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Chapter seven
Scotland’s influence on the world of guiding
During 1984 a group of Israeli tourist guides came up with the idea of holding a conference of guides from all over the world. They contacted all the Associations they had heard of but that did not include the Scottish Tourist Guides Association. However Scottish BBG Jane Orde found out about it through her membership of the London based Guild of Guide Lecturers and decided to go. It was a decision which would result in Jane becoming a major influence on the world guiding movement.
Jane was born in Newcastle, read modern languages at Cambridge and spent her early married life in West Africa. She qualified as a French- speaking Scottish Tourist Guide in 1973 and served the STGA as treasurer of the Edinburgh Branch for nine years. Later she became treasurer to the National Council, which paved the way for the setting up of the STGA as a company limited by guarantee which is covered in another chapter.
Fellow guide, Inge Speitel, also attended the event which was held in Jerusalem and Nazareth in February 1985. The Israelis had arranged a special package including tours covering the whole of Israel before and after the conference.
‘The price was so reasonable that in the end my husband and daughter came too,’ said Jane. ‘Arranging the whole conference must have been a headache as many groups booked at the last moment, numbers doubling from 100 to 210 participants. At the conference 17 nations and 33 associations were represented by the 210 participants, including a large contingent from Mexico. The Israelis were clearly very anxious to form a World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations and the representatives of the various associations and countries hammered out proposals over four days to achieve this. Meantime, among other speeches various delegates spoke about their own associations, how they were organised and what problems they had.
‘I decided to take the opportunity to speak about the STGA and found a great many people came up to speak to me afterwards and they had a great deal of goodwill for Scotland. There were talks and workshops on various aspects of guiding including trade unions, using your voice, training, avoiding stress and ill health. The gathering decided to name the new organisation the World Federation of Tourist Guide Lecturers' Associations.
Jane said its formation was something of a miracle as two attempts in previous years had failed.
‘From speeches by delegates it became clear that we had a lot in common, particularly our problems with untrained guides and with getting recognition of the importance of our work, ‘ she explained ‘But the setting up of the Federation nearly foundered on the question of representation. As a final compromise, a proposal for a type of proportional representation involving the number of guides and the number of bed nights used the previous year in a complicated calculation, was adopted for a limited period, mainly to give us time to think up something better and acceptable to all.’
Jane said member associations did not always see eye to eye. During debates various complaints were raised against guides guiding in other countries such as Scandinavians in Spain and the British in France.
The Organisation was officially registered as a Non-Profit Organisation under Austrian law after a second Convention, held in Vienna in 1987, when Jane Orde was voted in as the second WFTGA President after Yossi Grau, a post Jane held for six years. Its name was also changed to the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations (WFTGA).
So how did a Scottish tourist guide become head of a global organisation within such a short period of time? According to Inge Speitel there was a tug of war going on between guides from various large countries for the presidency and perhaps Scotland was chosen because we were small and neutral.
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