Venturers and Rovers can help Scouting grow

It's been a while since I've posted... my apologies. It has been a busy number of weeks. I have now visited eight our councils, and I'll hit three more before the end of May. I'm learning lots, and I'll share more in future posts.

I want to share a few thoughts on Venturing and Rovering. Thanks to John, Andrew and others on talkscouts.ca/forum for their insight and inspiration! (By the way, please check out talkscouts.ca/forum and sign up -- it's as great place for sharing -- we need to build a culture of collaboration if we're going to really grow Scouting! Check out the new social media site on scouts.ca as well.)

If we we're going to grow, I do believe we need meaningful leadership development across all five of our sections. We need to support and encourage Venturers and Rovers to join leadership teams for other sections. After all, we're a movement that's all about empowering young people to reach their full potential.

As an organization, we have big Beaver and Cub programs, and that's great. But how do we inspire older youth to stay in Scouting and be a Scout for the rest of their lives? (And by "Scout" I mean someone who identifies themselves as part of Scouting and is very proud of it, and doesn't mind telling the world.)

If our younger members have positive and effective role models who are Scouts, Venturers and Rovers, they are more likely to advance into our senior sections. If we want to retain more of our members instead of recruiting 45 percent of our membership every year, let's get trained Venturers and Rovers integrated into every section's leadership team. Further, let's make sure that the Venturer and Rover programs that these young leaders are involved in are amazing!

To paraphrase (and perhaps even borrow a few lines) from Scouter John at talkscouts.ca, imagine if Beavers and Cubs and Scouts came and stayed because they want to be with, be like, and eventually BE the Venturers and Rovers. The Venturers and Rovers will stay because they are having a great time making a difference in the world AND leaving a legacy of future world changers. An added bonus to strong Venturer and Rover programs that are woven back into leading other sections is that youth leadership on this scale will solve many challenges around finding and training leaders.

A Venturer or Rover who has been incorporated into a section leadership team in a meaningful way may leave to start a family or a new job, but they'll be back. So how do we get these Venturers and Rovers now? We start by asking. Then we train them. Then we showcase them. Then we do it again. Through all this we keep ramping up their program with more meaningful challenges and broader support. To quote a WOSM video, Scouting is, "fun with a purpose." We need to give them both the fun and the purpose. International aid trips, helping with a geographical survey, recording wildlife sightings to aid in research while on a hike in a remote area, building a local shelter, joining their city's emergency response plan.. these are the sorts of adventures that 14-26 year-olds would love to do. All the more so if they can do it with friends. We need to train both our youth and our leaders to think on these grand scales AND give them the support to make such ideas possible. But getting them isn't the problem, it's keeping them.

So.... what do you think? Agree or disagree? I'd welcome your thoughts and ideas either way. And join John and others on talkscouts.ca/forum to continue the conversation.

While there's a small Venturer Company, my local community doesn't have a Rover Crew right now.... or even a Scout troop. My fellow leaders and I will do our part in the months ahead to change that. If your community faces a similar reality, I challenge you to do your part, too. We need more young people in leadership roles. It's critical for our future.


(French translation to follow soon!)