Unit meetings may be conducted in a Guide meeting place, shared Guide/Scout property, school, church or community centre or other facility.  Guide meeting places may be on:

• land leased from a public authority
• private or other leased land
• Crown land where the SGGO acts as the Reserve Trust Manager; or
• freehold land owned outright.

District Managers are required to keep an up to date register of key holders for each of their meeting places and other facilities.

Lease renewal for meeting places is arranged by the District Manager through the State Office.

Maintenance

All property is vested in the State Girl Guide Organisation, which delegates responsibility for the maintenance of that property to the Support Group.  Ultimately the District Manager, not the Unit Leader, is responsible for decisions relating to maintenance, upgrading or safety issues.

Before any renovation or improvement is undertaken, the District Manager should check with the Region Manager for the current limit on expenditure which may be incurred without approval from the State Executive Officer.

States require an annual inspection of the meeting place to record maintenance issues, occupational health and safety issues, fire and electrical safety issues.

All tradespeople and volunteer workers (doing more than minor unskilled jobs) must have valid public liability and personal accident insurance in place as well as relevant qualifications.  The Certificate of Currency for both their public liability and professional indemnity policy must be sighted.

To ensure volunteer workers are covered by public liability insurance it is necessary to minute the activity together with the risk assessment and mitigation strategies.  Volunteers must not do any medium to high risk maintenance work unless they have the relevant qualifications and appropriate insurance.  Risk assessment and mitigation strategies should also be noted.

Equipment and Resources

Each Unit, meeting place committee, Support Group, District and Region needs to regularly update the list of items that it owns. The information on the equipment registers is used to update insurance policies. Each State has a specific requirement for this equipment inventory but it is likely to include: original cost, date of purchase/donation, replacement cost, insurance value, location and registration number (if relevant).    Most States hold their Equipment Register/ Property Inventory form on their website together with details of when and how it should be completed.

Venue Lease/Hire Agreements

The hire of Guide meeting places to non-Guiding users is the responsibility of the District Manager.  She may however, delegate the day to day overseeing of this responsibility to a member of the Support Group.  The process for hiring meeting places varies in each State.  See your State website for relevant information.