meetings and councils
Mark McCormack (markmc@ecn.net.au)
Wed Jan 21 06:46:01 1998
Hi James
I can understand that to have such meetings may not work because of the
varied interests, and the role of professional scouters is generally a
foreign concept to me. Here in Queensland we may have only 1 or 2
proffesional Scouters and one of them is the Branch Commissioner for
Queensland. The other people of support the BC are support staff and as
such even though they are involved in scouting it is not a prerequisite to
be a part of the support (clerical) staff. Everyone else is a volunteer.
The Advantage we have with Venturers is that we have to get together on a
monthly basis, it is all part of the training process. Venturers in thery
should be working towards the Queen Scout Award, but in reality less than a
third get it. Venturers start at the age of 14 and finish at 18 where they
can then Join Rovers until the age of 26 but this is a differnet story.
The order of ranking is that at the top of the tree is the National
Commissioner and the Chief Scout. The National Commissioner is Dr William
Wells. Then there are the states and territories, 6 states and 2
territories. Each State is then brocken up into areas or regions depending
whether it is city or country and then they are brocken down into Districts
and then groups. (hopefully I haven't missed anything.)
A Venturer Unit can be any size from as few as 3-4 to over 50. but the
normal average workable size is 15. The Unit has an executive called of
course the Unit Council, They are meant to run the unit with the assistance
of the Venturer leaders. At the Unit Council they also discuss and vote on
matters relating to people wishing to do the Queen Scout Award as well as
information that may have come form the District Venturer Council which
needs there imput. It is not unusual for a decision to be defrred for a
month so that the question can be discussed at unit level and then a
driective be given to the unit reps. One-two members of the Unit attends
the monthly District Venturer Council (DVC). Here Queen Scout Proposals are
put forward and are either accepted or returned for further clarification.
The aim of the DVC in this regard is to make a level standard for all units
in the district. They also discuss events that are approaching at a
regioanl level and at a district level. They will also discuss ideas from
Branch that are being put forward that will affect them. This gives the
Venturers a say into what may or may not happen. If they feel that they are
being rail roaded they will vote with their feet.
The next level is the AVC where a couple of members from each DVC attends
and discuss different things of relevance at the time including such things
as the Queens Scout Award and any proposals about changes to the programming
plus taking the information back to the DVC who in turn take that
inforamtion to the Venturer Units. The organising of events start for us at
regional level and work down. We try to get the kids involved in it all as
much as possible. The other reality is that this is how business works, and
that negotiating this will place them in good stead when they have to enter
the real world.
The advantage we have is that we do not have the disparate range of
interests that you have in the US, but it is important that the Units do
talk to each other and seeing what the other people are doing at different
places and dissemination of ideas and information. The lack of contact with
other units can create bigotry and the like, and an insular environment can
equate to Ostrich in sand effect.
Any questions, I am sure there will be a few.
I hope this helps
Mark
>Mark,
>
>In Exploring, the regional administration is handled by professional
>Scouters (emplyees of the BSA, we have several on the list.) At each
>Council, an Explorer Officer's Association(EOA) is SUPPOSED to meet
>in order to give service to the Posts in their Council -- and that's
>specific as I've really seen our instructions. Many Councils don't
>have an EOA, and plenty of those that do don't have a strong one.
>Councils(which are the incorporation of ALL troops, posts, etc. in
>the area -- ALL of the Boy Scouts of America under one roof)--the
>Councils are divided into Districts, and some of these Districts do
>have Multi-Post meetings to do the things that you discuss -- my
>district does.
>
>At the Regional (there are four regions in the USA) and at the
>National level, we have committees that oversee Scouting, including
>Exploring. Each region has a youth representative to their
>respective committee, and at the national conference every two years
>we elect a national President (she sits on the BSA National
>Committee.)
>
>That's all I know about the answer to your question -- but what I DO
>know is--the meetings you mentioned don't ever WORK. Our Posts have
>extremely varied interests and schedules, and rarely want to get
>together to help each other or plan events, in most areas. Hopefully
>we can change some of that --maybe you can share more specifically
>what kind of meetings you have in the Australian organization so we
>can learn from you? :-)
>
>
>YIS,
>
>
>James A. Wells
>President, Explorer Post 1824
>Sam Houston Area Council
>http://www.shac.org
>
>
>
>
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