Future leaders formed through Scouting experience
Published Thu 10 Apr 2025
As a youth organisation, Scouts NSW prides itself on providing young people with a variety of opportunities to build genuine lifelong skills. For Elyse Versace, her leadership skills developed through the Scouts youth program has led her to a national committee role.
With a youth-led, adult-supported program, children from as young as five are encouraged to lead their peers in activities, developing confidence and knowledge that will help them in later life. By the time they move up into Venturer Scouts and Rover Scouts (14-25), they are able to tap into those leadership skills and influence their Scouting program and the organisation as a whole.
Elyse embraces her passion for encouraging youth voice and youth perspectives as part of the National Executive Committee (NEC) for Scouts Australia. Elyse, who is also the Sydney North Region Commissioner for Rover Scouts, is one of two under-30 representatives for the NEC.
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Youth-led in Scouts Leadership
“In a bid to keep in touch with Scouts’ mantra of youth-led, adult-supported, there is a view that we need to incorporate more younger voices into these high-level governance councils so they can better contribute to the running of their organisation, because ultimately this organisation is for them and they should have a say in how it runs,” she said.
“A member of the NEC who I’d worked with previously at a state level when I was a Rover Scout – a youth member – approached me and said this role’s being advertised, I actually think you’d be really good for it considering how we’ve worked at a state level. So I applied based off his recommendation and went through the interview process and was appointed by the NEC.
“At the time, I was also turning 26, so I was finishing up in Rovers and I hadn’t decided what I wanted to do once I’d aged out. On top of all that, I had been accepted into uni studying veterinary science at James Cook University in Townsville, so I was looking at moving from NSW to Queensland. I wasn’t sure what that would mean for my membership, but the person who recommended this to me said you’d be working as part of Scouts Australia, so it wouldn’t necessarily matter if you were in NSW or Queensland.
“So part of the appeal was I could remain a member of Scouts, I could still contribute and build on the platform that I’d been building as a Rover in terms of encouraging more of a youth perspective and youth taking more control over the organisation and contributing to the organisation, and I could do all that no matter where I lived.”
Elyse started her appointment in February 2023 and will conclude her term in February 2026.
She said joining the NEC gave her an opportunity to still do something she was passionate about from a different perspective – that of a volunteer and a strategic perspective, rather than a youth member.
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Building leadership foundations through Rover Scouts
Stepping up into the NEC was a natural progression for Elyse, who had taken many positions in state and Region levels, including Chair of the Region Rover Council; Vice Chair of the State Rover Council; and from her role on the SRC, a position on the NSW Branch Council and invitation to participate in the Chief Commissioner’s Council.
“One of the great things about Scouts is there are so many opportunities for our youth members to undertake what they’re passionate about,” she said.
“I certainly know from my time in Rovers, we have some really, really intelligent, skilled young people, and to be able to tap into that and allow them to influence their program and influence the opportunities that they have is really valuable on several levels.
Skills for life
“One, I think it promotes interest from a youth member perspective and helps them build really valuable skills for later in life. As an example, my training as a Rover – I was a Rover Unit Leader back then and I chaired and was the Assistant Chair of two different councils – and undertaking those sorts of leadership courses, as well as that practical experience of being able to navigate conflict and manage meetings and that sort of thing is something that I take into my career as well.
“I’ve worked as an interim head veterinary nurse and a senior veterinary nurse and I used quite a few of those skills that I learned from Scouting to help me navigate difficult conversations with clients, difficult conversations with staff, but also to understand the value of consultation in terms of building a better, more engaging and encouraging environment for everyone. I think for an organisation that’s so youth focused, the best thing we can do for ourselves is include the youth in those conversations.”
While Elyse loves the new skills she’s developing in her national role, she still finds it rewarding to be on the ground with the youth members as a support system to help them achieve their goals. She believes that Rover Scouts is “a safe place to fail”.
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“If it doesn’t work out, the worst that happens is they don’t work out,” she said.
“We’re here to catch you, but we really want to see you make the most out of your eight years in the section and we really want to see you do what you want to do, get what you want to get out of it. As a Rover, I loved facilitating that communication between the youth members and Scouts NSW and providing that feedback that allowed real change that affected our members in a positive way.
“In Sydney North, we’re quite proactive in terms of youth led and enabling training in our Rovers. Our Rovers recently ran a treasurer’s course for Unit Leaders and treasurers to teach them all about everything finance and Scouting. So how to make a budget, what paperwork you need to consider, what approvals you need to have for fundraising to really prepare them for being able to run their own finances. These are skills that are required in the workplace and even their everyday lives.
“It’s empowering them with the knowledge and the ability to run things themselves, obviously with guidance from us, but more importantly with guidance form their peers. It’s all Rover run, so our Region Rover Council treasurer, who is a Rover, runs this course. Being on these councils is a unique situation that most young people may not find themselves in through school – it’s a different thing sitting down at a business meeting and discussing finances and policy amongst your Units. But it’s a skill that’s really valuable for them in the workplace because not only are they going to be in a room full of their peers but they may in fact be in a room full of people older than them, and they’re going to have to manage those dynamics.”
Looking to the future
With only 10 months left in her three-year term on the NEC, Elyse is looking forward to seeing what new opportunities Scouts brings her in the future, as well as how the organisation develops and evolves in coming years.
“I would love to see our youth members being the ones in these higher roles making decisions, not necessarily just those under the age of 30, but those under the age of 26. That can be a really daunting prospect for everyone involved, but if we put the right supports in place and think it through in consultation with these members, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work,” she said.
“I think having the right support systems in place to have our youth members become more active contributors to the running of Scouts is the direction I would love to see Scouts go. We’ve started the ball rolling; it would be great to see it continue.”
