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Business was booming and application numbers for Blue Badge Guide courses were extremely healthy.
At the STGA’s AGM in 2019 seven guides who played major roles in the development of the association were recognised by being put on a new Roll of Honour.
They were Ros Newlands, OBE, who was a past STGA Blue Badge course director and president of the World Federation of Tourist Guides Association between 2007 and 2013; Forbes McNaughton who was the first chairman of the STGA when it became a limited company in 1996; Sally Spaven who was a former chair of the STGA when it hosted the WFTGA Convention in 2003; Tom Caskie who as a prominent board member played a key role in the STGA winning a contract to guide visitors around the Scottish Parliament when it first opened; Doreen Boyle who managed the day-to-day running of the STGA when it opened its first office in 1998; Norma Clarkson who introduced the STGA’s Continuous Professional Development scheme when she was chair and served between 2015 and 2019 as an Executive Officer of the European Federation of Tourist Guides Association; and Mary Kemp-Clarke who was a past STGA Blue Badge course director and, until recently, Vice President of the WFTGA. The award was given to Jane Orde and Wilma Kelloe.
Chair Linda Arthur said the STGA had firmly established itself as the premier national organisation for tourist guides in Scotland and paid tribute to the seven members who had done so much to put it on a firm footing.
Linda also announced plans for the Blue Badge course to be run in collaboration with City of Glasgow College. Students would be able to watch lectures online which would mean less travelling and reduce their costs. The course would have 36 students and would run for 18 months.
David Tucker on how the STGA moved into modern times
When I started training in 2008, I found an immediate comfort in the fact that my ‘cohort’ of students were of a similar age range to me - ahem! - which meant frequent comments about the lack of spring chickens, going around the block a few times etc.
The problem for many of us was that technology was moving too fast, but we needed to get up-to-date simply to complete the course - using the Internet for research, submitting our work electronically etc - let alone to start out on what was, for most of us, a completely new profession.
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