Business Meeting and Starting Cleaning!

The objective of this night was mainly to clean up the main area of the den and rearrange furniture in a way that would allow freer movement through the den (though rearrangement of the furniture had been already attempted by Rachel and Sam, the furniture needed to move in order for cleaning to occur).

Sam also had new documentation for a change in Squire Training and Office Positions that he wanted to propose to the crew. This was reviewed by the Crew and the required changes were made and emailed to the crew as a 2nd draft the following day, to be finalised on 11th March, when elections would be held.

Valentine's Night (11th Feb 2010)

Rovers this week was themed around the upcoming Valentine's Day. It was a night of romance-fuelled mayhem. Rovers were paired up for the night, allocated into couples by drawing names out of a bag. Once the couples had got to know each other, and introduced themselves to the group, the festivities began.

The 3-legged race was won by lovers Chris Greener & Matthew Ray. This couple also amazed the group by being the fastest pair to don women's clothing in a record time of 1 minute 10 seconds (another competition, not just an impromptu drag show). Our couples also tried their hand at poetry - after choosing two key words from a pile of cards (one word being one associated with romance, the other not so much). I will attach some examples at a later date - once I have deciphered the atrocious handwriting of some of our Crew members! Notable poems were those by Matt R, Chris and Travis. Following in the romantic theme, the couples also made chocolate-coated strawberries.... blind-folded. These creations were enjoyed with supper at the end of the night.

Taking a leaf out of the "Spicks & Specks" book of fun, the game of "Substitution" was played, with a love twist. Love songs were sung by Rovers to their respective partners, with the lyrics replaced by the words from our very own "Rovering to Success". The couples had varying degrees of success in this game, with Iain Laing and his life partner Kylie (a visiting friend of Sam's) taking the prize.

An enjoyable night was had by all, I hope, with spirits high and love definately all around! Happy Valentine's Day!

Various Rearrangements

In preparation for the clean-up the den night (which in itself is preparation for the Crew's 51-year reunion), Rachel and Sam went down to the den this fine Sunday night to rearrange some furniture and make the main area a bit tidier so that the clean-up night wouldn't be so bad. However, this will still take some time.

Missions accomplished:

Speakers moved

Chairs pushed to the wall that the front door is on

Junk surrounding meeting table tidied (some of which went in the QStore)

Carpet blocking the entrance to the QStore relocated to the back of QStore

Cushions of 5-seater delivered to den.

Food and soft drink on the bar-bench was disposed of or put away.

Pool table relocated so that it is closer to bar bench.

Some sweeping undergone.

Collated chocolate money into one box.

Mini seat was put back next to the bash car.

In addition to this, Rachel took to talking to possums around the den for 15 minutes and tried to relocate the "Pyramids" sign to behind the port glasses (However was unsuccessful as the sign started to tilt unfavourably).

In addition to this, the desk was cleared and was decided to become the Treasurer/Scribe desk.

Talk of the awkwardness of the notorious wood/glass table was undergone and was suggested that it be moved to a corner of the room rather than in the centre as it could then be more easily worked around.

A productive night, however would have been more effective if there were more of us (in order to move the wood/glass table, in particular.)

-Sam

New Furniture for Den

Tonight saw the arrival of 3 new single-person couches to the den and the preparation for the arrival of another 4-5-person couch for the Rover Den.

Chris Goninon delivered two very funky looking purple seats (on wheels!), as well as another of his renowned favourite blue seats.

Meanwhile, Sam was playing Guerrilla Radio by Rage Against The Machine on his drum kit in his garage when his sister came running down stairs with his mobile. "Sam, this strange-sounding guy's on the phone". Half-deaf from his own awesomness, Sam takes his phone from his sister, and Matthew Ray's voice chimes in, "Good afternoon Samwise, how do you fancy a new couch for the den, mate?". "That'd be great mate," I said. "Ah yeah, it should fit in your dad's Pajero if you could meet me on the corner of Chaprowe Rd and Arkana that'd be great".

So at 8pm Mr. Bean and the hobbit from Middle Park set about TRYING to fit the 5-seater (yet 3-cushioned) couch into the back of George Ludinski's Mitsubishi Pajero, however were unsuccessful.

This, however, did NOT lead to the loss of the couch, as Sam and Matt carried the couch from Arkana St. back to Matthew's house at the top of Trawala St. On the way home, we also ran into a very unlikely, however familiar face of Graham Lawson, a former St. Johns Wood Scout parent helper and teacher at our High School, Marist College Ashgrove, who offered to assist us in our delivery of the couch, however couldn't be of much service as his car was about half the size of Sam's father's Pajero! The couch is currently waiting for collection from Matt's place.

Matt and Sam then proceeded to have a well-deserved swim in Matt's pool and then went to McDonalds for a fatty trophy of a Sundae and Chips. To top off the evening, we visited Jon Wilson and discussed Treasury business.

All in all a very productive evening.

-Sam Ludinski

Group Working Bee

The Group Working Bee started at 8:30am on Saturday, 30 January 2010. Matt, the only Rover in attendance, met new potential Rover, James, and talked about Rovering, basic principles of Scouting, the Scout Law and Promise and the Saints.

Work done included pruning the ivy vine growing around the Rover and Venturer Den, Russ Davie possum-proofed the Rover Den, much weeding, environmental management and maintenance to the main flagpole, along with earthworks around the small green flagpole area.

Yanni and Hamish were there from the Venturers, along with Mark.

The Bee concluded at 1pm.

Inter-Crew Games Night #2

As winners of the previous games night, the Tandara and Camira Rovers organised the next round at the Tandara Den in Eastern Heights. There competing were: Alex and Boo from Tandara Rovers; Petah and Rachael from Camira Rovers; Peter from Stafford Rovers; Natasha from Everton Park Ranger Guides; and Iain, Jordan, Matt, Sam, Stephen E. and I from St John's Wood Rovers. By the end, Alex determined Stephen to be the winner of the night, due to his efforts and enthusiasm. So Stephen has kindly written his views of the night (and now has the honour of organising Inter-Crew Games Night #3):


After 45 minutes of driving between dens, and viewing some fantastic civil engineering projects along the way, we arrived. We began with a quick parade, and then played some getting-to-know-you games involving toilet paper, where by we all ended up sharing facts about each other (in my case I was made to disclose an entire life story)! We then continued to play a team building game, involving splitting into two teams and attempting to move your team over a rope 1.5m in the air using nothing but a chair and man (and woman) power! After epic commando rolling and some extreme team work, one of the teams managed to get everyone over. We then continued to play a epic game of Red Rover! After doing all the good work we did in burning calories in our games of running around, we wasted it all by going to McDonald's for some filling food and refreshing beverages.

All in all is was a fun night of meeting other Rovers, playing games Joey-style and then having an educational meal at McDonald's discussing Economic theory!


See you all next time!


-Rachel and Stephen E.-

Guard the Rotary Citizenship Ceremony Setup

On the evening before Australia Day, at 11pm, JJ and I (The Captain) headed down to the local Wittonga Park to help protect the Rotary's Citizenship Ceremony Setup for the next Day. All went off without a spot of bother. Headed home after the change of the guard at 6am the next morning.