In Rod we Trust
4. What challenges and opportunities do you foresee for the PCC Rover Crew in the next 3 years?
Challenges
- The blessing and the curse of the Rover program is that at some point, a Rover must age out. What this means for the crew is that the best and most experienced Rovers are cut from the pool of talent every year. The Crew must develop internally in order to just sustain its ability to continue. The members have to make sure they bridge the generational gap as the older Rovers leave, and the younger Rovers step up to replace them.
This may seem like a curse, but its truly a blessing. This forces the crew to never become complacent, and allows for greater growth of it’s members in the long run. The blessing can only come about if the Crew foresees the opportunity and allows the younger Rovers to grow. We are starting to reach this tipping point, as we see that a large portion of the movers and shakers are scheduled to leave in one to two years time.
- Similar to the first item, recruitment into the crew must be maintained and increased. We have become stagnant in size, living somewhere between 40-50 members for the past two year. In order to survive (especially due to the automatic aging out of our members), we must recruit more members. A better demographic and geographic balance must also be obtained, with our imbalances well known. Something not as well noted is our talent imbalances. Yes we have accountants, engineers, commerce and teachers well represented, but where are the artists, designers, musicians and actors? If we wish to capture the community’s hearts and minds, these talents will be needed more than adding numbers. We need more people with flash and visual skills.
- Funding has always been a smaller problem in the past, but may come to the forefront rapidly. We have always had a sizable account from the Council, but accountability back to them has been tied to it. Further funds from other sources will allow for greater freedoms and opportunities. This is not to say that our Council has been restrictive, but strings always come with funds. To be able to grow past what the council can provide will be the obstacle.
- There is a change in management at both the Council and National level scheduled for the next few years. Whether the new management will be as friendly as past ones is unknown, but the odds are in our favour that we will see similar levels of support
- New and exciting activities/ideas must be pushed to the front. This being our upcoming fourth year, we run into the risk of repetition of previous activities. Members cannot be doing the same thing for four years, never mind seven years. Although we currently offer quite a varying array of things to do through out the year, we must guard against becoming stale.
Opportunities
- Pacific Jamboree 2011, Canadian Jamboree 2013 and the International Rover Moot in 2013 will all offer the Crew extraordinary opportunities to practice project management, scouting skills, leadership, being wise with our resources and to showcase our tight knit crew. Our level of involvement may be on the individual level or as a Crew, but it will have to be up to the Crew to decide.
- Furthering the Crew’s direct involvement with the council in leadership and management positions will bring accelerated amounts of resources and opportunities to the Crew. Where we started from to today, we have more influence in the objectives and execution of the council. With an additional three years, we should see a blossoming of unity and cooperation as older petty differences fall aside once results start to pick up.
- Additional International trips will come up, allowing for further development and lore of our crew. The opportunity to accomplish foreign aid, culture exchange and learn new skills. The challenge will be an uphill battle as we’ve seen in the past, but the rewards are worth it.