British Guides in Foreign CountriesThe registration of all Units, Districts etc, and the issue of all Warrants and Appointments are dealt with by the Girlguiding BGIFC Office in London.
Units and Leaders within Girlguiding BGIFC Germany, Cyprus and Benelux and France send their forms etc via their own Registration Secretary.
Independent Districts and Independent Units send their forms direct to the Girlguiding BGIFC Office. A Unit should be registered as soon as it starts to meet. Any Unit which is not registered may not receive all the communication it needs.
A Leader or Assistant Leader who has never previously been warranted should complete an AA (Adult Application) form. This form asks her to give the names of two referees who have known her for at least two years, who are not related to her and who are willing to supply a reference. When the references have been taken up, the new leader will be issued with a Pre-Warrant Appointment Card and she should not have unsupervised access to girls and young women until she receives this Appointment Card as Unit Leader or Assistant Leader. The Appointment Card signifies that satisfactory references have been received.
She will be linked to a Mentor who will support and help her as she works through The Adult Leadership Qualification (ALQ). When she has completed the ALQ, she (or her District Commissioner) will apply for her Warrant and Unit Appointment Card (by sending a Change of Details form to the BGIFC Office). The Warrant is retained until she is 65. The Unit Appointment Card is for a specific appointment in a specific unit and cannot be transferred. If she changes her role within a Unit (e.g. from Assistant Brownie Leader to Brownie Leader) or when she moves from one Section to another, she must let the BGIFC Office know by email so that her database record can be amended accordingly. In case of a Section change she needs to complete Module 1 with the support of a Mentor. A new appointment card will be issued during this specific Section training and another one after completion.
A Unit may have a number of warranted Assistant Leaders, but only one person may hold the appointment as ‘Leader’ in charge of a Unit. However, there is the option of sharing the job as Unit Leader. If a Unit is temporarily suspended, the Leader’s appointment will automatically be cancelled, unless there is some good reason for not doing so.
A Unit is temporarily suspended if, for any reason, it ceases to meet regularly. If it reopens and becomes active again within a few months, it is simply reopened and no further action is necessary, apart from the need for the Leader(s) to renew their appointments. However, if the Unit does not restart within 12 months, then it is officially closed and the registration is cancelled. Should it reopen at a future date it will be registered again.
Any Unit which is not in contact with the Girlguiding BGIFC Office for two years is deemed to have closed and the registration is cancelled together with the Leaders’ appointments. See Suspended or Closed Units.
