In mid-March 2007 a consultation day for fifty young Guiders and Young Leaders from around the country was held at CHQ to discuss plans for Guiding's Centenary celebrations, as well as youth participation within Guiding more generally. I went along not knowing anything about either of these topics, but soon learned much that both interested and surprised me, as well as having the opportunity to meet other young women from as far away as Liverpool.
    The day began with workshops on different elements of the Centenary plans; I chose to attend one on sharing Girlguiding's heritage. We discussed ideas for how this could be done, and came up with, amongst other things, publishing books, more lively museum exhibitions and posters along tube station escalators. The latter proved very popular, possibly because we knew what an impact they could have having all just got off the tube! Our group leader, Jess, showed us a book that Scouting had published to present its history, which we both criticised and drew ideas from.
    After lunch was another workshop, this time on the other theme of the day, youth participation in Guiding. We discussed how this could be achieved and interesting and sometimes challenging questions were raised, such as that of positive discrimination when recruiting committee members, their level of experience and representation of regions further away from London.
    However, the closing talk was what everyone had been waiting for, as it was then that the Centenary celebration plans were explained. Of course, these were far from being finalised, being planned to start in 2009, but were very exciting even at this stage. They included a music festival, a huge camp, events for each section and a grand finale in 2010 with TV and web link-ups around the world. My personal favourite was the idea of a princess-themed sleepover for Rainbows to be held in castles around the country, which I thought was just too cute!
    I would advise everyone to watch this space: this is going to make Guiding history.