Chairmans Report

Well, there it goes!

The 2022 Scouting year is already done and dusted. What a year it’s been with many highs and lows.

Starting with the launching the of the 100year Anniversary of the WA Rover Council. A milestone occasion for anyone and it looked to make this year a promising one. We launched the Beyond the Horizons Chairman Challenge- pushing to showcase what we as a section were truly capable of in the Program, and together as a Council we started pondering the bigger topics around bringing in a new age of the WA Rover Council.

Of course, having been living with Covid in our community for 2 years now we thought we were nearing the end; but this year we got to experience the reality of the pandemic, which caused an interesting turn of events for our Sandmoot committee. However, with determination came success and the remainder of our events for this year were a huge success!

A huge shout out, thank you and congratulations goes out to our wonderful event committees for all their hard work and dedication to making our Branch Rover Program as successful as it has been this year.

As WA Rover Scouts, we also got to celebrate some firsts and hold some bragging rights on the National Stage, with two Rover Scouts being the first in Australia to receive the Advanced Diploma Leadership and Management, impressing other Branch and National Commissioners that we as a Council have Rover Scouts performing at these levels of leadership.

We also ushered in a new era for the role of Branch Adviser Rover Scouts, farewelling Greg Chapman after 7years in the role and welcoming in Delshard Mozhdehinia; I am sure I speak for the whole section when I say Greg has left a lasting and meaningful impact on WA Rover Scouts, influencing and advising an entire generation of Rover Scouts, his work and his advice will both be deeply missed, and a huge thank you for his years of service.

To my Exec, words cannot express enough how thankful I have been to get to work with you all this year. When I look back at our time this year, I can say with complete confidence that we are one of the most accomplished executive teams. Having worked tirelessly to redevelop how WARC is perceived from our digital footprint to how we operate as a Council. A lot of the behind the scenes work that only we know of; our work as a team has gone a long way to making WA Rover Scouts a thriving Branch Section.

Your dedication and service to the Council and to WA Rover Scouts in the last year has truly been incredible, and I am honoured to have gotten to work with each of you.

Throughout this year in nearly every speech I have said or discussion we have had as a Council, I have left you with the thought of “what do we want WA Rover Scouts to look like, to become”. Not just because Scouts WA was going through a Branch wide restructure, or because we had just reached a milestone event in our Council’s history, but because over the last few years, Rover Scouts as a whole have gone through significant changes and are still trying to find their footing in a New Youth Program.

Lastly, I want to congratulate and welcome the 2023 WA Rover Council Executive to their new roles. Stepping onto the Executive is always a bit of a scary step, but I can promise you that once on the Exec, you will enjoy almost every part of it! I look forward to working each and every one of you on the Executive team next year; it is looking to be an incredible year ahead!

So once again, as we wrap up things nicely for the year, I want every to take a moment to think on the question “Where do we want to see WA Rover Scouts in the future?”

Yours in Rovering,

Jordan Phillips

Chairman WA Rover Council