Ranger and Silver
Bill Lawrence (bill.lawrence@ansys.com)
Wed Apr 01 07:42:41 1998
Actually, I'm not too sure what to think about the Silver advancement
track either...
I initially thought our members would be quite interested in Ranger and
Silver. They aren't. Our Post was founded to provide a high-adventure
activities outlet for the older scouts in our troop. We would have had
a Venture Crew instead of a Post, but some of our members were
approaching their 18th birthday and wanted to stay involved in Scouting.
Also, many of our activities aren't suitable for Scouts under the age of
14 (such as caving, for example). The current high-adventure program
suits our needs quite well. All of our Explorers are focused on the
Eagle track for advancement and on the Post for more challenging
activities and additional leadership opportunities. The two programs
complimented each other and weren't competitive.
I don't think our Post is unusual in that our purpose is largely to
compliment the troop program. Other High-Adventure Posts in our
district seem to serve the same function. In fact, one Post was founded
by a Girl Scouting unit.
I'll grant you that the new system provides additional opportunities for
Scouts that have already reached Eagle. Also, for Scouts that either
aren't interested in the Eagle track (I don't know of any in our Troop,
but we'll assume that there might be some) having an alternative track
could be something that could keep them in Scouting.
However, I can guarantee that because Venturing has its own advancement
track, it will be viewed as a competitor to Scouts. High-Adventure
Exploring is already a "hard sell" at our local roundtable, just because
the Scoutmasters view it as yet one more distraction for the Scouts
working toward Eagle. Even our Post committee (which is also our Troop
committee) has some questions along these lines.
YiS,
Bill Lawrence
Explorer Advisor
High-Adventure Post 150
> -----Original Message-----
> From: William H. Sills [SMTP:whs@idcnet.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 1998 6:31 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: Re: Explorer Crews
>
> Your message illustrates the difficulty with making the new High
> Adventure
> Venturung program a cohesive one. Many, many young High Adventure
> Explorers had
> requested the RETURN of the Silver Award advancement track which was
> discontinued in 1965. Many of them also have asked to get the Crews
> and Crew
> Leaders back. Quite a few other young Explorers have said that they
> could care
> less about earning Silver or anything else. Your comment is the first
> I have
> heard that bringing them back as an option would be bad.
>
> The vast majority of Sea Scouts use either or both of their
> advancement tracks. That may be evidence that Sea Scouts are
> interested in an
> objective measurement of the level of mastery of their nautical
> skills. High
> Adventure Explorers do not have the concentrated focus found in ships
> because
> they encompass so many disparate activities. Some climb mountains,
> some horse
> pack, some are white water kayakers, some are advanced campers, etc.
> Perhaps
> that is why both the Ranger and the Silver tracks have been proposed
> to be made
> available again.
>
> Personally, as a Sea Scout officer, the return of Silver and
> Ranger
> wouldn't affect my youth. However, I can not see where having them as
> an
> available option would be anything but a positive step. Certainly,
> some of our
> Sea Scouts don't bother with the Quartermaster award program while
> many others
> work on it. They happily co-exist side-by-side in their ships so I
> can't see why
> that wouldn't be true in posts.
>
> If you are against having the Silver option, why?
>
> By the way, the comment about having fun while actually
> learning
> something is waht my Sea Scouts also say. If it weren't for fun, none
> of us,
> youth or old guys, would stick around long.
>
> YISS;
> Bill Sills
>
> Wiedenhoeft wrote:
>
> > About setting up High Adventure posts with a crew structure similiar
> to sea
> > scouts:
> > Has anyone asked the high adventure members what they think?
> > The response we've gotton from our members has been that they don't
> want
> > ranks and they're not interested on working on anything like merit
> badges,
> > if they were they'd join the Boy Scout troop or Girl Scouts. Our
> members
> > aren't slackers, most are very high achievers, they just don't want
> > Exploring to become another competitive thing where they feel
> pressured into
> > reaching certain achievements. That doesn't mean they haven't
> learned
> > anything. One of the best comments I've heard from one of our
> members is "it
> > seems like we're just having fun, but actually we've learned a lot.
> >
> > J. Wiedenhoeft
> > Explorer Post 540, Wisconsin
>
>
>
>
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