Sydney North Annual Report - Final 2€¦ · Sydney North Region Rover Council Annual Report 2015 – 2016 4 RRC EXECUTIVE REPORTS Chairman: Liam Pullan - Brush Park Rover Crew 2015

Sydney North Region Rover Council Annual Report 2015 - 2016

Sydney North Region Rover Council Annual Report 2015 – 2016 2

2015 – 2016 Executive

Chairman Liam Pullan Assistant Chairman Belinda Layson Secretary Graham Madden Treasurer Tom Game Public Relations Brodie Miller Assistant Public Relations Sam Robinson Activities Co-ordinator - Region Events Callum Forster Activities Co-ordinator – Rock/Outdoor Rob Lean Venturer Liaison Ben Harris Training Co-ordinator Linda Mitchell Service Co-ordinator Jamie-Leigh Ride Branch Rover Council Delegate Jamie-Leigh Ride Branch Rover Council Delegate Mitchell Rath Branch Rover Council Delegate Emma Watson Branch Rover Council Delegate Emma Noller Reserve Branch Rover Council Delegate Liam Painter Reserve Branch Rover Council Delegate Keith Buckley Regional Commissioner – Rovers Nick Buchner Assistant Regional Commissioner – Rovers (until December) Ben Michaels


Table of Contents 2015 – 2016 Executive ................................................................................................................... 2

RRC EXECUTIVE REPORTS ...................................................................................................... 4

Chairman: Liam Pullan - Brush Park Rover Crew .................................................................................. 4

Secretary: Graham Madden - Brush Park Rover Crew............................................................................. 6

Treasurer: Tom Game - Normanhurst Rover Crew .................................................................................. 7

Public Relations Team: Brodie Miller - Normanhurst Rover Crew Sam Robinson - Kissing Point Rover Crew.......................................................................................................................................................... 8

Activities Co-ordinator - Social: Callum Forster - Kissing Point Rover Crew ...................................... 10

Venturer Liaison Officer: Ben Harris - Normanhurst Rover Crew ........................................................ 11

Training Co-ordinator: Linda Mitchell - Epping Rover Crew................................................................ 12

Service Co-ordinator: Jamie-Leigh Ride - Brush Park Rover Crew....................................................... 13

BRC Delegates: Jamie-Leigh-Ride, Mitchell Rath, Emma Watson, Emma Noller, Keith Buckley, Liam Painter Report by: Jamie-Leigh Ride...................................................................................................... 14

Regional Commissioner - Rovers: Nick Buchner.................................................................................. 15

Assistant Regional Commissioner - Rovers: Ben Michaels ................................................................... 17

CREW REPORTS ........................................................................................................................ 19

Berowra Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Nat Hole...................................................................................... 19

Brush Park Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Jamie-Leigh Ride ................................................................... 20

Epping Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Keith Buckley ............................................................................... 20

Forest Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Mikey Collins ................................................................................. 23

Gordon Rover Crew: Acting Crew Leader - Scott Cope ........................................................................ 25

Kananga Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Pete Dean .................................................................................. 27

Kissing Point Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Mark Ferris ......................................................................... 28

Lindfield Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Jonathan Nielsen........................................................................ 29

Mona Vale Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Glenn Skinner......................................................................... 31

Mt Colah/Mt Ku-ring-gai Rover Crew: 2016 Crew Leader - Angella Ward ......................................... 33

Normanhurst Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Owen Cooke........................................................................ 35

Platabeen Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Maddie Picard ........................................................................... 37

Turramurra Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Liam Painter........................................................................... 38


RRC EXECUTIVE REPORTS Chairman: Liam Pullan - Brush Park Rover Crew 2015 has been another massive year for Sydney North Region. Rovers in the Region have attended loads of events and activities not only in the Region, but State-wide, nation-wide and even internationally. The year got under way with the annual Region Dinner at Had to Happen – Mexican Restaurant where close to 100 Rovers filled the restaurant and enjoyed all-you-can eat fajitas. Once again, we were spoilt by Crews with a wide range of activities over the past 12 months. Normanhurst Rover Crew ran another successful Magical Mystery Tour with “It’s Actually a Magical Mystery Tour.” Everyone that attended Turramurra Rover Crew’s annual Harbour Cruise should now know how to be thrifty after attending Thrift Shop Cruise. Following up from last year’s success, Kissing Point Rover Crew ran another Trivia Night testing the Region’s general knowledge. Epping Rover Crew also tested out the Region’s sea legs with a nautical themed Christmas Rover Annual Party. It was great to see Rovers from Sydney North again support Scout Hike and Dragon Skin. The Rover-run Sleep Point 6 at Scout Hike has started to gain momentum in the last few years with the feedback really positive from both the Leaders as well as the Scouts. The Rovers that attended Dragon Skin also put on a great event for Venturers with a great range of activities and night entertainment at VOC 2. Rovers’ supporting these events is an excellent showcase of Rovers to the wider Scouting community. Rover night at Hornsby Gang Show was a fun-filled evening where those with talent and skill withstood some solid heckling from their fellow Rovers. It was an excellent show and the night went well into the next morning. I am sure everyone is looking forward to seeing the show again next year. It was great to see Kalang Kup come to life again this year. In what can probably be described as the coldest morning in the whole winter, five teams braved the cold and played a round robin tournament of soccer. Congratulations to Gordon Rover Crew who were the winners of the tournament. 2015 also served up the bootings of some prominent Rovers from across the Region. Although we are sad to see some great friends who we have shared some amazing experiences leave, we wish them the very best for their future after Rovers. Although Crews were kept busy with all these activities, the Rover motto of “Service” was never forgotten. The annual Sydney North Region Rover Service Project was quite successful. This year’s project was split over two weekends, the first occurring at Camp Ku-ring-gai with about 60 Rovers doing some bush regeneration as well as general repairs and maintenance on some of the infrastructure while the second, slightly smaller project occurred at Camp Windeyer. A number of Rovers from the Region again joined the rest of the State to attend the St George’s Day Service in the city. The St George’s Service is a great way to start the year with Crew’s getting their St George’s Flag blessed in preparation for the year ahead. The ANZAC Day services were always going to


be big this year, with 2015 being the centenary of ANZAC. There was a solid attendance across the Region to the Martin Place Dawn Service in the city while some Crews chose to attend local Dawn Services. This year also saw the continuation of the rollout of the compulsory WHS & Scouting e-learning module as well as Working with Children Check. While it was a slow and steady process to get all Rovers to complete these processes, I am pleased to say that all Rovers in the Region have now completed the WHS & Scouting e-learning module and have a valid Working with Children Check number. Australian Jamboree 2016 proved to be very successful. The support that Rovers from the Region provided to Jamboree this year was tremendous. Rovers from the Region were present on most of the activity bases. Special mention goes to the team at Brownsea Island. Brownsea Island was this year solely a Rover-run activity base, with mostly Rovers from Sydney North Region on the organising committee. The team at Brownsea Island certainly did Rovers proud with incredibly positive feedback from both the Leaders and the Scouts. In 2015, we were lucky enough to see the granting of the Tony Balthasar Achievement Award to Lauren Hansen. Lauren Hansen’s adventure involved a ten day trek along the Zansakar River, in northern India. Although awarded in 2014, Georgia Buckley completed her international rock climbing adventure after being granted the Tony Balthasar Achievement Award. Over the past 18 months, the Region has been fortunate enough to have Ben Michaels serving as our Assistant Regional Commissioner – Rovers. During this time, he and Nick have worked hard supporting Rovers in the Region and two RRC executive teams. Sadly at the end of 2015, we said goodbye to Ben as he moved overseas. On behalf of all the Sydney North Rovers, I would like to thank Ben Michaels for all the support he has provided. To finish off, I would like to say thank you to the RRC Executive of the past year. With a combination of first term RRC Executive and second term RRC Executive who have shuffled around roles, they have contributed so much to Rovering in Sydney North. Congratulations to you all and best of luck to the RRC Executive for the next year.


Secretary: Graham Madden - Brush Park Rover Crew 2015 involved many new and challenging things for me. I went into last year’s AGM with the hope of giving something back to the region, and it resulted in me being voted in as your Secretary for the year. It has been a great year and a great opportunity for me, as my first year on the RRC Executive, it took a little bit of getting use to. The position involved lots of hard work, organisation and time management. I’d like to say I gave it my all and did a fantastic job, but at the end of the day, there’s always room for improvement. The hardest part of the position would definitely be communication and getting things sent in on time. It has definitely been a struggle but I’d just like to say a massive thank you to everyone who sent things in on time and sorry to those spams of messages telling you reports are due. For the new Executive and Crew Leaders, please make the newly elected Secretary’s life easy, reports are due before every RRC, it really is not very hard at all. As for taking minutes at meetings and sending them out I think I did a fairly good job, agendas on the other hand where a bit trickier but I did my best to include everything that needed to be discussed, sorry for those meetings that went a bit long. If anyone had any problems or ideas to improve meetings or the minutes sent out, please don’t hesitate to contact myself or the newly elected Secretary. Also if any of you haven’t been receiving the minutes from your Crew Leaders then please let someone know as communication is a key part of Rovers and it’s vital that everyone has access to information and the opportunity to know what is going on. The position also involved putting together this document, the Annual Report. It took a while to do and was quite stressful in ensuring reports where sent in, but I loved putting it together and I hope it the end it turned out pretty good, let me know what you think! As a final note, this role may sound full on but it was definitely worth it and I encourage any Rover out there to give it a go, or to think about taking up a different position of the RRC. It has been a pleasure being your Secretary and I look forward to the possibility of taking on other RRC positions in the future. May 2016 bring out our best Rovering yet.


Treasurer: Tom Game - Normanhurst Rover Crew Account Balance: $31,382.93 Account Balance at start of 2015: $30,245.90 Account Balance at end of 2015: $30,619.61 Income and Expenditure Summary for 2015

Income $ Expenses $ Interest 12.67 Rebates 240 Merchandise 583 CLBAM 802.50 Turramurra CRAP 2014 504 RRC BBQ 35.95 Auditor’s Gift 57.50 BRC Levy 1734 Platabeen – Summer Moot 2909 AGM Report printing 384 RRC Levy 2340 Lindfield Donation 200 BRC Levy 1734 Kalang Kup – oval hire 175 RRC BBQs 129.16 Region Service Project dinner 135.71 RRC Levy rebate 720 OZtag gear 340.89 Rover Sunglasses 1000 Rover Mugs 543.14 Rover Shirts 2500 2015 has been a strong year for the RRC. After 12 months the RRC’s account balance has remained relatively constant following various income from events such as Summer Moot, CRAP and expenses on Rover merchandise. Considering the larger expenditure made on merchandise at the start of the year it is largely down the success of large RRC events that the accounts have ended on a high. Rover merchandise has continued to be sold and proves to a good investment for the RRC. Our income from merchandise for this year was only $583 leaving a decent portion of the merchandise still to be sold in the coming years. As the RRC moves forward continued thought should be put into how its funds can be used for the benefit of the entire Region. The purchase of merchandise has proven quite successful along with the purchase of the Oztag gear. However, there is still room for more financial support from the RRC. The rebate process will begin again at this AGM for all Crews that got their forms in on time and pay their fees.


Public Relations Team: Brodie Miller - Normanhurst Rover Crew Sam Robinson - Kissing Point Rover Crew

As always Rovers in the Sydney North Region have been out and about, not only in the Scouting community but in the public eye too. I have been writing the articles for Compass, the Region’s Scouting newsletter to share the news for the other sections and commend both individual and group achievements. Events covered include, but no means a full list:

• Region Rover Dinner at ‘Had to Happen’

• Kissing Point’s “Opposites” Trivia Night

• Dragon Skin ‘Frontiers’ • Branch “Maximum Security” Moot • New Zealand National Rover Moot • Hike for Hunger • ANZAC Day March • Rover Roll-Up Blood donation

challenge • St George’s Day Service • Region Service Project • Turramurra’s “Thrift Shop” Harbour

Cruise

• Scott Osborne and Geoff Ward (Epping) and Elizabeth Michael (Normanhurst) receiving their Baden-Powell Awards

• Georgia Buckley and Lauren Hansen’s Balthasar Award trips

• Ski Moot • Mona Vale’s service at Hawkesbury

Canoe Classic • Mudbash in Victoria • Gordon painting Barra Brui • Hornsby Gang Show ‘Top Secret’ • Platabeen organising a Cub Disco to

raise funds for Hike for Hunger • Normanhurst’s “It’s Actually a Magical

Mystery Tour”


I have also managed the banners for the RRC. It is great to see Rovers utilising these resources as a means of promotion. We had a banner up near Manly Vale on a major road to promote Rovers to the greater community. The banners are always available for use as long as we are contacted beforehand. The social media presence of the Sydney North Region Rovers has improved, with the Facebook page earning more views, likes and photo and growing in audience. It would be great to see this continue as a way to reach even more people from other Regions, Branches, sections and the greater community. It has been a good year for Rovers and I look forward to seeing even more involvement from everyone. If you ever want your Scouting story shared, just let us know and we’ll get the word out there.


Activities Co-ordinator - Social: Callum Forster - Kissing Point Rover Crew 2015 was a great year for Sydney North Region, filled with many great activities and many changes to improve the overall Rovering experience. The year started with the annual dinner at Had to Happen Mexican at North Sydney. There was a turnout of almost 200 with an all-you-can-eat competition and loads of fun. It was a chance for the Region’s Crews to reflect on the year that has passed and discuss the exciting plans for the year ahead. This year we started up the Kalang Kup again - a sporting competition where Crews compete against one another for a chance to win the Kalang Kup. With multiple Crews competing in the soccer competition and even a Crew from Newcastle, the competition was taken out by Gordon Rovers in the end who now possess the giant keg trophy. Hopefully Sydney North can get this event back to the height of success it once was. “CRAP on the Poop Deck” was run by Epping this year. It was a great night with many Rovers dressed to impress. Congratulations to all ROSCAR winners - awards went to the following:

• Outstanding Rover - Jamie-Leigh Ride (Brush Park) • Outstanding Crew - Kissing Point • Service - Lindfield • Outstanding Effort/Most Improved - Mt Colah/Mt Ku-ring-gai • Best Activity – Normanhurst’s Magical Mystery Tour

Work place health and safety is an important subject and Sydney North Rovers are in the process of creating a standardised WHS procedure. The purpose of this is to ensure that every event run by the Rovers keeps up to the same standard of safety and has the right procedures in place in the event of an emergency. The first event to be trialling this is the annual Summer Moot, followed by Roventure. I hope everyone had a great 2015 and are looking forward to the year ahead


Venturer Liaison Officer: Ben Harris - Normanhurst Rover Crew Roventure happened early this year and was an exciting time for all who attended. I felt as though it did a great job of pumping people up to come along to Rovers. Normanhurst is hard at work organising the 2016 Roventure (roventure.com) which we decided to move back until the 9th-10th of April, just to see whether moving it into school holidays and away from exams would boost the numbers a little bit. There has been another influx of new Rovers coming from Venturers and it is great to see new faces, full of exciting new ideas. The initiative of some Crews to engage their Venturer Units was really good to see. It was great to see a wide variety of activities being run as Crunits over the past year, I felt as though people are really giving it a red hot go and it is good to see. I initially set some goals for the start of the year, which were to:

• Get some more enthusiasm for the “Experience Rovering” badge. • Help run Roventure 2016 and boost the numbers. • A later addition to the list was to update the post card that Venturers got as they were close to

turning 18. Some of these didn’t pan out, but I still feel as though they are an important part of what the job entails. Overall, I feel there were things that I could have done a little better, but I am excited to see the turn-out at Roventure 2016.


Training Co-ordinator: Linda Mitchell - Epping Rover Crew Training Co-ordinator was the second position I have held on the RRC and I learnt many different things throughout this year compared to my last. It was interesting to see the dynamics of the executive team change as well as the focus that we as an RRC had. I took on Training Co-ordinator because I believed I had much to learn in the role, having taken no part in adult training prior to this. My goal at the beginning of the year was to try and help run training courses. As such, I have jumped at every opportunity to run sessions at NSW BPS courses. I enjoyed the chance to meet and help train Rovers from all over the state, as well as work with some of the training team. I know the experience I have gained from presenting will help me in the future to play a bigger role in these courses. With a large number of issues occurring during BPS applications, I encourage all incoming Crew Leaders to learn the application process and prevent any of your Crew getting knocked back. Another responsibility as Training Co-ordinator was to run Introduction to Rovers evenings. In July I ran a very successful course and am grateful for all the help I had from fellow Rovers, both in promoting, as well as presenting sessions on the evening. Another one was run in February, giving me invaluable experience with organising these courses. The past year saw the roll out of the two compulsory eLearning modules, WHS and Child Safety, as well as the requirement for all Rovers to have a WWCC. Thank you to everyone for their co-operation during the process, meaning that there were no issues further down the track. The National standards for Squire Training have recently been implemented and I have been encouraging Crews to follow these and update their constitutions. It is important these are followed correctly, particularly for those commencing their BPSA, as it will prevent any hitches further down the track. I encourage the incoming training coordinator to continue this effort, to ensure that every Rover is undergoing the correct training. I wish the next Training Coordinator luck and I encourage you to participate in as many training courses as you can, as it will improve your presentation ability dramatically as well as teach you heaps about the training process in Rovers.


Service Co-ordinator: Jamie-Leigh Ride - Brush Park Rover Crew Sydney North has had a busy 2015 with many service projects been undertaken by Crews across the Region - from Rovers running other sections within Scouting and Guiding to volunteering at events such as Dragon Skin and Scout Hike to participating in service opportunities outside of Scouting such as blood donations, removing graffiti, Oxfam Trailwalker and raising money for different community groups such as Lindfield’s hike along the Larapinta Trail raising money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Kissing Point’s outstanding effort in competing in the Oxfam Trailwalker! The RRC has participated in our annual Region Service Project, this year heading up to Upper Colo River where Camp Ku-ring-gai needed some extra hands getting the campsite up to scratch after a busy summer season of campers. The Rovers who attended the weekend fulfilled jobs of all kinds, clearing bush, updating fly screens, cementing and giving the bunk house a good polish! The work completed at Camp K was given a special thank you from the Region Commissioner John Tibbitts as the SN Rovers jumped right in and were keen to give their service back to the Scouting community. The catch up Service Project saw us row across the river to Camp Windyer where there too we were busy helping with the maintenance of the campsite. 2016 falls to service to the community and I encourage all Rovers to take part in the great service project we have planned. Not only will it be good service but great PR to the community of who Rovers are and some of the great things we can achieve together. Unfortunately Hike for Hunger was smaller in 2015, but as a Region we still collected over 2,000 cans to donate to Wesley Mission. It was great to see Sydney North Rovers support this very worthwhile cause, and we hope to raise the bar and beat our collection numbers in 2016! Last but not least, there was a very big event held in the beginning of January – the Australian Jamboree! There was an enormous number of Rovers attending from Sydney North helping in areas such as sites and services, JNN and JNN FM, Adventurous Activites, Endurance, Cirque Du Scout and Brownsea Island just to name a few. The hard work all that Rovers put into the organising and running of this event was not missed. 2016 is looking to be a big year for service and I encourage all Rovers across the Region to look just outside of the box and I’m sure you will find a worthwhile project you can undertake either individually or as a Crew and I look forward to seeing the many rewarding projects over this next year!


BRC Delegates: Jamie-Leigh-Ride, Mitchell Rath, Emma Watson, Emma Noller, Keith Buckley, Liam Painter Report by: Emma Noller

This year we had 2 Sydney North Rovers who held positions on the BRC so thank you to Em Watson (Activities Officer) and Liam Painter (PR and Marketing Officer). A special thank you to Emma Watson and Luke Pullan who ran a fantastic Branch Ball this year at Chatswood RSL heavily attended by the region and others throughout NSW. It was the best attended Branch Ball for a number of years. At the November elections for 2016/ 17 positions our very own Liam Painter was elected as Branch Chair so a massive congratulations to him! Getting involved at a Branch level is a great experience to see how Rovers is run at a state level and I would encourage anyone who is willing to get involved even if it is just attending a meeting as an observer. Attending Branch events is a great way to get to know rovers from all around NSW. This year Sydney North region was well attended at many of the various branch level events like St George’s Day service, ANZAC Day, Branch Moot, Snow Moot, Bush Dance, Branch Ball, Hike for Hunger and Lord Mayors Picnic. Branch Moot was another fantastic event heavily organised by Sydney North so thank you to Brush Park, Liam Painter and Jack for the fantastic event. Many of our Rovers additionally were heavily involved in a number of Jamboree activity sites including Brownsea Island, Circus and Radio to name only a few. Brownsea Island in particular would not have happened without Jamie-Lee and many of the Brush Park Rovers and changed the view many scouting members had of Rovers into a positive light. Once again Jack from Turramurra ran Snow Moot and is running the Contingent for The Moot. I hope Sydney North continues to be well represented at a Branch level throughout 2016. I also thoroughly encourage any interested members who don’t want to take a position on BRC but are curious to consider being a BRC delegate this year.


Regional Commissioner - Rovers: Nick Buchner It’s always satisfying to report on another great year for Rovering in Sydney North, with our Crews taking advantage of many of the opportunities our section offers. An exciting programme that attracts and retains membership balances physical activity with social, spiritual, intellectual and emotional elements. I’m continually amazed at the range of meeting and weekend activities our Crews come up with and urge you to always be mindful to project this to the younger sections, to generate interest and promote progression. Challenge, adventurous activities and memorable shared experiences have always been particular cornerstones of good Rovering. Restating my comments from this time last year, it’s good to see some out there bushwalking, canyoning, climbing, rafting, kayaking, 4WDing and more. However, caving and ski-touring are two traditional activities that have notably seen a decline in Rover participation over the years. There remain some Crews that rarely seem to get out much, often reflected in a low level of membership and enthusiasm. I urge you all to make good use of the Region’s resources to equip members with the appropriate skills and ensure adventurous activities feature regularly in your Crew programme. Interest and excitement continues to build for the 20th Australian Moot in Victoria at the end of this year and the 15th World Moot in Iceland in mid-2017. It’s gratifying that good numbers of Sydney North Rovers are likely to attend both these events. Many Sydney North Rovers played valuable roles at the recent Australian Jamboree and the feedback from outside the section was that without their service, the event would have struggled in many ways. Our Rovers continue to strongly support Dragon Skin and Scout Hike, ensuring these major annual events are successful and enjoyable for younger sections. Other service activities have included participation on ANZAC Day, work at various Scout campsites, food collection for the Hike for Hunger, support for the Lord Mayor’s New Year’s Eve Picnic for underprivileged children and outstanding efforts at the Australian Jamboree. Whilst no Baden-Powell Scout Awards have been completed during the year, I am aware of quite a few Rovers currently working hard on their awards and expect a bumper crop over the coming year or two! Ben Michaels as Assistant Regional Commissioner – Rovers was a great support throughout 2015. It’s our loss that Ben made the decision to move to Germany at the end of the year and we wish he and his partner Nadine well. We are progressing in the search for a replacement and hope to put forward an excellent candidate shortly. Congratulations to Liam Pullan from Brush Park Rover Crew, on his leadership of the RRC Exec team over the past year, continuing to provide valuable support to our Crews. As always, my thanks to everyone who has contributed to the continuing high standard of Rovering in Sydney North. Congratulations to those who ran successful events or were recognised with awards.


Recognition should also go to those Rovers who chose to take Branch Rover Council roles and use their local experience to the benefit of wider Rovering. I am looking forward to working with the new Exec team and contributing to another great year ahead for Sydney North.


Assistant Regional Commissioner - Rovers: Ben Michaels (until Dec 2015) I would like to thank Sydney North Rovers for the past 18 months for welcoming me in and to be involved once again. There has been a lot that I have seen happen over that time, both positive and negative that I will slightly touch on in my final report. I am so glad to see the Balthasar Award continuing on. To see so many people applying for it, and then doing such wonderful adventurous activities shows me what Sydney North Rovers are capable of. I am proud to see the many Crews achieve wonderful Rovering achievements as well. To see new events come up like Kissing Point’s Trivia Night come up to great success, and to see the ball rolling once again for Kalang Kup, although attendance was light, I hope you can continue this event in the years to come. I am impressed at all the cars going down to Mudbash, and the massive NSW contingent. Mudbash is my favourite event, where I first went in 2006 with Brush Park, and that’s about it. I am also jealous of those going to NZ Moot each year, it was on my to do list, but Dragon Skin was always my favourite and I couldn’t leave it. Some of the challenges I see for Rovers in the future are largely based around the quality of Rovering that is out there. We have a number of smaller Crews, that are dwindling away and do not have a huge prospect of staying open. This is sad news, and was sad for me to see when I joined 18 months ago, the Crews that had disappeared in the five years since I was a Rover. Crews such as Mosman, Hunters Hill, Garigal. These were Crews that kind of gave up, and as you can see, they generally don’t come back. I would like to see Sydney North inspire themselves and the state to take charge of reinvigorating Rovering for young adults. One area that has really got my goat is the current leadership training, and the BRC. I encourage this Region, to push for and run a training course as we have been discussing, for all the reasons we have been discussing it. We are unsatisfied with the course content, and we are uninspired by the current organisers of the events. And then they are the ones to knock us back when we open discussions for Sydney North running one again. So basically, I would like to see Sydney North run an actual “leadership” course that teaches leadership skills and not the basic Scout skills that your Crew should be teaching. My leadership and advanced leadership courses were amazing, and I got to meet people from all over the state, at Sydney North Region-run courses. We ran them, because we had the demand for them, and could run them at our convenience… As for the BRC, I am disappointed they are unable to organise a full exec, missing the two vital positions of Service and Venturer Liaison this past year. I have not gone to a BRC since the AGM, as I was disappointed by the behaviour and running of the meetings, that I could not stand going again. The missing service role has created a gap where I do not think the Hike for Hunger was a success, and neither will be the Lord Mayor’s Picnic. And I know that Sydney North will pick up the pieces… so congrats!


Anyhow, enough complaining! We need a succession plan for Nick Buchner. I do not think we will ever be without Nick, however for his 30 years of Rovering (or more, Nick can correct me) he has given much of his life to the section. I am indebted to him for the impact he had on my Rovering, which inspired me to assist him as assistant, however I urge everyone to look and think about ex-Rovers that have experience and knowledge about the section, who may want to return and continue to support you So getting to the end of my long report… Sydney North is a great Region, with great Rovers in it. As such, I am, as way of continued involvement where possible, be informing the RRC of my permanent location in Germany once I find one (it depends on where we find work etc.) but once I do, I shall be offering full assistance and sleeping space for any Balthasar Awardee who needs it, then on an ad-hoc basis for any other Rovers visiting Germany. I will provide my contact details, and be more than happy to be a contact for anyone needing information on traveling around Europe or things to do/see etc. I also plan to attend the World Moot in Iceland in 2017, and look forward to catching up with many of you there! Lastly Sydney North…. continue to be great, continue to push your Rover boundaries and strive to be the best you can be. You only get a maximum of eight years in this section, and it is the BEST Section of your life. Attend every event you can, spend every weekend camping or doing adventurous things. Spend time giving back to the community and to your fellow sections, encourage each other to grow and shine. Will miss you all.


CREW REPORTS Berowra Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Nat Hole It has been a fun year for 1st Berowra. As most Crews do we have had our highs and lows but it’s been mostly highs. We have done various service activities such as helping the Rotary Club of Berowra with their Mother’s Day and Father’s Day Plant Sale. We also helped out within the Scout Group in various ways such as helping out at the Berowra Woodchop and helping at multiple Group Fundraisers to help send Scouts to Jamboree. We also organised the campfire for the Benowie District Joey Campfire which our Crew Leader also MC’d. We have gone away on a few weekends together such as multiple Moots and a few small scale Crew camps. We have had a fun program with unique nights such as blacksmithing, breakdancing and circus skills. We have a member of our Crew who does blacksmithing as a hobby, so he brought down his anvil and forge and taught us the basics on how to be a big manly blacksmith. Our Crew Leader also has many contacts within the theatre and performing industry that have come in to teach us some performance skills. In the New Year our main focus will be getting more weekend events planned involving adventurous activities. We will be running the yearly Region event Not-A-Moot and are in the process of working out possible locations. We have grown the Crew by a couple members this year and we have knighted one of our Rovers. We also have had at least one Rover start on his B-P Award this year. Overall, life in Berowra is pretty chilled, and that’s the way we like it.


Brush Park Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Jamie-Leigh Ride In 2015 Brush Park has taken the challenge to go above and beyond our current skills and learn new ones to. Members of Brush Park have taken on organising some state Rover events such as Branch Moot – Maximum Security Moot and Branch Ball – The Royal Ball whilst other members developed their skills in organising Crew camps and weekly meetings. As per usual we pride out selves in attending almost all events in NSW and even some interstate and international events too. From Moots such as SN Summer Moot, SCAT Moot and ACT Moot, to road tripping down to Victoria and Queensland for Mudbash, Surf Moot and Banana Bash. In 2015 two of our Crew members attended the World Scout Jamboree in Japan and had an absolute blast helping run activities for Scouts from all over the world. In the same year almost half the Crew attended the Australian Jamboree held at Cataract helping in all areas across the Jamboree, but particularly in the Rover activity – Brownsea Island. Attending events from near and far isn’t all Brush Park has done over the last year, we have been an active Crew within our Group, Region and Branch with members taking on many positions on each. As part of being active within the wider Scouting community, Service plays a big part within Brush Park’s morals and we are always eager to lend a hand where needed. We have assisted at many service events over the last year including; Dragon Skin and Scout Hike – running activity bases and assisting on VOC and Sleep Point 6. Crew members taking a key role in the organisation of the Brownsea Island base for Jamboree, assisting at Cromehurst Scout Group, running the Brush Park Joey Mob. This year we had a focus on leadership training and had five members undertake their Basic Training course and a few members keen to start their Advanced training later this year! These courses have helped develop the leadership and management skills of the Rovers in Brush Park who in time will help lead the future of our Rovers.


Epping Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Keith Buckley 2015, now the year that was, and what a year it WAS! With a new year came new recruits and with that we had new interests and new skills joining us, even with this in mind we kept ourselves well balanced in membership and in program. Our year started with a collection of inter-Crew nights building on friendships with Kissing Point, Gordon and Peanut Butter Rover Crew (formerly Brush Park) just to name a few. It saw us trying new cuisines at tepanyaki, bounding for joy at trampolining and climbing to success at rock climbing. We adventured north, south and west with Crew camps making the most of the nice weather and making the camps well worthwhile with added shenanigans of canyoning, hiking, caving, four-wheel driving and plenty of bonding and relaxation. Without a doubt we have pushed ourselves to be the best Scouts we can. We have flexed our Social, Physical, Intellectual, Character, Emotional and Spiritual muscles and done what we can to make the most of our year. ANZAC Day came upon us and 1st Epping Rovers helped the Epping Scout Group to chaperone a bunch of Joeys and Cubs to participate in the dawn service of the 100th anniversary while our illustrious Crew Leader, Keith, joined a member from each section of Epping Scout Group to climb the Harbour Bridge and participate in a dawn service on the summit. To make the most of the day the Crew stayed around to participate and assist in the parade with nearly everyone falling asleep on the train home; a sign of a day well spent. Sprinkled throughout the year 1st Epping Rovers participated in a number of Bake Sales, Bunning’s BBQs and various other fundraises to keep our name loud and proud. We had Crew members make leaping bounds towards their Baden-Powell Scout Awards in the wake of two well-deserved BPSAs. These BPSAs were presented at Government House and 1st Epping Rovers had a good turnout at both to help set up and pack up the event. A spare weekend found 1st Epping Rovers with a fantastic turnout at our Scout Group’s Centenary celebrations; 100 years young and plenty more to come! Winter came so Linda and Keith from 1st Epping, joined by Ciara from Turramurra, made the most of it by venturing South to Mexico, ahem, Victoria to visit the Rover Chalet on the Bogong High Plains for a week of skiing with no shortage of stories to tell when they returned. The Chalet is one of the best experiences you can share through the Rovering community.


Through all this celebration and achievement we have also said goodbye to some well-loved friends with four Booting ceremonies. We waved goodbye to Kirsten on the beach of Bouddi National Park, saluted Geoff at his Service Send Off at Windeyer, danced the night away with a wild goose (and Robbie) and finally, farewelled the mythical Buckles at Mermaid Pools. A big thank you to all of these guys for making 1st Epping what it is and for wearing the 1st Epping name with pride. Rovering won’t be the same without you kiddos! With these momentous events under our belts, the Crew decided it needed some more notches and organisation for CRAP came into full swing. In standard Jacqui-style, our Craptain (Jacqui, obviously) pulled together a Fantastic (with a capital ‘F’) night including what I am assured was genuine Pirate Stew and a real Pirate Presenter *pirate not guaranteed*. An enormous thank you to Jacqui for being the figurehead of “CRAP on the Poopdeck” and to all the Crews who attended for making it a well-floated event. On the tail end of CRAP a number of 1st Epping Rovers made the journey to attend Jamboree. With Tymon and Lauren helping out at Brownsea and Hayley, Linda, Izzy and Keith all taking on a role at the radio station. Without a doubt, Jamboree was a resounding success and that’s thanks to all the hands who organised it and, just as importantly everyone who attend to provide their skills. With post-Jamboree Blues (PJB) 1st Epping Rovers again stepped up to the plate to smash Best of British Moot for a home run. Under the guidance of Hayley and with the endless support from Megan, the Crew yet again came together to organise a fantastic weekend with British food, British music, British activities and most valuably British weather! To the next year of Rovering! 1st Epping Rovers have left a wonderful year behind and we hope to follow it up with an even better one!


Forest Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Mikey Collins 2015 was a busy and productive year for the brilliant people of the Forest Rovers. We welcomed new members into the Crew and also farewelled a few members who had to say their good-byes – 2015 definitely kept all of us on our toes. At the start of 2015 a 20 minute talk between an old ex-Rover and a certain someone found from Riverina, ended up in Forest welcoming the one and only Wagga Shea into the Crew and it’s been nothing but smiles since. This year also saw Helena getting squired into the Crew during one of the vicious lightning storms that ended up taking out the power in the den, but in true Forest fashion we lit up some candles and did the whole thing in candlelight. This helped partly to set the atmosphere for this most auspicious occasion, but mostly meant I couldn’t read the ceremony book. It was not long after Jess Shea joined the Crew that we were already off camping together and ready to knight her. Maximum Security Moot at Sugee Bag Creek found that Forest with adopted a few interstate Crew members and our team dubbed Forestland, where we competed and battled it out in all manner of events. This weekend saw Shea getting knighted into the Crew, Mikey taking out first place in the Iron Gut, and taught us that sloppy pashes among mates rewards you with bonus points when combined with world’s worst karaoke rendition of My Endless Love. Despite our small team size we even managed to take home third place – proving once and for all that good things come in small packages With Kathleen living up in Tamworth for most of the year for Uni, we eventually got sick of her bailing on the party, so we all decided to bring the party to her. The Crew headed up north where we experienced the best that Tamworth has to offer. It was during this Crew camp that we discovered two things; one, that Tamworth is really far away, and two, that Kathleen is god’s gift to knitting. As is a yearly Forest tradition, we had a Crew car compete this year in Normo’s Magic Mystery Tour car rally. This was the first year with that had a noted absence of Dubbo’s V8 and Shannon’s Golf but even so, we still managed to take out fifth place at the finish line. It also saw Helena easily take out best dressed Female, for being the only Ms Frizzle who actually had red hair. With Christmas around the corner, the Crew and the rest of the Region donned their Santa suits and merry spirits, and again lumbered down the Rocks for the 8th Annual Forest Rovers Santa Pub Crawl – once again raising money for a local charity. This year saw over 150 Santas parading around the Rocks, spreading merriment and cheer, saying hello to a brand new pub on the crawl, and successfully raising over $1,500 for the EarlyEd Cubby House Toy Library in Forestville. This year as a Crew we set forward two main goals; to continue grow our relationship with our local Venturer Units, and to successfully fundraise, which would allow us to purchase some new gear as a Crew. After much effort on all fronts, we spent more time with the Venturers than ever before and at the end of 2015 managed to purchase our required gear. 2015 was a phenomenal year for the ladies and gentlemen of Forest Rovers, and a big thank you to them for making it brilliant year after year. This year has seen us achieve all that we set out to as a Crew – we attended more events than before, spent more time on Venturer liaising, and focused on successfully


fundraising for both our Crew and local charities. We’ve achieved a huge amount for a small Crew and are all looking forward to 2016. This New Year will bring with it some new challenges, but we’re excited to be continuing our journey as a Rover Crew and family


Gordon Rover Crew: Acting Crew Leader - Scott Cope This year Gordon once again hit the ground running taking a contingent of 15 Gordon Venturers and 7 Rovers to Roventure a third of which will be making the move to Rovers at some point during this year. The success of Roventure for our Crew was highlighted by the request of our Venturer unit to take them on a series of standing camps throughout the year. Making use of the summer available to us we organised an overnight canyon trip to Carrabeanga but alas the rain kept us at bay and Kalang Falls was our back up; still a serious canyon especially with the exit up Murdering Gully. Tim South came to the rescue as the climb got the better of some of us. With the summer canyoning vibes flowing a quick trip was made to the picturesque Macquarie Pass Canyon and many a pie enjoyed at the Robertson pie shop. To keep up with training a majority of our Rovers participated in the SIS-10 core modules, not only improving our skills in the rock-craft industry but also providing some with the ability to become rock-craft leaders in the future. The Crew also completed a first aid course for all our first aid needs in the field. Gordon Rovers in conjunction with one of the Ku-ring-gai OPs ran a Dragon Skin base for the second year running. This year we ran with the underwater theme and managed to create an enjoyable base for not only the participants but also our Crew which was once again decorated with our signature banners allowing us to take out the Glitz and Glam award for VOC 2 for the 2nd year running. Following on there were a few more canyoning or abseiling trips making the most of free weekends to places including Tiger Snake, Malaita point, Mitchells Pass and even some in Coffs before the winter took its hold. Heading into winter Gordon managed to double our last year’s showing at Snow Moot; we had four members undertake the epic adventure for an excellent weekend down at the snow and a great time was had by all. This year at MMT Gordon decided to organise our own minibus and fill it with old and new Crew members, we also had the pleasure of four members from MCMK to round out a full bus. It became evident throughout the evening that Gordon should definitely work on our navigation skills as we may have got lost more times than we are willing to admit. 2015 was the first year in quite some time that we were not able to rely on funds raised at Blackmores. As such we went back to our roots and ran several Bunnings BBQs throughout the year to raise money for Group fees and maintenance costs August and September began our preparation for the upcoming summer canyoning season were abseils were completed on the Rosedale bridge, North Head, Fairy Bower and a night abseil and a rockcraft course at McCarrs Creek. We are proud to see even our less experienced abseilers taking on some of these larger cliffs and it’s great to see their confidence increase. With the weather starting to warm up we made the most of the heat and took to the water. Some of our more experienced paddlers once again went white water kayaking at Red Rock Gorge in Canberra, kicking it to the extreme and pushing our limits as we like to do. Following this trip we have also assisted


in a few more beginner trips to help our Venturer unit build their skills so they can join us on the more extreme adventures once they transition to Rovers. Gordon Rovers are always striving to increase the confidence and skill of our Venturers in the outdoors as this will increase our potential for some more great trips in the future. Just like every year, our Venturer Unit were going on an End of Year Activity over the New Year break, however this year was different. The Venturer Unit along with two of our Rovers headed across to Vanuatu for 16 days of Sun, Scuba Diving, exploring and service. Some of the adventures that were had on the few islands we visited included:

• Hiking extinct volcanoes • Swimming in Blue Water

holes • Canyoning • Caving • Running Market Days for

local • Villages • Scuba Diving

However the most important thing that we did throughout the whole trip was re-installing a safe water supply to a village which we had created ties during our visit to Vanuatu in 2009. Throughout 2015 we raised money and purchased a 10,000L water tank and guttering and installed the system around the house of the local scout leader. All in all the year has been progressive for Gordon Rovers. We have welcomed new members, solidified our friendship with our Venturers and continued to push ourselves forward as a solid and dedicated Crew.


Kananga Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Pete Dean It’s been a strong year for Kananga. We started off big with a number of our Crew members going to Europe with Bayview Venturers to attend the ANZAC day, dawn service at Villers-Bretonneux. The trip was both in remembrance for the centenary of ANZAC and also to visit notable Scouting sites in England and Europe. The trip lasted 16 days and maintained our good relationship with Bayview Venturers. Four Bayview Venturers also attended Roventure with us, but we had better turnouts to a couple of ‘Crew’ style camps we ran for them. Throughout the year three Bayview Venturers also started attending the Crew and it is pleasing to see that our recruitment activities are working. We have also begun doing activities with other Venturer Units. Specifically, we ran a construction night for Seaforth Venturers which the Venturers seemed to enjoy and the Venturer Leaders appreciated, suggesting that the Crew do more activities with them in the future. Throughout the year we have had lots of new people join with three people transitioning from Venturers. We have also gained an additional member from a non-Scouting background. It is also exciting to see that we have two new Knights, Steph and Alex, bringing us to a total of five. Members of our Crew have continued to keep us well represented at Rover events both in Region and more broadly. As well as attending most Region events we also had members at Mudbash and QLD Branch Ball. Our Crew also managed to cruise away with best dressed at CRAP. As well as continuing to provide the Scout Leaders at 1st Beacon Hill we have also run a Roman themed night for Bayview Scouts. This was successful and they appreciated our assistance. We have also repaired two boats for the Scouts. Two of our Crew members also volunteered as day workers for Jamboree signing up for the maximum 6 days of service. We have also continued our four wheel driving exploits both in State Forests and on beaches. Our Rovers have also assisted in a number of hikes this year providing transport and supply drops for a Venturer’s Duke of Edinburgh hike and also providing a bushwalking qualified leader for a Scout hike to Gooch’s Crater. With the younger sections of Beacon Hill (especially the Guides) cleaning out the downstairs of the hall the Crew has been able to acquire a few useful items they were throwing out. We also gained additional storage allowing for our den to be more comfortable and usable.


Kissing Point Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Mark Ferris It’s been a good year at Kissing Point Rovers, although we have had to say goodbye to some great Crew members. Nadine was booted and throughout the course of the year Jeremy McNamara, Callum Forster, Sam Knox, Zoe Champion and Mike Treds have all left the Crew. On a brighter note we have had two Venturers move up including Lachlan Painter and most recently Zeyna Tinkler. In addition to this Ariel Hartzipantelis transferred from Platabeen and Emma Noller transferred from Epping. Overall we have shrunk a bit but are adapting to this and looking at ways to get some more people to join our Crew. After the buzz of our Vietnam trip has worn off we have settled back into normal Rovering stuff however that is not to say we have stopped doing anything adventurous. We have been canyoning, caving and four of us completed the Oxfam Trailwalker which was also a fantastic service opportunity. Other service we have done this past 12 months includes Red Shield, ANZAC Day, Hike for Hunger and Scout Hike. We have also been to a number of inter-Crew events including CRAP, Summer Moot, Branch Moot and MMT which we won! All in all Kisso is ticking along happily but as a small Crew with no Group feeder Unit, we will have to work quite hard to pick back up our numbers in the next couple of years.


Lindfield Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Jonathan Nielsen 1st Lindfield has had had another eventful year, along with our usual full and exciting program, we have conquered the Larapinta Trail, won the Baden-Powell lodge award for the second year in a row, won the Region Roscar for Best Service Activity and most importantly, won best dressed at MMT. During 2014, the 1st Lindfield Rover Crew decided that, following the success of our postie bike ride from Cairns to Cape York and back, which raised approximately $10,000 for the McGrath Foundation, we would undertake another adventure to once again, raise money for a worthy cause. After much deliberation, the Larapinta Trail, a 223km hike through Central Australia, was decided upon and from late 2014 to mid 2015, most of our efforts as a Crew were directed to organising, fundraising , practicing and trying to ensure Mitch’s trusty Land Rover wouldn’t break down during the hike. This led to many weekends away, in various climates and terrains, from Newnes to Berowra and Cowan where we slogged through marshland, over mountains and down fire trails, only suffering minor injuries. The hike arrived in late June and after some initial hiccups (someone managed to oversleep and miss their plane) we started the hike, fit, prepared and in awe of the incredible scenery that surrounded us. The Larapinta Trail is separated into 12 sections, and we decided that in order to enjoy the experience, we would allocate two rest days, allowing our bodies to recover as well as enjoying several off track attractions, such as the Pound Loop at Ormiston Gorge, as well as swimming at several rivers and waterholes. We used this experience as an excuse to fundraise for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, hoping that we would not need to use their services, but hedging our bets anyway. After several months of fundraising, including donations from many local businesses, meat raffles at the Greengate Hotel and a donation from the Sydney North RRC, we succeeded in our self-appointed goal and raised over $11,000. While this hike was undoubtedly the highlight of our year, we have continued to have an active program that spread us through our own activities, activities with our Scouting and Venturer group at 1st Lindfield as well as participating in events at a Regional and even international level. We have participated in Normanhurst’s MMT, winning the best dressed award and acquiring (somehow) the 2nd place award, a contingent from Lindfield attended NZ Moot over Easter and even had a member attend World Scout Jamboree in Japan. To top this we have continued to provide valuable service to many charitable organisations within the area, we helped with the set up and running of a water station for the Lindfield Rotary Fun Run, helped collect books for the Lifeline Book Fair at Knox (we were in the middle of the Larapinta trail at the time of the fair itself and so were unable to help on the day) as well as raising and lowering the flag at Tryon Oval on ANZAC Day and helping the Roseville RSL by MCing their service.


Unfortunately this year has not been without losses as we have been forced to retire Mitchel Cope, Ian Dowling and Brendon Potts who all passed the sacred age of 26 during the year. Several other friends of 1st Lindfield , some of whom participated in some form of the hike, either helping preparation, training or even attending the hike itself will also be leaving. Despite these losses, we are happy to welcome several new Rovers who have come up from our Venturer Unit and will help maintain Lindfield Rover’s well-earned reputation into the future.


Mona Vale Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Glenn Skinner This past year has been challenging for the Crew, it saw a lot of changes to the Crew with many older members being booted and new leadership roles being filled with some of the younger members of the Crew. 2015 started out with a few Rovers heading down to Surf Moot in Victoria, from what we have heard they had a terrific time down there! Next up we attended Summer Moot with Tim winning best dressed, a sight sadly I don’t think anyone would forget. Roventure was a blast with several Rovers representing 1st Mona Vale Rover Crew and having a great weekend promoting Rovers. With Roventure done and dusted we started brainstorming ideas for our Dragon Skin base “50 Shades of Blue”. With many hours of discussion over what seemed to be millions of ideas, eventually one was decided on leading us to WINNING BEST ACTIVITY of the whole 2015 Dragon Skin! This was a massive achievement for the crew and great encouragement for future Dragon Skin’s. Mona Vale Rovers take great pride every year running great bases at Dragon Skin. Our bash car “Car Ramrod” starts to get some loving at this time of the year with some repairs and of course more improvement to get us closer to winning. The entire Crew helping out on almost every weekend leading up to Mudbash with repairs and learning new things about cars. unfortunately, we did not have a track to practice on, so the next best thing was to head to the local arcade and play Daytona. Soon our beast was taken down to Victoria along with the majority of the Crew and raced around the tracks making good time. September saw the Crew racing around streets following clues in a bus themed Hogwarts Expressed and dressed as “Bogan Fairies”. A fun event which tested the crews puzzle solving skills. We are proud to have an involvement with the 1st Mona Vale Group in a variety of ways, we look after the never ending hall repairs, maintenance and improvements. Organise and sell Christmas trees in Avalon for fundraising towards the group funding many things that benefit both the Group and Rover Crew.


Not only do we provide service towards the Mona Vale Group, but run a safety checkpoint for the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic, which is a 111km canoe race that raised $153,000 for the Arrow Bone Marrow Transplant Foundation. We provide a checkpoint and then count canoers from the afternoon into the early morning providing anything the paddlers need including first aid. In between all the events we have attended with only a fraction listed here, Mona Vale had some awesome Crew nights which include, fishing, cards against humanity, old school games, bowling, zone 3, rover skills, cooking and gymnastics. In summery 1st Mona Vale Rover Crew had a cracker of a year and are looking forward to an even better 2016 with a focus on Rovering and Crew members being Knighted.


Mt Colah/Mt Ku-ring-gai Rover Crew: 2016 Crew Leader - Angella Ward 2015 has been a fantastic year for MCMK Rover Crew; we have been busy getting active and as involved as we can in all Region and Branch events. The Crew has seen a good increase in numbers since the start of the year and we are now up to 14 members and have a couple of Venturers who will be linking up with us very soon. With these bigger numbers we have been able to do more events and activities throughout 2016. At the start of the year we set ourselves some Crew goals, to help us grow more as a Crew and run more effectively and I think we have stuck to them and done quite well. We set a task of doing more fundraising and this year we were able to do two successful Bunnings BBQ where all our crew was on board and there to help out. We also wanted everyone to work hard on their Rover training. Everyone is logged into their e-learning and has been moving really well through it, and also trying their hardest to do the squire training requirements. We’ve had six members of our Crew attend BPS Rover courses throughout the year and four members achieved their Bushwalking Level 1. We hope that this encourages the other members of the Crew to continue with their training and hopefully by the end of this year we can introduce to you Knighted MCMK Rovers. The Crew are quite busy with their out of Scouting lives and so we try to get the most we can out of our Monday night meetings. We plan lots of activities and try to balance the development areas that reinforce what Rovering is all about. Some of the great activities that we have been involved with include - Giant board games night, Science night, Rifle range, Archery Tag, Geocaching, Beach, Culture Cooking, Bowling, meeting up with the Venturer Units, meeting up with ex- Rovers, casino nights and of course our famous MCMK wine and cheese night.


Dragon Skin was very different for us this year, we usually take on the arts and expression theme for our base as that is what we are comfortable and strong at, but this year we decided to change it up and go with a problem solving base. We had small numbers and churned through what felt like thousands and thousands visiting our base. We were proud of our efforts and had heaps of fun along the way, and what topped it all off was we won another VOC 2 Dragon award- “Pump up the Jam” this year and our base came second out of the whole of Dragon Skin 2015!! The Crew has been helping out where they can for their service; we attended the Region Service Weekend at Camp Ku-ring-gai helping with removing lantana and weeding. We did a massive job helping to rejuvenate the Benowie District Scout Hall and the Hornsby Gang Show Wardrobe Hall, we moved garden beds, sleepers, concreted, high pressure hosed, removed rubbish, planted some pants and added mulch into the gardens. It was a great day and the Crew achieved a lot. We also helped with some maintenance of the group hall and running nights for the Venturer Units. An ex-Crew member once said “their [new Crew] is like a Scout organisation, but Mount Colah/Mount Ku-ring-gai is like a family” We are extremely lucky to have such a close Crew and get along so well- the Crew has made this year so unforgettable and so incredible! We are looking forward to what 2016 brings for the Crew and what we can push ourselves to achieve.


Normanhurst Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Owen Cooke This year was another fantastic twelve months for our Crew. I cannot believe it is over already but with so many things packed in, the activities from early 2015 already feel like they were several years ago now. We started off the year with a succession of great weekends, starting with several Crew members at the Region’s Summer Moot. This was followed by Normo winning Roventure and then Dragon Skin being such a great success with our “Don’t Touch the Butt” Nemo themed base. And we weren’t stopping there; we also had our very own mini-MMT in 2015, which was an absolute blast. Thank you Warren, our RA, for putting in so much effort to organise this. To cap off these wonderful weekends, we also had a joint Crew camp weekend with Turramurra at “Random Cottage” in the Blue Mountains. Everyone got involved with 4wding, abseiling, hiking, sightseeing, games and stories. We hope to do more of these again in the future. Thank you so much Turramurra for inviting us! Throughout the year we also got involved in a whole bunch of service opportunities, such as several groups of blood donations, several hall maintenance days, volunteering for Beyond Blue, painting the after-school care rooms for Beecroft Primary School, as well as participating in the Region Service weekend and hike for hunger. We had a good turnout for many other fun events throughout the year too. Kissing Point hosted a hilarious trivia night which we look forward to again in 2016. We showed off our sporting skills at Kalang Kup, even if we didn’t win, we did manage to hold our own and not come last. In 2015 we were proud to knight three Crew members; Tara, Tom and Brodie. We also had a lot of new, enthusiastic young members move up from our Venturer Units and several members get squired. We also had three Crew members take on positions on the RRC: Tom, Brodie and Ben. It is wonderful to see many of the Crew actively involved in Rovering and I highly encourage everyone in my Crew to keep challenging themselves. September is always a big month for us and this year was no different with another fantastic MMT being organised by Normanhurst. “It’s Actually a Magical Mystery Tour” was possibly our biggest and best yet, with this year hosting nearly 200 people and ending up at Paxton in the Hunter Valley. A big cheer for Ally for coordinating and to the Crew on making this weekend such a success, especially on reaching far and wide with this year. We had the most participation from Rovers out of our Region in many years! We have been going from strength to strength in the last few years and I strongly hope we can continue to make it bigger and better. Thank you everyone who came, we had a blast and we hope you all did too! See you at MMT in 2016! Sadly it is not all fun and games every week. We did also say farewell to one long-standing member of the Crew in 2015, with Simon Milligan being booted in fine form. Where else but Wollombi to remember


all the fun times we’ve had over the years. The Crew thanks Simon for all his hard work and fun memories over the years. On top of all these things, we kept active all-year-round with so many activities. This included family feud, tie dying, the Region dinner, Crew camps, some members canyoning and hiking, Jerusalem Bay walk and swim, seeing VIVID, karaoke, cup cake decorating, yoga and meditation, craft night, state of origin nights, Teppanyaki, Coin Toss Car Rally, trivia nights, ANZAC Day Dawn Services (Martin Place and Hornsby), jelly wrestling, Hare Krishna, photo scavenger hunts, joint nights with the other sections and much, much more! Thank you to everyone who was a part of our amazing year. We look forward to more amazing and fun times in 2016!


Platabeen Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Maddie Picard 2015 has been another big year for Platabeen, three new Knights have been invested into the Crew, we've begun fundraising for World Moot 2017 and more Crew camps than ever before. We started 2015 with a Crew trip to Kiama over the Easter long weekend, visiting Jamberoo on the rainiest day of the year and getting the whole place to ourselves and lots of nice coastal walks. In May we went to Ingar Campground in the Blue Mountains and had a relaxing weekend away. Over June long weekend some members of the Crew went back up to Ingar Campground in the Blue Mountains for a relaxing weekend trying new camp food ideas and wandering around the national park. Most Crew members then attended Normo's MMT with John, who had come back from his Scout camp in England for a month and had the chance to go to his first MMT, also we came first! In October the Crew took the long weekend to go to Newnes Camping Ground where we explored the glow worm tunnels. Other achievements the Crew has seen include Andrew smashing through his B-P Award, with only one part to go he's close to becoming the first person from Platabeen to ever get their B-P, we've had two Crew members become trained in preparation to take on Crew Leader in 2016 and the Crew is ready for another huge year this year with more fundraising for Iceland, our first booting in four years, lots of 21sts and a lot more adventures together. It's been an amazing journey leading the Crew through 2014 and 2015 as Crew Leader and I'm excited to see how we grow and what we achieve in the coming years."


Turramurra Rover Crew: Crew Leader - Liam Painter 2015 has been a big year for Turramurra, with our numbers still going strong since the last year, we are always growing and going on new adventures. The Crew currently has 42 members registered and it will increase this year in the coming months, with Venturers from multiple Units who are starting to link and turning 18 very soon. The exec that filled the positions this year had a lot of fresh faces, with people stepping up to take on new tasks and everyone was always up for a challenge. Knights in the Crew have increased from 3 to 10 Knights who have all been stepping up and doing a fantastic job and setting an example for the younger members of the Crew. The Crew has also expanded their horizons in the last year, and attended activities not only in Australia, but overseas, and the 2014 (joint winner with Owen Cooke from Normo) and 2015 winners of the Balthasar Award being from Turramurra and undertaking their expeditions in new and exciting locations. Georgia did her expedition in Europe, and Lauren completed her one in India! Some of the interesting activities Turramurra Rovers Undertook in 2015 were:

• Crew members attending New Zealand Moot • Running two Dragon Skin Bases giving Venturers a diverse range of activities to compete in • Joint Crew Camp with Normanhurst Rover Crew • A Crew Member attending the World Scout Jamboree in Japan apart of the International • service team • Magical Mystery Tour! • Many different Region Moots • Weekends away with our Venturers • Assisting running Branch Moot 2015 and NSW Rover Ball 2016 • Our Annual Harbour Cruise with almost 300 people attending!

Turramurra is also fundraising towards The Moot and Iceland 2017 and aiming to get as many members to both when possible. To sum up this report Turramurra is always looking forward to the challenges this following year brings, as some of the senior members are in the last 12 months of their Rovering and the younger members are going to have to take an even more prominent role in taking the Crew into the future.


Documents

Sydney North Annual Report - Final 2€¦ · Sydney North Region Rover Council Annual Report 2015 – 2016 4 RRC EXECUTIVE REPORTS Chairman: Liam Pullan - Brush Park Rover Crew 2015