Re: meetings and councils
James Moore (James.Moore@xtra.co.nz)
Wed Jan 21 18:07:23 1998
Mark & James,
Venturers in New Zealand works on a simular principle to Venturers in
Australia. The National Executive of Scouting New Zealand has a Youth
Representative under the age of 26 who is also the Chairman of the
National Youth Committee (NYC), a combination of 6 Scouts, 6 Venturers,
6 Rovers and 6 Young Leaders under the age of 26. The NYC discusses
issues relating to youth in New Zealand both in and outside of Scouting.
The National Venturer Council is a National representative body made up
of a Councillor from each area. The National Council decides the Policy,
Organisation and Rules of the Venturer section in consultation with the
National Commissioner.
>From National Level, we go down to Areas - theses are geographical and
there are 12 in NZ. From a Venturer point of view there is the Area
Venturer Council - the same philosophy as your AVC. The Area Council
sets guidelines for Venturer Units in the Area, and organises Area
Activities.
Some districts have DVCs but unless they are in a city, most districts
usually only have 1-2 Venturer Units (which by the way is run by the
Unit Executive).
Like in Australia, Venturers work towards their Queen's Scout, but in NZ
only about one in five Venturers achieve this. After joining Venturers
and completing the Venturer Award, they work on the Endeavour, then the
Queen's Scout award. They gain certificates at both the Endeavour and
Queens level in Community Involvement, Physical, Expedition, Lifeskills,
Interest, and Safety.
We are at present conducting a Nationwide survey of both Venturers,
Leaders and Teenagers that aren't in Scouting to evaluate our programme
and find out what youth want from a youth movement.
Well, I hope this gives you an insight into what Venturers in New
Zealand is about - questions are welcome.
James Moore
National Venturer Councillor
Scouting New Zealand
Mark McCormack wrote:
> 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
>
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