#320 Taiwan...Thanks Alan!

This FDC was issued on June,1,2010 for the Centenary of Girl Scouting .

In 1909, Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, decided that girls should not be in the same organisation as the boys, and the Girl Guides were founded in the UK in 1910. Many, though by no means all, Girl Guide and Girl Scout groups across the globe trace their roots to this point.

The name Guide was taken from a famous frontier regiment in the British Indian army, the Corps of Guides, which was noted for its skills in tracking and survival.

Two central themes have been present from the earliest days of the movement: domestic skills and "a kind of practical feminism which embodies physical fitness, survival skills, camping, citizenship training, and career preparation". These two themes have been emphasised differently at different times and by different groups, but have remained central to Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting.

There has been much discussion about how similar Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting should be to boys' Scouting programs. While many girls saw what the boys were doing and wanted to do it too, girls' organizations have sought to avoid simply aping the boys.

Even when most Scout organizations became coeducational Guiding remained separate in many countries to provide a female-centered program. Internationally it is governed by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts with member organizations in 144 countries.