Introduction 17th January 2025
We have been speaking about the need to restructure the county for some time now, but we are now in a position to share the proposals with you. We have therefore planned 5 meetings where we will be outlining the proposals.
The need to restructure has come about because of the reduction in numbers (both girls and volunteers) since the current structure was set up 50 years ago, the want to ensure that all members and volunteers get an equal voice and representation, to enable us to realign with the new Region structure and to ensure compliance with the charity commission requirements.
All of these, plus the process we have gone through for the development of the new structure, and how this will be implemented will be explained at the meetings. There will also be the opportunity to ask questions, which will be compiled from across all 5 meetings and then shared back to the County with the answers provided, so everyone as the opportunity to hear everything – even when you are only attending one meeting.
Questions and feedback need to be received by 7th February to the restructure@cheshireforest.org.uk email address so if you are unable to attend one of the in person presentations you can take a look: Click here
This is a summary of the proposed new boundaries and where they include:
Update 21st February 2025
Thank you to everyone who has engaged in the restructure consultation process so far – an amazing 1/3 of our adult membership watched or attended the Q&A sessions on YouTube or in person. We received 34 emails from 29 members in response to our proposals, which is 4% of our
membership. Every email will have had their own response, and you all should have received the FAQs document too.
What we are proposing now takes into account this feedback and the requirements of the restructure process. On Monday 17th February, the current County Exec met and approved the following steps:
The changes to the governance and trustee structure were voted through in full. For more detail on what this will look like, please see the graphic below . This was a legal requirement from the Charity Commission but will have benefits for us, especially in the independent (non-
guiding member) trustee being able to give us an outside-in perspective on our impact and work as a charity. The new structure will take effect in the Autumn.
1. Based on the comments received, a revised proposal was presented to the County Exec. It was agreed that this proposal should be shared with the membership, with the understanding that the restructure working group will consult directly with the most affected areas before final approval is given in April. The changes take into account comments made about keeping local support and social networks together, while maintaining the balanced divisions for more equal representation at the county level and for the Division Commissioners and teams to have an equal role expectation. It should be noted that if we do not come to a decision within County regarding boundaries, the decision may be taken out of hands during a Region restructure.
2. It was also agreed that the finance sub-group would go away and work on options for how we manage this aspect of the restructure.
Your feedback was that you weren’t sure how this would work in practice, and how equitable the move would be. For this reason, we are taking the time to consult further and make sure we get it right. The proposals will be heard and voted upon by County Exec in June. If you would like to be involved in this aspect of the consultation, please email restrcture@cheshireforest.org.uk.
3. The revised parts of the proposal boundary changes are limited to a few existing districts in a couple of Divisions. Your feedback was that you didn’t want social and support networks to be completely split, and in some instances, travel within the division would be limiting for girl experiences. For this reason, we are proposing to keep current districts together in the restructure. With the adjustments needed to ensure an equal voice and balanced roles for Division Commissioners/teams, in effect this means:
Dodleston moving into Chester Division, keeping all of the current South District together
Weaverham moving with Sandiway into South Division, keeping all of the current Gorstage District together
Maintaining all of Brown Heath District moving into South Division, keeping that local support network together
Over the next few weeks we will be consulting with members in these areas directly. The current Division Commissioners in these areas are identifying appropriate times for meetings to take place. As always, if you would like to be involved in one of the restructure working groups or in the new Division teams, please email restructure@cheshireforest.org.uk and we’d love to have you on board!
Update 26th March 2025
We have reached the stage where a decision needs to be made about the future geographical structure of the County. Your current Division Commissioners will be asked to vote on the proposals laid out below.This will happen on 28th April, and for those members of the Executive who are unable to attend the meeting we will be arranging for them to cast their vote beforehand. Voting members of County Executive are:
- County Commissioner
- Assistant County Commissioner/s
- Chair of Finance
- 11 Division Commissioners
Since the start of the process, I have spent time visiting Districts with concerns, to listen to what people had to say. I still believe that we need to change, for the reasons explained in the initial restructuring presentation which in summary are:
- The County is currently structured for when we had over 2,000 volunteers and over 6,600 young members – which is no longer the case with less than 900 volunteers and less than 3,300 young members
- We needed to put in place a new governance process – as we are not compliant with current charity commission good practice. This has now been agreed and will be implemented this year
- We wanted to give young members and volunteers similar representation at the County table
- We do not have enough people willing to take on the roles required to service 11 Division so we looked to even out numbers to enable new Division teams to have similar workloads
- We wanted to be able to make the decision for ourselves regarding what we in Cheshire Forest wanted to do, rather than have it imposed on us (Like Scotland and Ulster) – noting that this may or may not happen
- We wanted to leave the County in a place that the new County team (the current teams tenure ends in November) could manage, pick up and run with (rather than have the difficulties that the current CC team has had)
- We wanted to ensure that each of the new Divisions had the financial resources they needed to relaunch the County in its new format
The change process that we went through also doesn’t seem to have been fully understood, in summary:
- Initial suggestion regarding the restructure was presented to the County Exec / Advisers / Coordinators at a Strategy day in September 2024 – which included suggestions that were initially made from members of County Executive
- Views from these people were incorporated (or otherwise) into the proposal that was agreed at Executive to be presented to the wider County in January 2025 for consultation
- County members were advised on 6th January that the proposal would be presented and the consultation period was from then until 7th February
- 5 online presentations were then made with the first one being recorded and uploaded to the County YouTube Channel for members to view at their leisure
- Feedback to the restructuring email address was considered and a revised proposal was sent to members (incorporating some of the feedback received, namely, separating out the financial aspect of the changes and the want for support networks to stay together)
- Sharing of the revised proposal included the offer for me to speak directly to those volunteers who wanted to at local meetings – this has now taken place
Based on all the comments, concerns and feedback received we have 2 options to be voted for:
1) do nothing – the County remains as is currently structured with no changes (the governance changes have been agreed)
2) the proposal following the consultation (shared on 14th February) – moving Kinderton to Cheshire Border, and Gorstage and Brown Heath to join South West (numbers of units, volunteers and young members are evened up)
You have between now and 28th April – when the vote takes place – to liaise with your Division Commissioner, so that they can make a decision for how they intend to vote on that day.
To enable you to better understand the impact of these regarding numbers and workloads here are the current figures from GO:
Option 1 – do nothing (Divisions remain as currently are with no evening up of numbers, and still 11 Divisions).
Option 2 – evening up units, girls, volunteers and workload (noting that South is a large geographical area in the County).
Please do liaise with your Division Commissioner between now and 28th April to ensure that they understand your views and can make an informed decision when they vote.
However the County is structured, the proposed changes will not stop us from delivering unit guiding the way we have always done, prevent us from joining with other units for joint events both inside and outside of any new Division structures, meeting new people and having fun, always with the best intentions for the girls at our heart. Our support networks will remain and we can still call upon others as we always have.
It is now over to you and your current Division Commissioners and County Exec to make the final decision.
Update 1st May 2025
On the evening of Monday 28th April, Cheshire Forest County Executive (the current Trustees of Girlguiding Cheshire Forest), voted on the proposal to restructure the Division makeup of the county. This was sent out to all volunteers in the County by email on 26th March 2025. The result was a majority (12 votes to 2) in favour of proposition two, i.e. moving to 6 Divisions to level out numbers of young members and volunteers and balance the work of each Division Commissioner. One person on Exec has two roles but under the Constitution is only allowed to vote once, and there were no abstentions.
Trustees were asked to vote based on what they believed was best for moving the County forward, as per the Charity Commission guidance for Trustees, but we particularly asked those trustees who are Division Commissioners to seek the views of their current volunteers. It should be noted that although there are over 800 volunteers in the County only a small percentage of people made their views known to their current Division Commissioners, or provided thoughts or feedback during the consultation period.
Between now and September there is a still a lot of work to do to agree the financial structure, make changes to GO and agree how Division teams and support structures should be set up to enable the County to continue on its journey forward – not forgetting the need to recruit external Trustees. We would therefore like to encourage anyone who is interested in helping with these processes to come along to the initial meetings of the 3 subgroups, where thoughts and ideas can be expressed and a timeline for each of the subgroups agreed.
The meetings will take place on Tuesday 6th and Tuesday 13th May. All of the links are below – and if you are unable to attend these initial meetings but still like to be involved please let us know on the restructuring email address, restructure@cheshireforest.org.uk, and we can keep you in the loop.
People subgroup (Division teams and support processes), Tuesday 6th May 7 – 8pm
Zoom Details:
Topic: Restructure (People) Team
Time: May 6, 2025 07:00 PM London
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81305676231?pwd=Kbcz2yYLxnQdhEjNUj8yTOMBRtpezf.1
Go subgroup (what changes need to be made to take account of the new structure), Tuesday 6th May 8.15 – 9.15pm
Zoom Details:
Topic: Restructure (Go) Team
Time: May 6, 2025 08:15 PM London
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88120575521?pwd=KSEOn6UcrKLYAnlz8pdaKzdYb5gwd1.1
Finance subgroup (how do we level up the new Division finances), Tuesday 13th May 7.30 – 8.30pm
Zoom Details:
Topic: Restructure (Finance) Team
Time: May 13, 2025 07:30 PM London
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86704960808?pwd=bnqjcSX9TYYymBZu5vkbfOHUzdXKkm.1
Please do get involved and provide your thoughts, views and experiences. It’s really important that our membership help us move the County forward.
Finally, as stated throughout this process, the changes will not stop us from delivering unit guiding in the way we have always done, nor prevent us from joining with other units for joint events both inside and outside of our new Division structures, or from meeting new people and having fun, always with the best intentions for the girls at our heart. Our support networks will remain and we can still call on others as we always have.
Thank you all for what you do for Girlguiding Cheshire Forest. We very much look forward to welcoming those of you who want to help in the final phase of the restructuring process to come along to one of the subgroup meetings.