Ages for Rovering
Alex Chacko John Neroth (aneroth@leland.Stanford.EDU)
Mon Feb 16 23:36:09 1998
Mark,
I think you're right, it's better to have Rovering be from 21-28 than to start at 18. Scouting goes from 11-18, and Venturing'll go from 14-21, so if Rovering
were to go from 18-26/28, Venturing would be made redundant. If Rovering were from 18-28, then someone could go directly from Scouting to Rovering,
bypassing Venturing completely.
I'm still worried, though, about the overlap between Scouting and Venturing. From 14-18, a boy will be able to be part of Scouting or Venturing or both. The
only differences between BSA Scouting and Venturing that I can see are that Venturing is co-ed and that Scouting and Venturing have different rank
advancement systems. I think that this problem of Scouting and Venturing being too similar (and of Venturing being preferable to boys because it's co-ed and
because the ranks are more challenging) is one of the reasons that BSA abolished most of the Exploring rank advancement programs in the '60s. I
understand that there are quite a few people who are and were Scouts and Explorers at the same time, and I applaud their dedication, but I'm afraid that for
most people, the time committment involved in being both a Scout and an Explorer concurrently is simply too great. I still think that it might be a good idea to
remove the overlap between Scouting and Venturing so that Scouting ended at 16 and Venturing started at 16. (That is, Youth would be permitted to join
Venturers once they complete 10th Grade _or_ turn 16, and boys boys would be required to leave Boy Scouts once they complete 10th Grade _and_ turn
16.) This would be what Scouting New Zealand calls "Seamless Scouting."
About alcohol, I think Robert Murphy was right in saying that BSA prohibits the consumption of alcohol for all of its members at any Scouting event. If fact,
the only time I heard of alcohol mixed with Scouting was at the 18th World Jamboree, when a Belgian Scout told me that at her campouts, the Scouts' main
activity after the leaders had gone to bed was drinking.
About a Scouting program for people between 18 and 21, I think that if Venturing is strong enough and is publicized enough, then it will be attractive to that
age group. IMHO, people in that age group, though they do enjoy being with younger people and helping to teach them skills, prefer doing fun activities with
people more in their age group. In other words, I think that if Venturing were to start at 16 instead of 14, it would be even _more_ attractive fo people in the
18-21 age group.
Yours in Scouting,
Alex C. J. Neroth
E-mail: aneroth@stanford.edu
URL: http://www.stanford.edu/~aneroth
On Mon, 16 Feb 98 07:03:18 CST6CDT, Mark McCormack wrote:
>Hello Bill and Alexs, and all
>
>Rovers here in Australia is a fact of life, and as such has been the driving
>force of this section around the world. As for the age, for the US I think
>that the sarting age should be approx 21+. The reason being from my point
>of view is that it is difficult to have half a crew who can legally drink
>and the other half who could not, Venturers in the UK has this problem. But
>Something needs to be done for the age group between 18-21, and I have no
>suggestions about this. This group of people have left senior High and are
>at College or work etc, so something here needs to be done to avoid a
>possible high attrition rate.
>
>see ya
>
>
>Mark
>
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