A programme resource for all Trefoil members
The Trefoil STARS challenge was produced by The Trefoil Guild UK members taking part in a national programme event in 2017, the year of our 75th birthday celebrations. This challenge is called STARS because all Trefoil members are STARS and you can gain a badge to prove it.
The STARS challenge is only available for members of Trefoil Guild in the UK and TGIFC, and we can only send badges to members who are registered with us.
STARS is made up of 5 themes:
- Skills
- Together
- Action
- Roam
- Self
Each encompasses the 4 Trefoil key messages: find friendship, get active, give support, get involved.
Each STARS theme has a suggested list of 8 clauses. To gain the badge you need to complete 5 clauses. There is no minimum or maximum time limit to complete a challenge.
Your guild chair would normally sign off a completed challenge. If the chair is working on the challenge, other members of your Trefoil can agree to sign off the work of the chair. It may be that the guild chair will nominate another member to be responsible for the STARS programme.
The STARS challenge can be a good base for your Trefoil programme. It may be that not everyone in your Trefoil wishes to work towards the STARS challenge. Don’t worry, members can work individually or in small groups. Your county, country or region may organise a STARS event, covering all 5 themes. Each challenge has been designed to enable all members to participate.
The STARS challenge is a way to challenge yourself and try something new.
Resources
Click each link to view the original syllabus for each theme:
Skills Together Action Roam Self
| See our list of additional suggestions for all themes | download |
| Download the patterns for the additional Skills theme suggestions | download |
Forms
| Use the personal record sheet to keep track of which clauses you have completed |
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| Once completed, order your badge from our office | download |
Please send order forms via email where possible:
trefoilguild@girlguiding.org.uk
Alternatively, you can send them to our office address:
Trefoil Guild
17 - 19 Buckingham Palace Road
London
SW1W 0PT
We have a Trefoil challenges Facebook group where you can join in and discuss your plans for the challenge with other members!
FAQs
Badges can be displayed in any way you wish, upon completion of all 5 STARS themes they can be arranged in a star shape. Alternatively, the badges are shaped to tessellate in a variety of ways. If you do complete all 5 STARS themes a metal badge is available.
All our members are STARS and now you can gain a badge to prove it! Each theme begins with a letter of STARS.
We hope that the themes and challenges within STARS will be incorporated into Trefoil programmes. They encompass the 4 key messages of Trefoil – friendship, get active, give support, get involved. The STARS challenge is intended to help guilds to create varied, interesting, inclusive and meaningful programmes that will help to retain and attract members.
There are 5 points to our Trefoil STARS and each point will concentrate on a different theme, based around the 5 letters of the word STARS:
S – Skills
T – Together
A – Action
R – Roam
S – Self
Yes – there is a different cloth badge for each theme and these can be put together to form a star. On completion of all 5 STARS themes, a metal badge is available.
The STARS Challenge is for UK and TGIFC Trefoil Guild members only. It is designed to be used within guild meetings and events, and to encourage varied and interesting programmes. You may however work towards it as an individual or a smaller group. Each challenge has been designed to enable all members to participate, irrespective of circumstances or type of guild. If you are doing the challenge as an individual or small group you should share, tell, or show your achievements to other members of your guild.
Your guild chair when she feels that you have satisfactorily achieved or fulfilled your chosen challenge(s). If the chair themselves is taking part in the challenge then the other members must agree that they have also completed it satisfactorily.
Click here to download the order form. Complete this and send to the Trefoil office with your payment. Cloth badges are £1 each plus postage as detailed on the form. Metal badges are £3 each.
The themes have been published in The Trefoil magazine, and are available on the website at the top of this page, alongside some additional resource ideas. We also have a Facebook group that you can join to share ideas with other members.
Each STARS theme has 8 clauses. To gain the badge you must complete 5 of these. There is no minimum or maximum time limit for completion of any of the clauses. Present your work to your guild chair for signing off.
The Voyage award is here to stay and is still available to start or to continue. The STARS challenge does not replace the Voyage award. It is an additional programme resource for all members.
The STARS challenge is something that can be used within your guild programmes as you wish. It is not an award and does not needs testers, assessors or mentors, you and your guild chair decide on suitable challenges and when they have been achieved and there is no time limit or requirement to register or keep complicated records. Many of the ideas can be incorporated into guild meetings, outings or other events.
The challenges are intended to be accessible to everyone so can be adapted to suit individual needs or circumstances. For instance - for members with limited mobility, Internet or Lone guild members who might be housebound or living in isolated areas where there is no local guild or for any other reason. Some members live in areas where even the internet is only intermittent, slow speed or not at all. Some might be techie savvy but others may not even have a mobile phone.
It would be impossible to create a challenge that would be suitable for everyone as we all have different experiences, skills, abilities and opportunities. This was one of the main reasons for making the challenge one that is monitored locally so it can be used to suit individual members interests and circumstances.