Rover _Scout

Old Grey Eagle reply:

Rover Scout, I will be in the Chicago area in early June, where do you guys meet and when? Sounds like something I would like to know about.

We wont be holding a meeting in June, as several members of the crew are on camp staff and Ill be teaching at National Camping School and Philmont. We can correspond off-list if youd like some more information.

Bob White reply:

Rover scout,

I'm sure you have a fine group and you obviously enjoy it. But correct me if I'm wrong, your unit (without) Venturing does not hold a BSA charter,

Correctwe have a BSA Charter. We had considered registering members of the crew as members of our district committee, and meeting separately as a Rover Crew.

It is not a part of the BSA,

Since we have a BSA Charter, we are by definition part of the BSA. :-)

Your US membership is maybe several dozen, perhaps a couple hundred at best?

Youth membership in our crew is five; adult membership is six

Most of your program, goals, and ideals are already in the Venturing program.

You are correct here as well. What I need to add is that a Rover Crew is designed for young adults from 18-~26. The college students I work with in the Crew are enthusiastic, energetic, and have strong values and a good sense of humor. They also do not have time (in most cases) to take on adult roles such as full-time unit leaders. What rovering offers them is a chance to do scouting as a group of young adults. For those who elect to take on additional roles as unit leaders, we encourage that as well.

Given that we are a BSA unit, we operate with BSA guidelines. We know, understand, and apply all appropriate policies (e.g., youth protection, sleeping arrangements on outings, etc.) but our program is developed and implemented by the crew as a whole. In this case, members of the crew are defined as those between 18 and 26. Those under 21 are registered as Venturers; those over 21 are registered as committee members or advisors. What our program structure allows them to do is to work as a single team.with two of us old (older than 40) leaders serving as the advisors for the group of the younger adults.

You gain several positive benefits from rejoining the BSA program by becoming a Venturing Crew.

Again, to emphasize, we have always been a part of the BSA.

Dana, expects

I would not to presume to state what Dana is planning to do, [ :-) ] but I am happy that Ive been able to shed a little light on how our crew operates based on him starting the discussion thread. My personal position is that the BSA would do well to reconsider the use of the Rovering program. On some level, the service and leadership ideals associated with Alpha Phi Omega seem to be very similar to Rovering (I have had no direct experience with APO, save for some of my students being members), but Rovering properly represents the culmination of the scouting experience, and can serve as a fitting capstone for a series of age and developmentally appropriate experiences that begin at ageas well as some fine opportunities to do some camping and engage in some fellowship.

Dear all:

As one of the leaders for the Dan Beard Crew, here are my perspectives on Rovering and Venturing. They are one persons opinion, of course, and is neither gospel nor dogma.

I elected to help start a Rover Crew because I was impressed and inspired by the Rovers that I had met over the years, because it was a meaningful experience for me when I was a young Rover Scout, and because it provided a way of doing scouting for young adults of roughly college age.

We used the venturing program as our means of chartering our crew, since, as has been pointed out several times, there is no longer an official Rovering program within the structure of the BSA. One option we had considered was to create an ad hoc group of interested Scouters (similar in structure to the Order of the Arrow, as it relates to the idea of drawing members from different units), but as some of the individuals interested in participating in the crew were not presently involved in a scout unit (a girl scout leader excepted, but a different program, obviously), we elected to charter our unit as a venture crew, with a specialization in Rovering (Indeed, offering one more parenthetical thought, Rovering was a program specialty in Exploring a number of years ago, to assist in the transition of former chartered BSA Rover Crews into the Exploring fold).

Can one have Venturing without Rovering? Of course. Can one have Rovering without Venturing? Again--of course.

One helpful part of Rovering, from my perspective, is that it has a series of traditions and international connections that are pretty much unheard of in this country. Example: the World Scout Moot [(http://www.moot2004.org/)formerly the World Rover Scout Moot] is an international scouting event for young Scouters from around the world, similar in structure to a World Jamboree, but designed for older youth/young adults (moot ages in 2004 are 18-26). The BSA has elected to send a group of Venturers to the moot, but only those from 18-20, in this case excluding the older group.

Our crew has participated in one local moot already (with the kind and generous welcome of Rover Scouts in Canada) and we look forward to attending more in the near future. Someday, we would even like to host our own moot and share the hospitality we have experienced, but as we are a young crew, that is for the future.

A final thoughtthe mottos used in scouting around the world:

CubsDo Your Best

ScoutsBe Prepared

VenturersLook Wide (motto not used in BSA)

RoversService

The powerful thing about having the whole range of scouting experiences in place encourages young people as they move through their experiences are to "do their bestto be preparedto look wideand give service." Certainly, this can be accomplished in some ways through venturingbut the exploration/"looking wide" part of the scouting experience at that level...to my thinking (and apparently B-Ps) then be followed by the aim of service.

Im off to Wisconsin to deliver some training at a scouting university...I look forward to a continued gentlemanly exchange of information and ideas. :-)

Did I really say that? ;-)

***

I had conflicts on every one of the TB weekends:

2/7--took rover crew to Klondike derby to staff event

3/6--presenting at a conference (i.e., work)

4/3--camp visitation required meeting

4/24--rover crew service project

Clearly, I am

--too busy

--not much use to you or TB this time, Dan

I was amused that you found me in such an unexpected forum...but I see you have quite an active presence here. :-)

Hi to all who are friendly.

Elburn, IL is 45 miles west of Chicago (placing it 15 miles east of me, here in DeKalb)

Wood Dale, IL is west of Chicago, near O'Hare International Airport.

Re: better answer to your previous question: The Kudu and B-P Crews were chartered as explorer posts (and in the case of the B-P Crew, as venturing crews as well). The B-P Crew was chartered as a Rover Crew in the early 1950s, and became an explorer post (with a specialization in rovering) in 1965, when the National Office of the BSA elected to cease rechartering existing rover crews. The National Office had ceased chartering new Rover Crews in 1953 or so; the B-P Crew operated under a grandfather clause and maintained their rover crew charter until 1965.

Ken

The B-P and Kudu Crews are no longer currently registered as BSA units, but their members that I have been in touch with have been most helpful, living up to the Rover Scout motto of "Service."

Rovering was described by Baden-Powell as a "Brotherhood of Open Air and Service." To that end, we combine camping/outdoor experiences with service to the community (which includes scouting-related service).

Essentially, there is no conflict between Rovering and Venturing, as we use the framework provided by the Venturing program to deliver a program of outdoor adventures and public service. Some members of the crew have expressed interest in pursuing the Ranger/Silver Awards as a personal challenge, and Rover Crew activities support their personal program needs in this area.

I realize my answer is pretty general--if you have some specific questions, I'd be happy to offer my perspective. On one of the crew's web pages, you can find a file to a "zipped" copy of our crew handbook.

http://www.cedu.niu.edu/scied/db_crew/DBRC_guidebook.html

Kind regards,

Ken

I ran across your reference to the Dan Beard Rover Crew. I am one of the leaders of the DB Crew. I became a rover 20+ years ago through the mentoring of an Australian Rover Scout, and over the last couple of years, finally worked with some other good folks to organize our own Rover Crew. We are not one of the last BSA crews, but we have had good help from members of the B-P and Kudu Rover Crews.

Rovering works well as our venturing specialty. We are in a college town, so it was relatively easy to collect members who are older venturers and young leaders (from both BSA and Girl Scout, in fact). We were able to attend our first moot with the members of Scouts Canada last month, which was a great opportunity to engage in Scouting as an international experience.

General information on our crew--is available at our crew website: http://www.cedu.niu.edu/scied/db_crew/Dan_Beard_Rover_Crew.html

Kind regards,

Ken