Annual Report 2007 - 2008

Branch Commissioner David Danslow and the Queensland
Branch Rover Executive (QBRE) reported that the Queensland Branch Rover Council Annual General meeting was held at Queensland Branch Head Quarters on the 1st of June 2007.

At the AGM the following Rovers were elected to Executive positions: Peter Shield - Chairman of QBRE, Jarrad McDonald - Deputy Chairman, Allison Mew – Secretary, Andrew Moran - Treasurer, Phillip Verner - Training and Development Officer, Shaun Sandilands - Promotions and Services Officer, Daniel
Bourman - Communications Officer, Hans Yates - Awards Officer and Jon Naylor – Resources Officer.

Rovers joined in the centenary celebrations on August 4th with the intention to give a powerful display of Rovering to the rest of the Movement and to the general community. An indication of the success of the campaign was the increase in Rover membership in the months following the parade. The Centenary Parade also saw the launch of the ‘I Want to be a Rover’ campaign, which is aimed at promoting Rovers to the younger members of the movement. This campaign has had considerable success in the months following the parade, with a noticeable increase in awareness of Rovers amongst younger sections.

Queensland Rovers had a tremendous start to the ‘Year of the Scout’ with the official launch of this momentous event being held at AussieMoot in Sydney. Paul Lappin and Robert Wagner lead a contingent of more then 60 Rovers and Staff through the 14 days of the Moot and the many activities prepared by the moot committee. AussieMoot was a tremendous success and the Queensland Contingent was more than pleased with their Moot experiences and with the contingent leadership.

Following AussieMoot, Peter Shield and a number of Queensland Rovers took part in the National Rover Council meeting, many of them taking a leading role in discussions and workshops. A great deal of the council’s work focused on promoting Rovers in the wider community and promoting a greater understanding of Rovering in the younger sections of the movement. The council also initiated several programmes to promote the 90th anniversary of the Rover section.

Banana Bash 2008 was held over the Australia Day long weekend and was a great success thanks to Geoffrey Clark and his committee. The number of Crews represented at Bash rose again this year as did the number of vehicles competing. Visitor numbers were also significantly higher than at previous events. Media coverage of the event was significantly improved, with the highlight being coverage on the SBS national evening news.

Roventure was held at BP Park, Samford from the 4th to the 6th of April, with the main aim of the event being to promote Rovering to the Venturer section. The event was an astonishing success, with attendance numbers (188 Venturers and Rovers) more than double those of last year’s event. An amazing range of activities was organised for the participants to engage in and the feed back from the Venturers in attendance was extremely positive.

The 26th of April saw the annual running of St. George’s Ball and, as always, the evening was a tremendous success. More than 200 Rovers and their guests attended the ball, almost double the attendance of last year’s event. This year the ball was intended as a celebration of 90 years of Rovers
and, to mark the occasion, a number of awards for long standing service to Queensland Rovers were presented. A large number of worthy recipients were recognised with the highlight being the presentation of the Rover Service Award to David Danslow.