There's a New Crew in Town

I have always loved Scouting and its principles and have been quite curious about Rovering for some time now. When I joined the group, I discovered that there was a third branch to Scouting otherwise known as a Rover Crew. Intrigued by this, I started making enquiries and discovered, to my disappointment, that there was no active Rover Crew in the Two Oceans District.

What is Rovering you may ask? Well, let me give you a bit of background. This has been taken directly from the Scouts South Africa website:-

Rovers are the third branch of Scouting with a strong focus on community engagement and social inclusion. Rovers develops leadership qualities and encourages Crew Members to grow themselves and find their path in life.

Rovers is open to all young men and women aged between 18-30. Being a Rover gives you access to a world of adventure, excitement, and challenge! You also don’t have to have been a Cub or Scout or Guide to join Rovers.

A group of Rovers is known as a “Crew” and each Rover Crew is different, tailoring its activities to the requirements of its members. Crews vary in size from a handful of members to as many as 20. Most Crews meet monthly depending on how active the Crew is.

Crews also thrive on social activities such as harbor cruises, inter-crew activities, sailing, hiking, camping, Minute to Win it Challenges and national and international events known as “Moots”.

Rovering can also enhance your CV and increase your value within the employment market as it not only expands physical abilities but also develops character skills such as leadership, problem solving abilities, independence, … which are highly sought after within our current society.

The Rover programme is built around four areas of development:

* Personal – Grow yourself on a personal level, learn to construct a CV, get your driver’s license and find your spiritual path. * Movement – Develop an understanding of the Scout and Cub sections, involve yourself with running a Pack or Troop meeting/event. * Community – Review your community and establish how to improve it with an action plan, consider doing a community service project. * Leadership – Ultimately develop yourself to become a better citizen and leader in your Crew.

I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and started chatting to Nick and Andrew who have recently started a new Rover Crew in the Two Oceans District. They invited me onto the crew in an honorary position (as I am just past the sell-by-date) and I was happy to accept. I have since then taken on the role of Rover Scouter and am thoroughly enjoying the new insight it has given me into Scouting.

Our Crew's name is the Iron Wood Rover Crew and, because we are associated to the Two Oceans District, our uniform and branding has a naval theme. Our logo is a Kraken (named Larry) and the legs represent all the groups in our district. We currently have 6 members in the crew but our numbers are growing rapidly.

The aim of our Crew is to provide support and encouragement to our members and district and to assist whenever and wherever we are needed, thus truly embodying our "In Service" motto.

In the short time that we have been active (since July 2018), we have managed to achieve the following:

* Taken part in the Annual District Quiz. * Organised and run the Annual District Cooking Competition. * Assisted as Marshalls in the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon. * Organised and taken part in two social evenings - sushi and comedy! * Joined the Organising Committee for Kon-tiki 2019. * We will also be taking part in the Hawkeye Competition this year and some of our crew will be starting on their community service this month.

Many thanks to the Regional Team Coordinator of Rovers, Ubayd Bapoo, and Devon Bowen for their invaluable assistance in getting the group started, as well as to Gavin Withers and Craig Burchell-Burger for their faith in us. We would also like to thank Craig Burchell-Burger for letting us use his sword during our knighting ceremony.

We are happy to announce that the Enigma Crew in Gauteng (who have been running for over two decades) have signed up as our sponsors, and we look forward to getting to know them better and working with them on future events.

Rovering is very different to being a Scout or a Scouter and we encourage you to join us if you love the Movement and want to give back while embarking on a fantastic new adventure.

Contact me for further details.