitter and Facebook or by checking out the sidebar of this blog). The theme of the World Conference was "Imagine More," with the motto of "Connect. Grow. Impact." We heard about Vision 2020 and the outcomes of the Strategic Plan for the next triennium. After a brief discussion about the outcomes, we were introduced to Princess Mabel van Oranje and her organization, Girls Not Brides. She reminded us that through organizations like WAGGGS, we really can change the world for girls and women and how "the impossible is actually possible."

Some of the delegates from Denmark.

Loved the flowers that the delegates from the Cook Islands wore!

It was an information-packed day, but I felt like I had an even better grasp on what we were there to do. I also felt so inspired to be in the presence of so many women who had the same drive that I did to make things better for girls and young women and empower them to be leaders.

Young Women's Event: Adventures in the City!

After spending Friday exploring Lantau Island, it was down to business on Saturday. Some members of the delegation were attending sessions, but I was off to the young women's event, targeting delegates under 30 years of age.

During the 2011 conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, it was decided to make young women a focus of involvement at the governing level. It is even required that one member of every World Board is elected while she is under 30-years-old.

We started off with some icebreaker activities that helped the organizers to gauge how prepared we felt for the conference, so they could direct our discussions the right way. The chair, Nadine El Achy, and deputy chair, Nicola Grinstead, came to speak with us and gave us the chance to speak to them. One sentiment that Nadine had that really stuck with me was, "Dare to be yourself. There is someone who believes in you." I think this was so important for many of us as young delegates with no past World Conference experience. It made me realize that I was there to contribute to my delegation and not to be too reserved about sharing my views. We then learned about important faces we might meet. We also sent ourselves postcards (with an inspiring message from another delegate) and did a "geography" activity.

How ready were we for the conference?

Nadine El Achy (right) and Nicola Grinstead (left).

Matching game!

Sending ourselves postcards with special leadership messages.

Finally, it was time for our leadership challenge. We formed teams and were given a package that described tasks we had to complete. The most important was a business meeting with a Hong Kong leader.

Our team got organized and headed out. Ideally, we were all to have working cell phones while we were out, in case we got lost, but we had some technical difficulties, so we just had to rely on each other to stay together. Our first stop was a faraway temple. As we got further and further away from the airport conference centre, we realized that there was no possible way to make it to all the stops in the time we had. Later, we would discover this was part of the challenge, but we worked effectively to prioritize our plans, especially the business meeting.

Group meeting on the train.

The temple was beautiful and we saw many people worshipping and offering incense around the property. After taking some quick photos and tweeting our organizers, we headed off to get a snack and make it to the business meeting on time, as it was in the ICC building in Kowloon.

The temple.

Group selfie at the temple.

We met some amazing women in our meeting! First, we spoke with Tessie Yang, Vice Chairman of Esquel Group, a textile manufacturing company. Then, her friend Jessie Ng, Executive Director of Pacific Andes International Holdings Limited, a seafood supplier, joined us towards the end. They shared their career paths, provided us with advice and answered our questions. It was great to see such strong and professional women at a high level within their respective organizations.

The group with Tessie.

The group with Jessie.

We finally made it back and had some time for reflection in groups. One thing that our team acknowledged was how important it can be to be flexible in leadership situations. During our outing we were constantly keeping track of our group, switching off on leaders, keeping time and changing our plans. As good as it can be to have a plan and stick to it, sometimes that just isn't possible. We also heard from Laura Bode, a global leadership consultant about what we can do for our advancement in leadership as young women.

Our leadership challenge team!

It was an inspiring day and my connections with the other young delegates were much stronger than I could have imagined they could be from such a short period of time!

What It All Means: A 35th World Conference Glossary

In case you are new to the governance side of things with WAGGGS, like I am, here is a glossary of terms to make things easier to understand. Please refer here to clarify anything mentioned in upcoming posts.

Associate Members: Organizations who are in the process of developing their programs sufficiently to be given full membership within WAGGGS. Have limited voting powers. Ratified at World Conferences.

Bye-Laws: The document that contains the rules that govern the functions of the organization.

Constitution: The document that describes the organization and its purposes.

Full Members: Organizations who have met the conditions of membership within WAGGGS. Have full voting powers. Ratified at World Conferences.

GGC: Girl Guides of Canada. The national Guiding organization in Canada.

Governance: The manner of governing WAGGGS, as set out in the constitution and bye-laws.

MO: Member organization. There are currently two types of member organizations within WAGGGS, associate members and full members.

Quota: The fee that each MO pays to remain a part of WAGGGS.

Regions: The geographical area containing a set of MOs. There are five regions, Africa, Arab, Asia Pacific, Europe and Western Hemisphere. GGC is a part of the Western Hemisphere region.

Strategic Plan: The document that outlines the vision, mission and goals for the upcoming triennium (three-year period) until the next World Conference. Written by the World Board.

Triennial Report: The document that outlines what has been done during the last triennium (three-year period). Written by the World Board.

WAGGGS: World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. The governing organization of all the MOs.

World Board: The elected members that oversee WAGGGS and make decisions on behalf of the MOs between World Conferences. There are seventeen members of the World Board, including six continuing board members, six new board members and five regional board members (one for each region). Board members are elected at each World Conference and serve for a total of six years. There is currently a Canadian Guider on the World Board, Jill Zelmanovits.

World Conference: The triennial (every three years) conference for the MOs to make decisions on the future of the organization. Run by the World Board of WAGGGS.

Now that you are up to speed, keep checking out the blog for updates. You can also find out what is happening at the 35th World Conference by following the hashtag #35WoCo on Twitter!

Meet the Delegation!

It is Sunday night and we have completed our first official day of the 35th WAGGGS World Conference in Hong Kong and wanted to start off by introducing the delegation. There are six members to our Canadian delegation, but many more friendly Canadian faces around in various other capacities, not to mention all of the wonderful people we are meeting every single minute of the conference!

The GGC delegation (left to right): Jackie, Deborah, Sharron, Carla, Lauren and Pamela.

Sharron Callahan is the Chief Commissioner and our "fearless leader," as Deborah put it. Sharron is looking forward to seeing what our member organizations all have in common. Sharron always feels very humbled at this type of event because she can really see how privileged we are as an organization in Canada.

Carla Lyon is our Deputy Chief Commissioner - Governance and here to support us with all of her experience. She is looking forward to meeting the delegates, as well as the other committee and board members attending the conference.

Deborah Del Duca is the Chief Executive Officer of the Girl Guides of Canada and at the conference to bring back what she learns to our organization. She is looking forward to reconnecting with people she has met in the past and seeing how they have advanced within Guiding.

Pamela Rice is the Chief Commissioner - Elect and here to learn the ropes for when she takes over from Sharron. Pamela is looking forward to getting a better sense of WAGGGS on the global scale and seeing how GGC fits in to the global picture. She is also hoping to hear about the challenges other organizations are facing.

Jackie Perry is an Area Commissioner in Newfoundland and attending the conference to learn more about what pathways are available in continuing her Guiding experience. She is looking forward to bringing her experiences at the conference back home and sharing the global context of GGC with other Guiders and girl members.

Lauren Patrick is the Under 30 representative and taking the lead on social media for the conference. She is looking forward to learning about the opportunities for young women within WAGGGS and meeting some of the organization's current and future leaders.

We have had an action-packed day today between sessions, orientation, opening ceremonies and the banquet, so we are all off to get some sleep before getting an early start tomorrow!