From: jan.pharo@euronetis.no (Jan Pharo) Subject: Scouting in Norway Date: Wed, 6 Oct 93 18:58:00 +0200 In Norway, there are two internationally recognized Scout Associations: - Norges speiderforbund NSF (established 1978 by the former Norsk Speidergutt-Forbund - with boys - and Norsk Speiderpike-Forbund - with girls), member of WOSM and WAGGGS; - Norges KFUK-Speidere (1920, girls), (YWCA), member of the WAGGGS together with the girls in NSF. Additionally, several organizations offer scouting-like activities, the largest among those is the YMCA Scouts; an other one is the 7th Day Adventist Scouts. NSF has male and female members of all ages. The local unit is called Scout Group, and has its own economy, an elected leader and a board consisting of adult, warranted leaders _and_ elected representatives from the Scout Troops and the Rover Crews. The Group can have a Beaver Colony, a Small Scout Unit, a Scout Troop, and a Rover Crew (or more of those units). There are no formal age limits for membership in the different units, but basically, Beavers are 6-7 years og age, Small Scouts 7-11, Troop Scouts 10-16, Rovers 16 upwards. With 17 years you may be appointed Assistant Unit leader, the Unit Leader must be at least 18, and the Group Scout Leader must be at least 20. The Group Scout Leader (and Ass. GSL) is elected by the Group Board (Gruppeting) for 2 years. The Gruppeting also elects representatives to the District Assembly (Kretsting), both leaders and Scout/Rover representatives. Districts (Krets) cover, basically, administrative regions. They have up to 3000 members. The Districts are responible for basic Leader Training, and they are a support level for the work in the Groups. The Kretsting elects the District Board members for 2 years, among the warranted leaders in the District. It also elects representatives to the National Assembly (Speiderting). The Speiderting makes the rules of the NSF (by-laws), and elects the Chief Scout, the Assistant Chief Scout, and the rest of the Scout Board for 2 years. NSF has set an Aim for its work: -to develope its members to be independent and responsible people by - offering them a training programme based on outdoor life, community activities, international understanding and experiencing Scout Ideals; - giving them responibility and a part in taking decisions; - helping them to a Christian Belief (for members who are members of other religious societies, they will develope their belief inside their own religion). As Vegard Engen wrote in a previous mail about this subject, Outdoor Life takes a major part of the life of a Scout unit or Patrol. About two genders in one Association: The Group decides whether they want one or both sexes as members, and also whether they will have e.g. one troop for boys and one for girls, or mixed troops (and even Patrols). Our Group has one mixed patrol, due to the size of the Troop. KFUK has _only_ female members. As far as I know, they organize much like the NSF Scouts and Guides. We have the same Scout Law and similar Scout Promises. From: db14@hp825.bih.no (Vegard Engen) Subject: Scouting in Norway. Date: 26 Mar 92 13:03:44 GMT In Norway we have several scout-associations, NSF, YMCA and YWCA. However, they are cooperating well, I think (At least so in this town, Bergen). NSF (Norges SpeiderForbund = Norwegian Scout Association) is mixed boys and girls, they were two separate associations, but joined their forces in '78. YMCA (KFUM in Norwegian) is only men, as the name suggests, however I think they are closely linked with YWCA nowadays, and there may be exceptions, such as female scoutmasters. YWCA is the female counterpart. I will after this speak about NSF only, since that's the organisation I'm a member of. Most of it will apply for the other assications too, though, at least the major parts. NSF is divided into 4 age-groups: 6-7: Bever scouts (this one is fairly new, not so many have them yet). 8-10: Cub scouts. 11-16: Scouts (I really have no other name for them. :-)) 16+ : Rovers. The lower age for a scoutmaster is 17 years, however it is possible to become an assistant scoutmaster from the age of 16 years. Many scoutmasters are also rovers, and scoutmasters and rovers are often two names of the same group of scouts. There IS no official higher age for rovers, but the natural limit is somewhere around 22-23 years, when one often go away, get married or simply get other interests. In Norway we belive that scouting is outing, and try to do as much of our activities as possible in the nature. We have national camps every 4th year, and regional camp every 4th year, in such a way there will be two years between every major camp. In addition the groups have camps of their own, and there is also arranged national camps for rovers in particular, since they will often have other interests than younger scouts. A typical size for a national camp nowadays is 19.000 scouts, and the last regional camp in Bergen counted 650 scouts. This was with guests, though, there is always guest from other countries at our camps, and even at our last regional camp we had 150 foreign guests, some even from so far away as Spain. Last, a little tip for all those who leave their group for studies: In Norway we have own scout-groups for students in the larger towns, so those who want to continue with scouting when they leave town can join those groups. I know they have a lot of fun, and at least the one in Trondheim is a large resource when it comes to arranging national evenements. However, I guess Bjoern Arne can tell you more about that (arneberg@idt.unit.no).