Introduction

The Extraordinary Rover conference held in March 2009 comprising over 300 Rovers and advisors identified  many opportunities to assist Crews. This guideline hopes to enable stronger links between Region Councils and Crews and provide examples of quality that help Rovers and Crews become extraordinary.

This Guideline was formally endorsed by the Branch Rover Council  at the Feb 2010 meeting.

Program

• The program reflects the profile of activities everyone has contributed to and is happy with
• Within 1 week of update the program is distributed to all Members, Venturers, Group, RRC
• It contains information about Where, When, Cost and a contact
• Support of other local crew activities is in the program
• The crew attends a variety of Region & Branch activities and assets
• Service activities are strongly supported by members

Membership

• All members are registered and have WWC within 3 months of joining
• The crew visits local Venturer units 3+ times per year to promote their crew
• The crew attends other scout events to promote their crew & Rovers
• The crew maintains a contact list of all members and distributes it regularly to members & Group/District
• The crew has a current Flyer/WEB site/Facebook page and submits articles to local media
• Members discuss and agree which communications tool they will use, eg SMS,E-Mail,Facebook,etc
• The crew recruits 3+ new members each year

Behaviour

• Members pro-actively support each other
• Good and bad behaviours are discussed at each business meeting
• Members at all times behave in a manner in line with the Scout Law and Promise
• The crew actively manages members and friends behaviour at all events
• Crew members pro-actively find out what's going on

Training

• All new members have completed an Intro course and Squire training within 6 months
• The crew sends 2+ members to Basic or further training each year
• The crew offers financial assistance to those attending training
• Member are encouraged to do the B.P Award
• Member are encouraged to take up leadership positions within Victorian Rovers
• Member are encouraged take up leader roles in other sections

Assets

• The crew sets a budget each year
• The crew raises sufficient funds to support the program
• Everyone helps keep the Rover Den in order

Management

• All Crew positions are elected & filled at least annually
• The Crew Leader has attended a Basic course
• The crew sends 2 representatives to every RRC meeting
• The Crew Leader attends 4 RRC meetings per year
• An accurate report of the crews financial status is reported at each Business meeting
• The crew has a pro-active Rover Advisor who follows the Advisor Expectations guideline
• The Crew participates in a triennial visit organised by the RRC and develops a 3 year plan
• The crew discusses important items from the last RRC meeting at the next crew Business meeting
• This guideline is displayed in the Rover den and discussed during Squire training
• The crew prepares an annual report and submits to the RRC and Group/District

Rovers - IT MUST BE FUN ! !

Download the interactive pro forma for your Crew's improvement plan. Identify what your Crew is doing well, and make a plan for areas that can be improved with clear responsibilities and deadlines.

Interactive Plan - Quality Crew Guidelines

The Crew Program guide is a publication by the National Rover Council designed to assist Crews with creating a good program and how to function well as a crew.

The Crew and its Program

The Crew Program guide is a publication by the National Rover Council designed to assist Crews with creating a good program and how to function well as a crew.

Download the Guide from here:

The Crew and it's Program

The Crew and its Program

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A Scouts Australia Publication

Scouts Australia expresses its thanks to Scott Sargant and Lachlan Shield for their work in the preparation and compilation of this publication in consultation with Pat Lanham, Ben Keily and the National Rover council.

Thanks also to the photographers whose work appears in this publication – Nick Buchner, Lauchlan Munro, Adam Darragh and Alan Moyle.

Published by authority of the National Executive Committee of The Scout Association of Australia.

Copyright  The Scout Association of Australia, 2003.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, computer or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage, mailing or retrieval system without written permission of The Scout Association of Australia.

This publication is one of three written to replace the Australian Rover Handbook.

First Edition April, 2003

Available at www.scouts.com.au

National Library of Australia Card No. and ISBN 1 920745 11 4

INTRODUCTION

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This book has been compiled by Rovers from around Australia as a guide to running a successful Rover Crew. For individuals to get the most out of Rovering, it is important that a Crew functions well and accommodates all of its members.

It is the second of two books that, along with the experience that you gain on the way, will help to develop your understanding of the Rover Section. Before reading this book, you should read Guidelines to Rovering.

The Crew and its Program is designed to be used in conjunction with the normal training methods of the Rover Section, including Squire (or pre-investiture) training and formal training offered by Scouts Australia to help you gain a better understanding of how to make your Crew, and the Rovers that make up your Crew, successful in achieving through Scouting what it is they want.

The book provides a great starting point but is no substitute for being enthusiastic and participating with a well run Rover Crew. Hopefully you will gain a better understanding of how the Rover Section works and be able to use this to become a valuable part of the Rover Section, and perhaps more importantly, your own Crew. But most importantly you should learn how to have a lot of fun doing it!

For further information check the Scouts Australia website at www.scouts.com.au

THE IMPORTANCE OF ROVERING

Rovering, as a part of Scouting, aims to develop its members into valuable members of the community. Rovering is very much a community in itself, and there are a number of skills and concepts you need to understand to become a valuable part of this community. This includes having a solid understanding of the organisational structure of both the Rover Section and Scouting as a whole, basic management and administration procedures, and ways in which you can contribute to improving the quality of Rovering that both you and your Crew can achieve.

What is quality Rovering?

The term is a superficial one, but encourages both Crews and individual Rovers alike to achieve more out of Rovering, maximising whatever opportunities that may come along. Whether or not you achieve a high quality of Rovering can be determined by two simple questions:

1. Are you getting out of Rovering what you want?

Are you having fun and doing the sorts of things that you want to do within Scouting? Are you learning new skills and meeting people? These are things that contribute to what you are able to take away with you from Rovering and these are usually the things that attract you to Rovering in the first place.

2. Are you achieving the Scouting Aims through your Rovering?

Scouting aims to encourage its members to develop themselves physically, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and socially. The Rover Section places an emphasis on service. Do you participate in activities and undertake challenges that help you achieve all of these things?

In both cases the measure of success of the Crew hinges on the fact that the individuals who make up the Crew are successful in achieving these things.

How to achieve quality Rovering

Most importantly, preparing and implementing quality Programs that meet the needs of individual Crew members, as well as the Crew as a whole, will ensure that all members will be able to get the most out of Rovers.

In addition, you will need an understanding of the organisation and management of the Rover Section. Furthermore, a basic understanding of the structure of Scouting will also help you be more aware of where the Rover Section fits into the wider world of Scouting and the resources and opportunities it can provide.

This book is designed to equip you with some of the tools you will need to achieve this ambition. It should also prompt questions as to how you can improve what you and your Crew are doing. Good luck in achieving your goals.

THE PROGRAM

Creating a quality Crew Program

An effective Crew Program underlies all successful Crews. There are many aspects to not only creating a quality Crew Program, but also to implementing it and maintaining the momentum as well.

Involving Crew members

If members of the Crew have ownership over their own Program, then they are likely to both put more effort into the Program and get more benefit and enjoyment out of it.

There are a number of ways to ensure that every member of the Crew maintains an active role in the Crew Program. Some of these include:

• ensuring activities are planned in advance rather than at the last minute
• involvement of all members in the organisational process
• sharing leadership and ownership of events
• ensuring activities are well promoted to all Crew members
• ensuring that all members receive notification in a timely manner
• ensuring the Program is based on the interests and desires of the Rovers in the Crew. This is perhaps the most important ingredient. Without this basic formula, Crew members will be unwilling to support the Program because they have no interest in it. All the planning in the world is of little use, unless the Crew members want to participate.

A Crew may only need to set aside two or three nights per year to construct a Program, with a short review in between to evaluate where the Crew is in relation to the Program, i.e. What events are on the Program for the next six weeks? Are we organised? What do we need to do to ensure the programmed events occur successfully?

Each member of the Crew should be encouraged to attend each programming night with a few ideas they would like to contribute. This will help ensure a good variety of activities and that everyone’s interests are included.

Components of the Program

There are a number of parts to the Program and selecting a variety of activities will allow the Crew to maintain a balance between undertaking the necessary work and service required and achieving the members’ own goals from Rovering. Consider the following groups of activities when looking for ideas.

House keeping

When constructing a Crew Program, it is vital to consider the continued successful operation of the Crew, which means ensuring successful housekeeping practices. Things to consider include:

• recruitment of new members
• promotion of the Crew and its activities
• relationships with other Sections, the Group Leader and District Commissioner
• relationships with other Crews and Venturer Scout Units
• relationships with Rover Councils (Area/Region, Branch, National)
• participation in Moots and other state, national and international events
• training of Crew members in Crew management
• fundraising for Crew activities and equipment
• ongoing administration requirements for business meetings.

Local community

The Rover Program provides a variety of opportunities for Rovers to become involved in their local community through participation in local events and activities, and a wide range of service projects. These may be undertaken either by Crews organising service projects themselves, or responding to requests from other organisations. The Rover Program needs to provide these service opportunities at the local community, Area/Region and Branch levels. Rovers should also be encouraged to seek individual opportunities through participation in the Baden-Powell Scout Award Service Badge (Method A) or Social Development Badge (Method B).

The world around us

The Rover Program has always provided opportunities to learn about other cultures, other traditions and so on, through participation in international activities such as traditional Moots, world and Area/Region service projects and so on. The Rover Program continues to provide these opportunities for Rovers to participate in worldwide projects to assist in the understanding and appreciation of other cultures. These opportunities will not come along for everyone and should the chance arise, you should take it and encourage other Rovers you know to do the same.

Outdoor Scouting skills

Rovering by its very nature is and always has been primarily an outdoor activity. Rovers who progress to the Section through the Scout Movement bring their skills with them - those who come from outside the Movement will be taught those skills as part of the preinvestiture training process. The outdoor skills used by Rovers have evolved over time to include awareness of issues such as minimal impact camping and bushwalking, risk management, environmental awareness and so on.

The outdoor component of the Rover Program holds great appeal for a lot of members and the experiential learning provided in the Program allows Rovers to learn how to take part in these activities safely without the need to reduce their enjoyment or their sense of adventure.

Creative activities

The Rover Program allows for and accepts a good deal of individuality, creativity, and self-expression, both in relation to individual Rovers, and collectively. The practice of electing small groups of Rovers (committees) to organise and run activities at all levels from the Crew to Branch to National and even International level, gives a new outlook to an old Program. It ensures that even long standing activities continue to change to suit the needs of current Rovers.

The Rover Program encourages Rovers to bring their own creative skills to the organisation of activities and the running of their Crews through the practice of continually turning over the membership of those committees elected to organise and run Rover activities at all levels within the Movement. The Baden-Powell Scout Award is another outlet for Rovers to express their individuality through a variety of challenges and experiences.

Incorporating the fundamentals in Rovering

Getting others to understand the fundamental principles of Scouting is often achieved simply through leading by example. Holding informal discussions is a valuable way of exploring the issues in depth with people, but it is not a very attractive activity by itself. Time spent camping or socialising with a number of other Scouters will often lead to discussions about the fundamentals of Scouting, though it is rarely referred to quite so formally on these occasions.

Incorporating fundamentals into the Crew Program is not as hard as it sounds. If the Crew is doing activities that challenge its members in each of the areas of development (physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social) then the aim has been achieved without trying.

A lot of people have trouble understanding the concept that they have actually considered the fundamentals of Scouting in their day-to-day experiences, so often just pointing out to them what has been achieved is enough. On other occasions Crews may like to formally explore some of the facets involved.

Consider having a creative arts night where members make paintings and sculptures that represent certain parts of the fundamentals (these are not likely to be prize winning pieces but it will be fun). Consider debating the relevance of the Rover Prayer, or the relevance of the Scouting Program to today’s young people. All of these activities encourage the Crew to think more in depth about the “nitty-gritty” of Scouting fundamentals.

Programming

Effective programming and the implementation of the Crew Program are essential ingredients of any successful Rover Crew. The Program and related activities determined by the Crew are the lifeblood of any Rover Crew. It is important that members of the Crew are involved in all aspects of the programming process, and that the Program addresses all components of Scouting (physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social). Most importantly, the Program should be interesting, relevant and enjoyable for the people taking part and making it happen – the Crew members.

Facilitating Programming

Facilitation is the art of creating the best atmosphere for achieving a given goal - in this case, the construction of an interesting and relevant Program.

Before holding a programming meeting, everyone should consider what it is they really want to achieve from Rovering for themselves and come up with a list of ideas from this. By using these ideas as a starting point, everyone is able to Program ideas they actually want to do rather than settling for easy options on the programming night because it was all they could think of at the time.

To ensure that the Crew is ready to Program the Crew Leader should:

• encourage everyone to bring their diary and a few ideas they would like tocontribute
• ensure that all relevant information is available during the programmingsession, e.g. activity calendars (Group, District etc), details of any ongoing projects
• ensure that any discussion aids such as a white board are available (black boards or butcher’s paper work just as well)
• ensure that everyone feels comfortable contributing their ideas, making sure any quieter members are encouraged to get involved. It is important to discourage any negative comments during brainstorming as they will often stifle the production of good ideas
• keep everyone focused on the task at hand by summarising what has been said and ensuring that good ideas are carried through to the Program
• decide what period the Crew is programming for, e.g. 3 months, 12 months. It is useful to have both a long term Program for the Crew’s major projects and then a short term Program for the weekly activities.

Great ideas are essential!

The generation of new ideas is critical to developing a vibrant Program that is exciting to the members of the Crew. Often these will be recycled ideas approached from a different angle, but that is the beauty of having a number of creative influences in the Crew’s Program. Once the Crew has come up with the great ideas, the real challenge is to see them through – even if they are a little more challenging than first thought.

The generation of ideas is one of the most important parts of the programming process – it also usually needs the most facilitation. Lots of Rovers are full of great ideas – they just don’t remember them when it comes time to make a Program! The role of the Program facilitator (who should be the person who is best at it in the Crew) is to help prompt people into remembering these great ideas or coming up with new ones. There is a range of ways to do this – and some of them can be a lot of fun.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is the process of writing down as many ideas as possible and involves every member of the Crew offering ideas whilst a scribe notes all ideas without editing them. It is essential that no negative comments are made as it could restrict the flow of ideas. The facilitator could encourage people to focus on one particular theme or aspect and generate as many ideas as possible. It is important not to reject any ideas – even if they are physically impossible, write them down. The idea, whilst practically useless, may give inspiration to another idea which may be great fun. There are no wrong answers or bad ideas.

Some other ideas….

• Set the Crew a minimum number of ideas before starting to Program – such as 150 or 200. This way it makes everyone really think hard and get creative.
• Try word association – have the Crew think of as many things as they can to do with a particular topic – like food. Be as abstract as possible – this always generates some crazy ideas, but from the crazy ideas come some great Programs.
• Get everyone to write down 10 things they have always wanted to do but never got around to.
• Get everyone to write down 20 activities that are their all-time favourites (both within and outside Scouting) and then compile this list. This way members get to share experiences each has gained along the way.
• Program around a theme for a couple of months – such as the environment, light weight camping, exploration, Australian history and so on.

Assess the ideas

When considering which activities to include in the Program, consider whether they:

• are appealing to Crew members
• cater for the needs and capacity of individual members of the Crew
• provide companionship and fellowship
• provide the opportunity for gaining new experiences and skills
• provide the opportunity to be involved in a positive team environment
• provide the opportunity to exercise and develop leadership skills.

Putting it together

Some key steps to successfully constructing an effective and enjoyable Program are listed below.

Generating ideas

1. Brainstorm for activities. Concentrate on quantity instead of quality at this stage.
2. Decide whether the Crew wishes to undertake any major projects during the programmed time frame. This will assist in the overall direction of the Crew, e.g. a major expedition, hosting some major events or committing to major service projects within the community.
3. List all ongoing commitments that should be considered, e.g. Squire training and investitures, service projects, fundraising
4. List all activities that the Crew wishes to attend, or which the Crew should reasonably be expected to attend and/or assist with, e.g. Moots, service activities and camps. (Check District, Area/Region, Branch and National calendars)

Grouping ideas

1. Consider the Aims of Scouting (physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social components) Assign a Scouting component to each activity and ask for additional activities to meet any components that aren’t well represented.
2. Look to include ideas that will support members undertaking their Baden-Powell Scout Award, like having enough nights camping for Crew members to achieve their Scoutcraft Badge and so on. Consider also ideas that may encourage others to take up their Baden-Powell Scout Award.

Programming

1. Get the major activities and important activities programmed first.
2. List all meeting dates and assign an activity to each. At this step it is important not to fall into the old habit of picking the easy activities the Crew have always done because they know how to achieve them. Don’t discard the wild, crazy or difficult ideas. Often it is the difficulty of the task that makes achieving it so rewarding.

Reviewing the content

1. Check that there is a wide variety of activities and that it is well balanced
2. Ensure that the majority of the Crew is happy with the balance of the Program, and with its ability to meet all of the Scouting components (physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social)

Making it happen

1. Planning responsibilities can be allocated to individual members of the Crew ensuring that everyone is involved (it may be that less experienced members assist others so that they learn the relevant procedures). The Crew Leader or Activities Officer should follow up individual organisers throughout the Program period to ensure things are going to happen smoothly.
2. Ensure all members have an up to date Program (it may be beneficial to send copies to anyone interested in joining the Crew eg Venturer Scouts)

Monitoring the Program

1. It is the responsibility of the Crew Leader or the assigned executive member to ensure that the Program is carried out and to keep members up-to-date on any changes made.

Points to remember

• The length of the Program established is up to each Crew. It may be as short as three months or as long as a whole year.
• Large Crews may wish to form a Programming Committee, but all members of the Crew should still be involved in the actual programming meeting
• The financial constraints of members of the Crew should always be considered and, if necessary, fundraising organised. Try not to let money be the governing factor on the quality of the Crew’s activities.
• Organisers should be thanked for their efforts – every time.

A sample Crew Program is included in Appendix One.

Another approach

1. Set aside a weekend dedicated to developing a Program for the Crew
   1. The weekend should include the formal Program development part as well as have some social or service component.
2. Prior to the weekend advise all members to come up with at least two or three activity ideas under the following categories:
   1. Social development
   2. Physical development
   3. Spiritual development
   4. Intellectual development
   5. Emotional development
   6. Service
   7. Fundraising
   8. Recruitment/Retention
   9. Training and development
   10. Other headings that are applicable to the Crew’s needs.
3. On the weekend have the following resources set up and/or available:
   1. Chart paper with the topic heading above (one topic per page)
   2. Markers or pens
   3. National, Branch, Area/Region, District and Group calendars if available
   4. Blank calendar
   5. Any other resources that may be applicable.
4. Place the 9 or 10 chart papers around the room using Blu-tack or similar
5. Ask the Rovers to move around the room and record the ideas they have come up with on the chart paper under the appropriate heading. When everyone has exhausted their lists get them to move around the room adding any other ideas that may have come to light during this part of the process.
6. When all ideas have been recorded ask the Rovers to move around the room placing a tick or mark on three activities that they would really like to do under every category.Alternatively, Rovers could place a high, medium and low ranking against all ideas listed under each category.
7. Once all Rovers have voted it should be a simple process to identify the most popular activities under each category, followed by the second most popular and so on until all ideas under each category has been ranked. This process identifies activities that the Crew would like to do by consensus and is a fair and equitable way of ensuring that most Rovers’ needs are catered for. Lower ranked activities should not be discounted and the Rovers should identify if the activity could still be conducted as a Crew activity.
8. Identify the length of time the Crew wants to set the Program for. Three, six or twelve months
9. Identify the International, National, Branch, Area/Region, District and Group activities that the Crew or Crew members want to participate in and place these activities on the calendar. Rovers may have already identified some of these activities during the ‘brainstorming’ part of the process.
10. All that is required now is to ‘fill the gaps’ with the activities that were previously ranked as desired activities of the Crew.
    

Implementing the Program

Having generated all of these ideas, the challenge is not to Program the ideas that are easy to organise at the expense of the ones that might be a bit more challenging and probably a lot more interesting. The Crew should decide on those activities members would like to do the most, then Program these in along with the major events and standing commitments the Crew already has.

Once the Program has been drafted, the Crew should stop and assess it for balance. Does it satisfy all of the needs and goals identified by the Crew in the period being programmed? Does it cover a wide variety of activities or is there an over emphasis on one particular type of activity? Is it affordable? Does it allow for fundraising and recruiting opportunities? Take the opportunity to give the Program a “tweak” at this stage to ensure the Crew does achieve all it want to.

The next step is for the Crew Leader, Activities Officer or Programming Committee to allocate someone to organise each of the activities. When doing this, the experience of the person should be kept in mind – if they may need assistance, get one of the more experienced Rovers to provide advice. Especially keep this in mind when asking Squires to organise activities.

It is not up to the Crew Leader, nor the Activities Officer, to organise all of the activities. It is their job to make sure those charged with the responsibility of organising the activities carry out their tasks, and to provide them with some assistance when it is required. This way, no single person is left with all the work and more people gain experience with organizational skills.

Communication and distribution of the Program

Having constructed the Program, it is essential to make sure everyone in the Crew has a couple of copies. They should be distributed liberally – give some to the local Venturer Scout Units and to the Group Leader as well. The person responsible will also need to ensure that any changes are communicated properly, with plenty of notice, to everyone who has a copy.

Having done this, getting people to adhere to the Program will often require some effort– especially if the Crew doesn’t have a regular meeting time. Once everyone in the Crew is in the habit of following the Program, these reminders will be needed less and less, but to start with, a few phone calls will go a long way to ensuring success.

Monitoring and evaluating the Program

It is critical to constantly monitor and evaluate the Program if it is to be successful in the long term. This means looking at where the Program is going, checking to see if it is meeting the needs of the Crew, the objectives of the Crew and fulfilling the Aims and Principles of the Movement. This should happen on a fairly regular basis – say every six to eight weeks if the Crew have made a six month Program. This will ensure that everyone’s needs are being met before members get bored or upset.

So how to do this? The easiest way is to discuss the coming events and past events in a comfortable and functional setting – for example: at a casual meeting, a round table discussion, over a meal or even around the campfire. The person in charge of the Program, whether it is the Crew Leader or the Activities Officer, should encourage discussion about the successes and failures of any particular activity. This can help avoid the pitfalls and build on the strengths of these activities in the future.

It is important to ensure that discussion occurs in a constructive manner and that individuals are not criticised unfairly. It is better to give constructive criticism in private and praise the achievements of individuals in public. Having said that, sharing mistakes made with others will assist in the learning process and perhaps help to avoid similar problems in the future.

Some of the Crew may not necessarily volunteer their opinions or they may not want to upset another member of the Crew by criticising their efforts in organising an activity. This person’s apparent disinterest in the Program may be the first sign that they are dissatisfied, and poor attendance and involvement is also a good indicator. These people need to be encouraged to give their opinions as they will often have some good ideas about ways to improve the specific activity or the Program in general, but may not want to share them for fear of hurting others in the Crew, or just because they are shy. Having the Crew Leader or Activities Officer approach these people privately is a good way to get their flow of ideas started. There is, of course, the opposite character to this person; the one who is the first to criticize and the last to help. These people need to be encouraged to remain constructive and bite their tongue from time to time. In any case, making everyone feel that his or her concerns are being addressed is more likely to encourage active participation.

Some good performance indicators to measure the Crew’s Program success by include:

• Are Crew members pa

LEADING A CREW

Qualities of a Crew Leader

Given that Rovers are self-determining, the ultimate responsibility for the running of a successful Crew rests with the Crew Leader. This is possibly the most important job a Rover can assume at any time in their Rovering career (more important even than the job of BRC Chairman!) The responsibilities of a Crew Leader are outlined in Guidelines to Rovering.

Ideally, a Crew Leader would be over 20 years of age, but in small and new Crews this is not always possible. Certainly both they and the Assistant Crew Leader should be fully invested Rovers. Many Crews insist that all office bearers be fully invested members of the Crew, while others are more flexible. Some Crews consciously elect a Squire or younger Rover to fill an executive position so that the next generation of leaders in the Crew can start gaining some experience. This also means that the opinion of youngermembers of the Crew can be sought.

At the very least the Crew Leader should attend a Rover Sectional training course or equivalent either before, or during, their term of appointment. The Assistant Crew Leader should also try to attend, so that they can put their learning into practice before they succeed the Crew Leader. Some Branches have rules requiring Crew Leaders to either have been trained or to undertake their training during their term of appointment.

The Crew Leader needs to have some self-motivation. They are the one responsible for motivating everyone else in the Crew to get things done. They should have good time management, goal setting, organisational and people skills. All of this is a lot to ask of a young adult. In point of fact, all they really need is some common sense and a desire to do a really good job. The rest of these things they can learn along the way – that is the idea after all.

Management of the Rover Crew

One person can only do so much, so the team that is behind them is all important. In a Rover Crew, the Crew Leader cannot, and should not, do everything to keep the Crew running. They will need to learn to act more as a manager, and they will need a support team to succeed in this role.

The teamwork aspect of the Executive is all important to ensuring long term success in leading the Crew. If the team does not work well together, this adds extra strain to the jobs each person takes on and can lead to the “burn out” of one or more members of the Executive. It is particularly important that the Crew Leader pays attention to this, as looking after the members of the Crew and the Crew Executive is an important part of their job.

The Crew Executive would normally consist of the Crew Leader, Secretary and Treasurer, but many consist of more than this, depending on the needs of the Crew. All of these positions should be described in the Crew’s Constitution or Rules, with the responsibilities of each individual clearly identified. It is also important to remember that when a new Executive is elected, the experience gained and procedures developed by the current Executive should be passed on to make each successive Executive better equipped to deal with running the Crew.

The Rover Adviser is normally included in most discussions of the Crew Executive as a guiding influence, and some Rover Crews acknowledge the Rover Adviser as an exofficio member of the Crew Executive in their Constitution.

Working as a team – the key to effective management

The Crew Leader needs to identify member’s strengths and weaknesses to firstly make sure they are allocated suitable tasks to do, and secondly to help them develop the other skills they may be lacking, so that both the individual and the Crew may benefit. An important key here of course is communication, and this is an area in which we can always look to improve our skills. Ensuring everyone is kept informed and that messages are passed and received accurately is crucial to having a successfully functioning team.

Looking after each other

With t

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This publication from the National Rover Council aims to assist all Rovers with how to get the best of their time.

The publication covers the following areas:

• What Rover have to offer
• Rover & Scouting Fundamentals
• A brief History of Scouting and Rovering
• Becoming a Rover
• Organisation
• Training
• The Rover Award Scheme

Guidelines for Rovering

The Crew Program guide is a publication by the National Rover Council designed to assist Crews with creating a good program and how to function well as a crew.

Download the Guide from here:

The Crew and it's Program

The Crew and its Program

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A Scouts Australia Publication

Scouts Australia expresses its thanks to Scott Sargant and Lachlan Shield for their work in the preparation and compilation of this publication in consultation with Pat Lanham, Ben Keily and the National Rover council.

Thanks also to the photographers whose work appears in this publication – Nick Buchner, Lauchlan Munro, Adam Darragh and Alan Moyle.

Published by authority of the National Executive Committee of The Scout Association of Australia.

Copyright  The Scout Association of Australia, 2003.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, computer or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage, mailing or retrieval system without written permission of The Scout Association of Australia.

This publication is one of three written to replace the Australian Rover Handbook.

First Edition April, 2003

Available at www.scouts.com.au

National Library of Australia Card No. and ISBN 1 920745 11 4

This National Rover Council publication explains the Rover Award Scheme including Squires, the Baden Powell Scout Award, other badges and how these can tie into the crew.

The Rover Award Scheme

INTRODUCTION

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This book has been compiled by Rovers from around Australia as a guide to running a successful Rover Crew. For individuals to get the most out of Rovering, it is important that a Crew functions well and accommodates all of its members.

It is the second of two books that, along with the experience that you gain on the way, will help to develop your understanding of the Rover Section. Before reading this book, you should read Guidelines to Rovering.

The Crew and its Program is designed to be used in conjunction with the normal training methods of the Rover Section, including Squire (or pre-investiture) training and formal training offered by Scouts Australia to help you gain a better understanding of how to make your Crew, and the Rovers that make up your Crew, successful in achieving through Scouting what it is they want.

The book provides a great starting point but is no substitute for being enthusiastic and participating with a well run Rover Crew. Hopefully you will gain a better understanding of how the Rover Section works and be able to use this to become a valuable part of the Rover Section, and perhaps more importantly, your own Crew. But most importantly you should learn how to have a lot of fun doing it!

For further information check the Scouts Australia website at www.scouts.com.au

THE IMPORTANCE OF ROVERING

Rovering, as a part of Scouting, aims to develop its members into valuable members of the community. Rovering is very much a community in itself, and there are a number of skills and concepts you need to understand to become a valuable part of this community. This includes having a solid understanding of the organisational structure of both the Rover Section and Scouting as a whole, basic management and administration procedures, and ways in which you can contribute to improving the quality of Rovering that both you and your Crew can achieve.

What is quality Rovering?

The term is a superficial one, but encourages both Crews and individual Rovers alike to achieve more out of Rovering, maximising whatever opportunities that may come along. Whether or not you achieve a high quality of Rovering can be determined by two simple questions:

1. Are you getting out of Rovering what you want?

Are you having fun and doing the sorts of things that you want to do within Scouting? Are you learning new skills and meeting people? These are things that contribute to what you are able to take away with you from Rovering and these are usually the things that attract you to Rovering in the first place.

2. Are you achieving the Scouting Aims through your Rovering?

Scouting aims to encourage its members to develop themselves physically, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and socially. The Rover Section places an emphasis on service. Do you participate in activities and undertake challenges that help you achieve all of these things?

In both cases the measure of success of the Crew hinges on the fact that the individuals who make up the Crew are successful in achieving these things.

How to achieve quality Rovering

Most importantly, preparing and implementing quality Programs that meet the needs of individual Crew members, as well as the Crew as a whole, will ensure that all members will be able to get the most out of Rovers.

In addition, you will need an understanding of the organisation and management of the Rover Section. Furthermore, a basic understanding of the structure of Scouting will also help you be more aware of where the Rover Section fits into the wider world of Scouting and the resources and opportunities it can provide.

This book is designed to equip you with some of the tools you will need to achieve this ambition. It should also prompt questions as to how you can improve what you and your Crew are doing. Good luck in achieving your goals.

The State Government announced on 8th March 2004 that it intended to move swords from ‘controlled’ to ‘prohibited’ weapons under the Control of Weapons Act. This means that illegal possession or use of swords in Victoria could result in a $12,000 fine or six months in jail.

The Chief Commissioner supported an application for a blanket exemption from the regulation changes for Victorian Branch, much in the way scouts are protected from knives legislation. The B.R.C. applied for an exemption, which was approved by the Governor and the Justice Department in June 2004 with the following conditions:

• That Victorian Rovers maintain a register of all swords held by Rover Crews, including a photo of the sword plus other key identifying features.
• That swords are stored in a secure location (such as being locked up in a safe or cabinet) to prevent unlawful use.
• That Rover Crews are aware that they may be required to provide the sword upon request to Victoria Police for inspection.

UPDATE: October 2010
There is currently a bill before parliament to amend the act that may have an effect on the use of swords within our section. These include:

• It will be prohibited to supply, use or sell a prohibited or controlled weapon to anyone under 18 years old.
• It will be prohibited for anyone under the age of 18 to purchase a prohibited weapon.
• The use of a prohibited or controlled weapon by anyone who has been a member of the organisation for less than six (6) months.

As a result, we are requesting the following:

• All crews resubmit the details of their sword to the BRC Deputy Chairman to ensure the register is up to date. If you fail to resubmit your details, then your crew will be removed from the register. As a result, you will be breaking the law under the 2004 amendments to the Weapons Control Act. We have provided a copy of the registration form with this letter. Please send this form back as a priority.
• To note the amendments above with regards to the use and possession by people under the age of 18 and those who are in the association less than six (6) months. You may need to change investiture procedures to ensure that the pending laws are not broken.

If your crew is in possession of a sword and no longer wish to keep it, we ask that you advise the BRC Deputy Chairman that you wish to dispose of it and you will advised of the correct process to surrender it to Victoria Police.

If you have any queries or concerns, please contact the BRC Deputy Chairman (Kyle Nash – 0438 518 334) or Mathew McKernan (0401 060 013) ASAP. You can submit the form to Sword Register, Branch Rover Council, PO Box 774, Mt Waverley VIC 3149, or via email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Download the Sword information form here:

Crew Sword Information Sheet

Letter to Crews - October 2010

THE PROGRAM

Creating a quality Crew Program

An effective Crew Program underlies all successful Crews. There are many aspects to not only creating a quality Crew Program, but also to implementing it and maintaining the momentum as well.

Involving Crew members

If members of the Crew have ownership over their own Program, then they are likely to both put more effort into the Program and get more benefit and enjoyment out of it.

There are a number of ways to ensure that every member of the Crew maintains an active role in the Crew Program. Some of these include:

• ensuring activities are planned in advance rather than at the last minute
• involvement of all members in the organisational process
• sharing leadership and ownership of events
• ensuring activities are well promoted to all Crew members
• ensuring that all members receive notification in a timely manner
• ensuring the Program is based on the interests and desires of the Rovers in the Crew. This is perhaps the most important ingredient. Without this basic formula, Crew members will be unwilling to support the Program because they have no interest in it. All the planning in the world is of little use, unless the Crew members want to participate.

A Crew may only need to set aside two or three nights per year to construct a Program, with a short review in between to evaluate where the Crew is in relation to the Program, i.e. What events are on the Program for the next six weeks? Are we organised? What do we need to do to ensure the programmed events occur successfully?

Each member of the Crew should be encouraged to attend each programming night with a few ideas they would like to contribute. This will help ensure a good variety of activities and that everyone’s interests are included.

Components of the Program

There are a number of parts to the Program and selecting a variety of activities will allow the Crew to maintain a balance between undertaking the necessary work and service required and achieving the members’ own goals from Rovering. Consider the following groups of activities when looking for ideas.

House keeping

When constructing a Crew Program, it is vital to consider the continued successful operation of the Crew, which means ensuring successful housekeeping practices. Things to consider include:

• recruitment of new members
• promotion of the Crew and its activities
• relationships with other Sections, the Group Leader and District Commissioner
• relationships with other Crews and Venturer Scout Units
• relationships with Rover Councils (Area/Region, Branch, National)
• participation in Moots and other state, national and international events
• training of Crew members in Crew management
• fundraising for Crew activities and equipment
• ongoing administration requirements for business meetings.

Local community

The Rover Program provides a variety of opportunities for Rovers to become involved in their local community through participation in local events and activities, and a wide range of service projects. These may be undertaken either by Crews organising service projects themselves, or responding to requests from other organisations. The Rover Program needs to provide these service opportunities at the local community, Area/Region and Branch levels. Rovers should also be encouraged to seek individual opportunities through participation in the Baden-Powell Scout Award Service Badge (Method A) or Social Development Badge (Method B).

The world around us

The Rover Program has always provided opportunities to learn about other cultures, other traditions and so on, through participation in international activities such as traditional Moots, world and Area/Region service projects and so on. The Rover Program continues to provide these opportunities for Rovers to participate in worldwide projects to assist in the understanding and appreciation of other cultures. These opportunities will not come along for everyone and should the chance arise, you should take it and encourage other Rovers you know to do the same.

Outdoor Scouting skills

Rovering by its very nature is and always has been primarily an outdoor activity. Rovers who progress to the Section through the Scout Movement bring their skills with them - those who come from outside the Movement will be taught those skills as part of the preinvestiture training process. The outdoor skills used by Rovers have evolved over time to include awareness of issues such as minimal impact camping and bushwalking, risk management, environmental awareness and so on.

The outdoor component of the Rover Program holds great appeal for a lot of members and the experiential learning provided in the Program allows Rovers to learn how to take part in these activities safely without the need to reduce their enjoyment or their sense of adventure.

Creative activities

The Rover Program allows for and accepts a good deal of individuality, creativity, and self-expression, both in relation to individual Rovers, and collectively. The practice of electing small groups of Rovers (committees) to organise and run activities at all levels from the Crew to Branch to National and even International level, gives a new outlook to an old Program. It ensures that even long standing activities continue to change to suit the needs of current Rovers.

The Rover Program encourages Rovers to bring their own creative skills to the organisation of activities and the running of their Crews through the practice of continually turning over the membership of those committees elected to organise and run Rover activities at all levels within the Movement. The Baden-Powell Scout Award is another outlet for Rovers to express their individuality through a variety of challenges and experiences.

Incorporating the fundamentals in Rovering

Getting others to understand the fundamental principles of Scouting is often achieved simply through leading by example. Holding informal discussions is a valuable way of exploring the issues in depth with people, but it is not a very attractive activity by itself. Time spent camping or socialising with a number of other Scouters will often lead to discussions about the fundamentals of Scouting, though it is rarely referred to quite so formally on these occasions.

Incorporating fundamentals into the Crew Program is not as hard as it sounds. If the Crew is doing activities that challenge its members in each of the areas of development (physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social) then the aim has been achieved without trying.

A lot of people have trouble understanding the concept that they have actually considered the fundamentals of Scouting in their day-to-day experiences, so often just pointing out to them what has been achieved is enough. On other occasions Crews may like to formally explore some of the facets involved.

Consider having a creative arts night where members make paintings and sculptures that represent certain parts of the fundamentals (these are not likely to be prize winning pieces but it will be fun). Consider debating the relevance of the Rover Prayer, or the relevance of the Scouting Program to today’s young people. All of these activities encourage the Crew to think more in depth about the “nitty-gritty” of Scouting fundamentals.

Programming

Effective programming and the implementation of the Crew Program are essential ingredients of any successful Rover Crew. The Program and related activities determined by the Crew are the lifeblood of any Rover Crew. It is important that members of the Crew are involved in all aspects of the programming process, and that the Program addresses all components of Scouting (physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social). Most importantly, the Program should be interesting, relevant and enjoyable for the people taking part and making it happen – the Crew members.

Facilitating Programming

Facilitation is the art of creating the best atmosphere for achieving a given goal - in this case, the construction of an interesting and relevant Program.

Before holding a programming meeting, everyone should consider what it is they really want to achieve from Rovering for themselves and come up with a list of ideas from this. By using these ideas as a starting point, everyone is able to Program ideas they actually want to do rather than settling for easy options on the programming night because it was all they could think of at the time.

To ensure that the Crew is ready to Program the Crew Leader should:

• encourage everyone to bring their diary and a few ideas they would like tocontribute
• ensure that all relevant information is available during the programmingsession, e.g. activity calendars (Group, District etc), details of any ongoing projects
• ensure that any discussion aids such as a white board are available (black boards or butcher’s paper work just as well)
• ensure that everyone feels comfortable contributing their ideas, making sure any quieter members are encouraged to get involved. It is important to discourage any negative comments during brainstorming as they will often stifle the production of good ideas
• keep everyone focused on the task at hand by summarising what has been said and ensuring that good ideas are carried through to the Program
• decide what period the Crew is programming for, e.g. 3 months, 12 months. It is useful to have both a long term Program for the Crew’s major projects and then a short term Program for the weekly activities.

Great ideas are essential!

The generation of new ideas is critical to developing a vibrant Program that is exciting to the members of the Crew. Often these will be recycled ideas approached from a different angle, but that is the beauty of having a number of creative influences in the Crew’s Program. Once the Crew has come up with the great ideas, the real challenge is to see them through – even if they are a little more challenging than first thought.

The generation of ideas is one of the most important parts of the programming process – it also usually needs the most facilitation. Lots of Rovers are full of great ideas – they just don’t remember them when it comes time to make a Program! The role of the Program facilitator (who should be the person who is best at it in the Crew) is to help prompt people into remembering these great ideas or coming up with new ones. There is a range of ways to do this – and some of them can be a lot of fun.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is the process of writing down as many ideas as possible and involves every member of the Crew offering ideas whilst a scribe notes all ideas without editing them. It is essential that no negative comments are made as it could restrict the flow of ideas. The facilitator could encourage people to focus on one particular theme or aspect and generate as many ideas as possible. It is important not to reject any ideas – even if they are physically impossible, write them down. The idea, whilst practically useless, may give inspiration to another idea which may be great fun. There are no wrong answers or bad ideas.

Some other ideas….

• Set the Crew a minimum number of ideas before starting to Program – such as 150 or 200. This way it makes everyone really think hard and get creative.
• Try word association – have the Crew think of as many things as they can to do with a particular topic – like food. Be as abstract as possible – this always generates some crazy ideas, but from the crazy ideas come some great Programs.
• Get everyone to write down 10 things they have always wanted to do but never got around to.
• Get everyone to write down 20 activities that are their all-time favourites (both within and outside Scouting) and then compile this list. This way members get to share experiences each has gained along the way.
• Program around a theme for a couple of months – such as the environment, light weight camping, exploration, Australian history and so on.

Assess the ideas

When considering which activities to include in the Program, consider whether they:

• are appealing to Crew members
• cater for the needs and capacity of individual members of the Crew
• provide companionship and fellowship
• provide the opportunity for gaining new experiences and skills
• provide the opportunity to be involved in a positive team environment
• provide the opportunity to exercise and develop leadership skills.

Putting it together

Some key steps to successfully constructing an effective and enjoyable Program are listed below.

Generating ideas

1. Brainstorm for activities. Concentrate on quantity instead of quality at this stage.
2. Decide whether the Crew wishes to undertake any major projects during the programmed time frame. This will assist in the overall direction of the Crew, e.g. a major expedition, hosting some major events or committing to major service projects within the community.
3. List all ongoing commitments that should be considered, e.g. Squire training and investitures, service projects, fundraising
4. List all activities that the Crew wishes to attend, or which the Crew should reasonably be expected to attend and/or assist with, e.g. Moots, service activities and camps. (Check District, Area/Region, Branch and National calendars)

Grouping ideas

1. Consider the Aims of Scouting (physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social components) Assign a Scouting component to each activity and ask for additional activities to meet any components that aren’t well represented.
2. Look to include ideas that will support members undertaking their Baden-Powell Scout Award, like having enough nights camping for Crew members to achieve their Scoutcraft Badge and so on. Consider also ideas that may encourage others to take up their Baden-Powell Scout Award.

Programming

1. Get the major activities and important activities programmed first.
2. List all meeting dates and assign an activity to each. At this step it is important not to fall into the old habit of picking the easy activities the Crew have always done because they know how to achieve them. Don’t discard the wild, crazy or difficult ideas. Often it is the difficulty of the task that makes achieving it so rewarding.

Reviewing the content

1. Check that there is a wide variety of activities and that it is well balanced
2. Ensure that the majority of the Crew is happy with the balance of the Program, and with its ability to meet all of the Scouting components (physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social)

Making it happen

1. Planning responsibilities can be allocated to individual members of the Crew ensuring that everyone is involved (it may be that less experienced members assist others so that they learn the relevant procedures). The Crew Leader or Activities Officer should follow up individual organisers throughout the Program period to ensure things are going to happen smoothly.
2. Ensure all members have an up to date Program (it may be beneficial to send copies to anyone interested in joining the Crew eg Venturer Scouts)

Monitoring the Program

1. It is the responsibility of the Crew Leader or the assigned executive member to ensure that the Program is carried out and to keep members up-to-date on any changes made.

Points to remember

• The length of the Program established is up to each Crew. It may be as short as three months or as long as a whole year.
• Large Crews may wish to form a Programming Committee, but all members of the Crew should still be involved in the actual programming meeting
• The financial constraints of members of the Crew should always be considered and, if necessary, fundraising organised. Try not to let money be the governing factor on the quality of the Crew’s activities.
• Organisers should be thanked for their efforts – every time.

A sample Crew Program is included in Appendix One.

Another approach

1. Set aside a weekend dedicated to developing a Program for the Crew   
   1.  The weekend should include the formal Program development part as well as have some social or service component.
2. Prior to the weekend advise all members to come up with at least two or three activity ideas under the following categories:
   1. Social development 
   2. Physical development 
   3. Spiritual development 
   4. Intellectual development 
   5. Emotional development 
   6. Service
   7. Fundraising
   8. Recruitment/Retention
   9. Training and development
   10. Other headings that are applicable to the Crew’s needs.
3. On the weekend have the following resources set up and/or available:
   1. Chart paper with the topic heading above (one topic per page)
   2. Markers or pens
   3. National, Branch, Area/Region, District and Group calendars if available
   4. Blank calendar
   5. Any other resources that may be applicable.
4. Place the 9 or 10 chart papers around the room using Blu-tack or similar
5. Ask the Rovers to move around the room and record the ideas they have come up with on the chart paper under the appropriate heading. When everyone has exhausted their lists get them to move around the room adding any other ideas that may have come to light during this part of the process.
6. When all ideas have been recorded ask the Rovers to move around the room placing a tick or mark on three activities that they would really like to do under every category.Alternatively, Rovers could place a high, medium and low ranking against all ideas listed under each category.
7. Once all Rovers have voted it should be a simple process to identify the most popular activities under each category, followed by the second most popular and so on until all ideas under each category has been ranked. This process identifies activities that the Crew would like to do by consensus and is a fair and equitable way of ensuring that most Rovers’ needs are catered for. Lower ranked activities should not be discounted and the Rovers should identify if the activity could still be conducted as a Crew activity.
8. Identify the length of time the Crew wants to set the Program for. Three, six or twelve months
9. Identify the International, National, Branch, Area/Region, District and Group activities that the Crew or Crew members want to participate in and place these activities on the calendar. Rovers may have already identified some of these activities during the ‘brainstorming’ part of the process.
10. All that is required now is to ‘fill the gaps’ with the activities that were previously ranked as desired activities of the Crew.
     

Implementing the Program

Having generated all of these ideas, the challenge is not to Program the ideas that are easy to organise at the expense of the ones that might be a bit more challenging and probably a lot more interesting. The Crew should decide on those activities members would like to do the most, then Program these in along with the major events and standing commitments the Crew already has.

Once the Program has been drafted, the Crew should stop and assess it for balance. Does it satisfy all of the needs and goals identified by the Crew in the period being programmed? Does it cover a wide variety of activities or is there an over emphasis on one particular type of activity? Is it affordable? Does it allow for fundraising and recruiting opportunities? Take the opportunity to give the Program a “tweak” at this stage to ensure the Crew does achieve all it want to.

The next step is for the Crew Leader, Activities Officer or Programming Committee to allocate someone to organise each of the activities. When doing this, the experience of the person should be kept in mind – if they may need assistance, get one of the more experienced Rovers to provide advice. Especially keep this in mind when asking Squires to organise activities.

It is not up to the Crew Leader, nor the Activities Officer, to organise all of the activities. It is their job to make sure those charged with the responsibility of organising the activities carry out their tasks, and to provide them with some assistance when it is required. This way, no single person is left with all the work and more people gain experience with organizational skills.

Communication and distribution of the Program

Having constructed the Program, it is essential to make sure everyone in the Crew has a couple of copies. They should be distributed liberally – give some to the local Venturer Scout Units and to the Group Leader as well. The person responsible will also need to ensure that any changes are communicated properly, with plenty of notice, to everyone who has a copy.

Having done this, getting people to adhere to the Program will often require some effort– especially if the Crew doesn’t have a regular meeting time. Once everyone in the Crew is in the habit of following the Program, these reminders will be needed less and less, but to start with, a few phone calls will go a long way to ensuring success.

Monitoring and evaluating the Program

It is critical to constantly monitor and evaluate the Program if it is to be successful in the long term. This means looking at where the Program is going, checking to see if it is meeting the needs of the Crew, the objectives of the Crew and fulfilling the Aims and Principles of the Movement. This should happen on a fairly regular basis – say every six to eight weeks if the Crew have made a six month Program. This will ensure that everyone’s needs are being met before members get bored or upset.

So how to do this? The easiest way is to discuss the coming events and past events in a comfortable and functional setting – for example: at a casual meeting, a round table discussion, over a meal or even around the campfire. The person in charge of the Program, whether it is the Crew Leader or the Activities Officer, should encourage discussion about the successes and failures of any particular activity. This can help avoid the pitfalls and build on the strengths of these activities in the future.

It is important to ensure that discussion occurs in a constructive manner and that individuals are not criticised unfairly. It is better to give constructive criticism in private and praise the achievements of individuals in public. Having said that, sharing mistakes made with others will assist in the learning process and perhaps help to avoid similar problems in the future.

Some of the Crew may not necessarily volunteer their opinions or they may not want to upset another member of the Crew by criticising their efforts in organising an activity. This person’s apparent disinterest in the Program may be the first sign that they are dissatisfied, and poor attendance and involvement is also a good indicator. These people need to be encouraged to give their opinions as they will often have some good ideas about ways to improve the specific activity or the Program in general, but may not want to share them for fear of hurting others in the Crew, or just because they are shy. Having the Crew Leader or Activities Officer approach these people privately is a good way to get their flow of ideas started. There is, of course, the opposite character to this person; the one who is the first to criticize and the last to help. These people need to be encouraged to remain constructive and bite their tongue from time to time. In any case,  making everyone feel that his or her concerns are being addressed is more likely to encourage active participation.

Some good performance indicators to measure the Crew’s Program success by include:

• Are Crew members pa

To help with running a crew, the Branch Commissioners with information provided by numerous sources such as RA's, the NRC and BRC have produced a Rover Advisors Toolbox. This document outlines key tasks and ideas to assist a Rover Advisor to run their crew.

To download a copy of the toolbox, click the link below.

Rover Advisors Toolbox

To assist Rover Advisors in their role, a set of draft expectations have been produced by Chris Young (ABC Development & Training) with assistance from Rover Advisers throughout the state.

A copy is available for download as a PDF below.

Rover Advisers Expectations

SCOUTS AUSTRLIA
VICTORIAN BRANCH ROVER COUNCIL
Expectations of a Rover Adviser

Rover Advisors build open and honest relationships with Rovers in order to allow them to maximise their Physical, Intellectual, Social, Spiritual and Emotional development.

PROVIDES A CLEAR SENSE OF DIRECTION

• Provides the Crew with the skills to enable them to solve problems without solving them for them
• Acknowledging that making mistakes is part of a learning process and that when mistakes are made, they are not ignored and the Crew learns from them
• Is proactive in assisting the Crew to provide interesting and relevant activities for its members; including taking on an organising role when required
• Maintains the consistency and integrity of the Rover Crew
• Ensures that the Crew are aware of the moral, legal and ethical obligations

LEADS BY EXAMPLE

• Reserves judgments and keeps an open mind
• Behaves in accordance with the Adult Code of Conduct
• Sets a high standard of behaviour and acts positively
• Demonstrates drive, energy, initiative and personal accountability to get results for their Crews
• Develops constructive relationships with Crew members
• Completes all appropriate training in a timely manner

CREATES AND SUSTAINS AN ENVIRONMENT FOR ROVERS TO BE SUCCESSFUL

• Acts as a mentor for the Crew
• Develops the Executive to operate an effective Crew
• Ensures a climate exists where Rovers feel comfortable in raising issues
• Understands the learning needs of Rovers and provides them with opportunities to achieve success both for the Crew and individually
• Ensures that fun is an integral part of the Rover Crew.

DEMONSTRATES INTEGRITY WHEN DEALING WITH DIFFICULT ISSUES

• Takes a leading role in addressing difficult situations and works towards resolution in a quick and efficient manner
• Is not afraid to address conflict, ensuring it is dealt with quickly to avoid unnecessary escalation.
• Provides sound advice based on accurate information and listening in an unbiased way to what people say

IS AN ACTIVE MEMBER OF THEIR ROVER CREW

• Ensures that the Crew has a well balanced active program.
• Actively encourages all Rovers to participate in relevant training
• Develops and maintains a good working relationship with their Group/District
• Empowers the Crew to be accountable for their actions. 

There are a number of great publications with ideas for your Crew Program:

Rover Fun Guide

700+ Program Ideas for Rovers

The best ideas come from talking to Rovers from different Crews. Go to your Region Community Gathering, get your Crew members along to training or hit the VicRovers forums.

LEADING A CREW

 Qualities of a Crew Leader

 Given that Rovers are self-determining, the ultimate responsibility for the running of a successful Crew rests with the Crew Leader. This is possibly the most important job a Rover can assume at any time in their Rovering career (more important even than the job of BRC Chairman!) The responsibilities of a Crew Leader are outlined in Guidelines to Rovering.

Ideally, a Crew Leader would be over 20 years of age, but in small and new Crews this is not always possible. Certainly both they and the Assistant Crew Leader should be fully invested Rovers. Many Crews insist that all office bearers be fully invested members of the Crew, while others are more flexible. Some Crews consciously elect a Squire or younger Rover to fill an executive position so that the next generation of leaders in the Crew can start gaining some experience. This also means that the opinion of youngermembers of the Crew can be sought.

At the very least the Crew Leader should attend a Rover Sectional training course or equivalent either before, or during, their term of appointment. The Assistant Crew Leader should also try to attend, so that they can put their learning into practice before they succeed the Crew Leader. Some Branches have rules requiring Crew Leaders to either have been trained or to undertake their training during their term of appointment.

The Crew Leader needs to have some self-motivation. They are the one responsible for motivating everyone else in the Crew to get things done. They should have good time management, goal setting, organisational and people skills. All of this is a lot to ask of a young adult. In point of fact, all they really need is some common sense and a desire to do a really good job. The rest of these things they can learn along the way – that is the idea after all.

Management of the Rover Crew 

One person can only do so much, so the team that is behind them is all important. In a Rover Crew, the Crew Leader cannot, and should not, do everything to keep the Crew running. They will need to learn to act more as a manager, and they will need a support team to succeed in this role.

The teamwork aspect of the Executive is all important to ensuring long term success in leading the Crew. If the team does not work well together, this adds extra strain to the jobs each person takes on and can lead to the “burn out” of one or more members of the Executive. It is particularly important that the Crew Leader pays attention to this, as looking after the members of the Crew and the Crew Executive is an important part of their job.

The Crew Executive would normally consist of the Crew Leader, Secretary and Treasurer, but many consist of more than this, depending on the needs of the Crew. All of these positions should be described in the Crew’s Constitution or Rules, with the responsibilities of each individual clearly identified. It is also important to remember that when a new Executive is elected, the experience gained and procedures developed by the current Executive should be passed on to make each successive Executive better equipped to deal with running the Crew.

The Rover Adviser is normally included in most discussions of the Crew Executive as a guiding influence, and some Rover Crews acknowledge the Rover Adviser as an exofficio member of the Crew Executive in their Constitution.

Working as a team – the key to effective management

The Crew Leader needs to identify member’s strengths and weaknesses to firstly make sure they are allocated suitable tasks to do, and secondly to help them develop the other skills they may be lacking, so that both the individual and the Crew may benefit. An important key here of course is communication, and this is an area in which we can always look to improve our skills. Ensuring everyone is kept informed and that messages are passed and received accurately is crucial to having a successfully functioning team.

Looking after each other

With t

Summer Blood Challenge

Hoadley Hide

Vic Gathering

This information is designed to assist crews in what is required when registering a new member to your crew.

• Existing Member of Scouting (e.g. a venturer who is transferring to your crew):
  • Complete a new Y1 form. Download the Y1 Form here
    
    • This ensures that the latest personal information such as their address, email address and phone number are up to date.
    • Typically, a Venturer have their parent's information listed because previously they were under 18.
    • This ensures they recieve the latest Victorian Rovers news and additionally to ensure we have their details since they are now responsible for their own records and details
    • This form needs to be lodged with the relevant group leader for that member. If your crew is hosting the member from another group, it needs to go to the members home group. If they are transferring over to your group, you need to also complete the point below.
  • If the member is from another group, they need to get a Youth Transfer Certificate (Y3) form. Download the Y3 form here
  • The member also needs to obtain a WWC and obtain a receipt. The receipt needs to be submitted to the local Scout Service Centre.
• A new member of Scouting
  • The member needs to apply for a Working with Childrens Card and obtain a receipt
  • Complete a new Y1 form. Download the Y1 Form here
  • Submit the Y1, copy of WWC receipt and payment to your group leader.
  • The member may also need to complete a National Police Check. The group leader should provide the paperwork for this.

If you pay Cash or Cheque for any of the fees or items above, obtain a receipt and ensure you keep it in your records. If there is an issue with the registration, this is your protection to prove you are registered.

If you need any assistance with your registration or are having problems with paperwork etc, please contact the Assistant Region Commissioner - Rovers for your relevant region without delay.