What does the Local Guides Program mean to me?
Genesis of a Cartophile. Before most Local Guides were born, in the mid-1960s, I fell in love with maps. I poured over paper maps, I collected printed maps, I drew maps of imaginary countries and “published” them to my parents and friends. I simply loved maps.
Editing Maps: I even enjoyed and valued contributing to maps: on a family holiday in 1967 I bought a Bartholomew’s Map of the area of Northumberland in which we were staying….and noticed that a lighthouse was detailed on the wrong headland. In my 11-year-old enthusiasm I wrote to the publisher with the correction. Overjoyed, to receive a thank you letter, I bought the next edition of the map to find that the lighthouse had been moved!!! I was helpfully amending and contributing to maps even then!
Using Maps Through my teenage and twenties backpacking days, my thirties, forties and fifties more sedate travelling days, I have loved and used maps to explore, investigate, locate, and share exciting discoveries. I love tracing the routes of long replaced roads and ancient by-ways, investigating the way a village has grown and evolved or locating and exploring prehistoric and historic remains – and always sharing these discoveries with families and friends.
Sharing and Teaching About Maps In my successful career as a teacher, I used both paper maps and more latterly Google Maps and Google Earth to help my young students explore their environment safely, and to make similar discoveries as I did. My excitement of maps was infectious… so infectious, in fact, that at least two of them went on to work for Ordnance Survey – Britain’s national mapping organisation.
SO WHAT DOES THE LOCAL GUIDES PROGRAM MEAN TO ME?
Older Person! As an “elder” (in my 7th decade) having taken retirement from teaching - my last role being the headteacher of a primary school - about 4 years ago, I was looking for things to redirect my energies; I became involved in Local Guides to do just that! With a view to continuing my interest in maps, I’ve found Local Guides to be so much more!!
New Things! I’m still engaging with maps, in exactly the same way as I intended, but having moved into the 21st century and onto Google Maps - I’m adding reviews and photos regularly to contribute to the collective knowledge base, I’m amending maps whenever I see something that isn’t as accurate as one would expect (though I’m still a novice in this respect).
Learning! I’m a keen learner - with so many questions that my younger LG colleagues must get frustrated (but they rarely show it!!!). However, I’m not going to sit back and let technology get the better of me - I intend to ask more and find out more, learn and develop as a Local Guider.
Passing the Baton! And I fully intend to teach my grandchildren the love of maps, how to use and to contribute to Google Maps and to enjoy doing so as a way of connecting with grandad! If given the opportunity I’d also like to discuss the potential that Google Maps and the Local Guides Program has for use in the classrooms of the three schools where I’m a member of the governing board with world-wide Local Guides who may also have seen the opportunities or even had experience in the classroom. Of course, I would do all this working within the age restrictions of the Local Guides Program.
More, So Much More So that was my intent, but the Local Guides Program has come to mean more. It’s come to mean activities, exploring, organising, learning, teaching, enjoying, excitement and friendship. I look forward to each event and meeting my Local Guide friends in MeetUps near and far.
Attending I’ve been privileged to attend many MeetUps over recent years, mostly in and around Manchester, but as far as the Second European MeetUp in Ghent, Belgium, where I made excellent friends with whom I have kept in contact since. More local MeetUps have included exploring heritage railway lines, Foodie Fridays in Cheshire, River Irwell waterbus tours, retro-markets, classic cinema events, Chinese New Year Pageant, and many an afternoon or evening indulging in coffee, cake, copious other food of a huge range of nationalities, and drink of both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic kinds. I’ve come into contact with a range of people of all ages and experiences, I’ve had an active part in welcoming newbies, and asked many technical questions of the more experienced!
Hosting One of my greatest joys has been to host MeetUps of the Manchester Local Guides Group. My home town is Clitheroe in the Ribble Valley, and the aim of the Clitheroe MeetUp which you can read about here was to get the city folk out of the city to the hinterland, and explore the delights of my home area. You can see a little bit more of this by watching my one minute Connect Live 2020 video!
But the event was probably unique in that I also organised the Town Crier to welcome the group to the town. I think it’ll be the first event to have been opened in such a manner!
You can watch (and hear!) the Town Crier welcoming Manchester Google Local Guides to Clitheroe here.
In August 2019, Manchester commemorated the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre in which 15 people lost their lives, and around 600 were injured in the quelling of a peaceful rally toward the right for equal votes for everyone. The meetup which I hosted, which you can read about here, gave Local Guides the opportunity to explore the history of Manchester and even pay their own respects to the fallen at Peterloo.
Christmas is a time for cementing friendships and reviewing the year. It has become a tradition for us to do this year by year. This year I hosted the Christmas MeetUp, which you can read about here. Starting by exploring a pop-up tavern, then a wander through the Manchester Christmas Markets, we ended up with a fine meal and a fun quiz together – with the reindeer team triumphing this year.
One of my stronger qualities is hospitality and empathy, and so it was that not only did I host Day 3 of two London Local Guides’ trip to the Manchester area, which you can read about here, but I also actually hosted them in my home for the three days they were here.
CONNECTOPHILE So you see, Local Guides has become so much more than maps – although I still love the maps. Instead of a Cartophile, I have become a Connectophile because Local Guides has expanded into a hobby, which profitably occupies my retirement time, gives me the opportunity to share experiences, friendships, events, discoveries, fellowship and good food! It allows me the connections to learn more from those who are ahead of me in the program, and the chance for me to encourage others who are new and sometimes daunted. I can contribute to the ever-expanding knowledge bank on Maps, and at the same time share the potential of the Program with youngsters and oldies (like me). The Local Guides Program has become everything! I’m still, learning, there is far to go, but I intend to explore the possibilities with enthusiasm and contribute fully to the Program as along as I am able!
So let’s go, Local Guides – Let’s Connect – you’ll find friendship, discovery, fellowship, helpfulness, solidarity, new places, old history, quirkiness and cuteness, opportunities to learn, and to help, to welcome and support. I’m on that journey – and I’d love to join with others, or you to join with me, wherever we are – whoever you are. We are Local Guides!
Peter Williams
