Victorian Rovers

1. Hypothetical
Introduce the topic as a hypothetical, to make the opening section entirely creative:
"Imagine that Victorian Rovers buys a large country property with a huge wilderness area, large tract of open land as well as a small mountain. (etc., etc.). How would you as Rovers imagine this property in ten years time?"

The facilitator needs to be ruthless in making this a creative exercise. Keep those filthy left-brainers in check. We are not yet talking about Mafeking; this is hypothetical, and no idea is too outrageous.

2. Quality of Crew Program
Let's start to frame the question. We're talking about Mafeking now. And we want to know how Mafeking Rover Park could further add value to a Crew program, being the best measure of the quality of our operation. Once again, facilitator needs to be ruthless. We're not giving management advice to Mafeking - let them worry about that. We're talking about how Mafeking could further contribute to achieving a Crew's aims. So we're still brainstorming at this point, but the ideas are grounded in this idea of the Crew program. At this point we got ideas about activities for team-building, service, etc.

It's really important that any misinformation is not corrected. One of the striking things at Mt Dandenong was that Rovers were suggesting that Mafeking add features that are actually already there. This needs to be noted carefully, as these perceptions are some of the most useful things we can give to the Management Committee. Allow yourself time at the end to invite someone familiar with the Park to talk about all the features.

3. Removing Barriers
This is closely linked with the previous section. Acknowledge that Mafeking operates in a competitive environment - why go to a Rover park 2 hours away rather than a local Scout Park half an hour away? This is where your left-brainers can go nuts, but remembering that we are not searching for management advice, we're searching for information about how Crews make the choices that they do. This is possibly the most interesting section and it goes to the core of "what is a Rover Park?". You may get some interesting feedback on personal/Crew 'ownership' of the park, or matters relating to cost. What are the barriers that prevent Crews spending a weekend at Mafeking?

Having wrapped up your discussion, invite some knowledgeable people to really explain the features of the park.

Overall comments

Obviously your discussion is going to be more fluid than this, but I think these are three distinct interventions that your facilitator can make in order to refocus from creative opinions to critical opinions. Attempt where possible to keep the focus on matters that affect Crews. Don't worry about (e.g.) revenue-raising opportunities for the park -we have a management committee to worry about that (or Rovers can make suggestions privately). The purpose of this exercise is to work out how Crews interact with the Park.

One of the challenges of this sort of discussion is making sure that it is not dominated by people who know heaps about the park. It's the ignorant folk we're trying to tap, so make sure that this is clear from the start. You're facilitator needs to be ruthless in the manner that they draw opinion from all sorts of different people, while still letting conversation bubble relatively organically. Don't allow anyone to shut anyone down. The only person who can shut people down is the facilitator, and only then to refocus the discussion.