A couple new answers and a new problem
EC92@AOL.COM
Sun, 7 Mar 1999 02:47:11 EST
With Venturing.
First, the leader manual is now reported to be at a 5000 backorder. Thats the
bad news.
The good news is supply warned national in time and they'll have to reprint
this version of the Ranger award before the revision, supplies are going fast.
They did not plan to go into a third printing of it before they finished the
rewrite.
I know a Silver is about to be awarded in Sinnissippi council, I held the
medal saturday. I've also seen the Bronze awards - for those who asked the bar
is white with two vertical stripes on each end and the clipart for each one
from the bin item sheets in the middle. The color of the image was different
for each Bronze, but I can't remember which one was red, blue, etc. The guys
from national have a display with all the medals of Venturing and the Bronze
Awards in it.
A Ranger award was completed by a youth. The speed it was accomplished in was
questioned, however the crew got the requirements in the fall and started
working them not just every meeting but also every campout - and they camped
every weekend for 2 months or so. In the youth's words, or supposedly, he
"worked his butt off" to accomplish it.
More good news. I held the new shorts in my hands, supply is proud of
themselves, however I would say they are the BSA shorts with a change in color
and a Venture tab on it, down to the small pockets. They DO have elastic. If
you want a similar short you can get some in charcoal gray from Cabela's Fly
Fishing catalog - in fact I was told there were shorts, long pants, and zip
off pants that very closely resembles what I held today.
There WILL be a brand new knot for the new Silver award, Silver Mylar border,
silver Mylar knot, on a background that is white and green.
The rewrite of the current bin item Silver book which they'll charge for will
also be a part of the continuing development of the Venturing handbook, which
will continue to be completed over time. Each reprint you should notice it
getting thicker and the title should change so it becomes the youth's
handbook.
The new YPG for Venturing is completed and being released. It appears pretty
good although Bill Evans suggests breaking the tapes up and discussing what
was on it every now instead of just letting it play since it has become longer
than they expected. The one tape does discuss how to handle it if you suspect
a youth may be a potential suicide, not exactly what some of us hoped for but
a start and recognition of the problem that does exist and shouldn't be
ignored.
There will be no knots for the other awards and it is assumed you will wear
the bar for weekly meetings, medal for show, and nothing in the field.
Powder Horn - the advisor ranger training program - is completed, I have seen
it and read parts of it today. It will still be presented at Philmont is
September and hopefully doing that will provide us with people to be the
course directors next summer around the country. It is written so it can be
done as 3 weekends or so instead of one week. Consultants are as important as
full time staff and the days are long and full but without the extra work you
would have in the evening if you were taking Wood Badge. The regional courses
for this summer have pretty much been dropped as a concept, with the idea that
the course creators can run the Philmont course and they'll know who they can
use as other course directors. I was still tempted but bail out after seeing
the syllabus. Not enough time to develop a regional course at this late date.
The one other council that was interested also bailed out, they thought they
could just throw it together and its really like planning a WB course and
takes a good chunk of time to set up and plan.
And yes, expect a fdl to be added to the logo, probably in the middle of the
bottom 'V'. When they finally accepted a design they said it needed to have a
BSA identification, so the people involved in the decision added "Venturing
BSA" to it. Fully expect it to be changed, but no one has given me a date,
since it'll probably be phased in as current stock runs out.
So who's questions did I miss??
Tom Petrik
