Gold Award Requirements
Craig Bond (craig00@nternet.com)
Sat Sep 12 17:59:38 1998
Venturing Gold Award
INTRODUCTION
The Gold is available to all youth Venturing members of the Boy Scouts of
America.
The purpose of the Venturing Silver Award is to:
-- recognize achievements by young adults.
-- encourage personal growth through exposure to activities related to the
six experience areas of Venturing.
-- offer challenging and stimulating opportunities for young adults to
develop and achieve personal gopals in leadership, character development,
and personal fitness.
-- provide a favorable image of Venturing among youth, parents, schools,
and communities.
BACKGROUND
Venturers should have the opportunity to work toward tangible, challenging
goals, and to be recognize for their efforts.
The Gold Award program has been developed to recognize a significant
accomplishment in a young person's life; it requires outstanding
performance in a broad spectrum of activities related to Venturing's six
experience areas (citizenship, service, fitness, social, leadership, and
outdoor). The program was developed to challenge and to motivate young
people over an extended period of time.
QUALIFICATION
Candidates for the Venturing Gold Award must submit a written petition to
their Crew Advisor, in which they should outline their plans and ambitions
for their projects to achieve their award. Advisors are encouraged to ahve
a conference with each candidate to ensure that the Venturer has developed
a well-conceived plan, and that he or she has specific goals in mind.
The program is designed to challenge young men and young women with
interests that cover a wide variety of Venturing activities. Several
requirements must be met to qualify for the Gold Award; the requirements
are listed separately below.
The Gold Award will be presented only to young adults whose personal
conduct is in keeping with the principles of the Venturing Oath and the Boy
Scouts of America.
REQUIREMENTS
The Venturing Gold Award program is designed to permit adaptation of
certain phases of the program so that *all* Venturers may work for and
achieve the award. In order to offer a challenge to youth, and in the
interest of maintaining a standard of qualificaiton, *minimum* requirements
have been established that must be met before the Gold Award can be
presented to a Venturer. These requirements are:
(a) The candidate must have at least 12 months tenure as an active,
registered Venturer before final qualification.
(b) The candidate must have been an active member of the Venturing crew,
and served in one or a combination of leadership roles within the past 12
months (roles may be concurrent) as follows:
For leadership roles within the crew a candidate might be:
1) a crew officer
2) A Venturing officers' association member ot committee member
3) an activities chairman for one of the crew's two-day activites or
superactivity
For leadership roles outside the crew, a candidate might be:
1) an elected youth officer of a church or school organization
2) an elected or appointed team leader
(c) The candidate must have participated in a district/Venturing division,
council, area, region, or national event.
(d) The candidate must, in consultation with the crew Advisor or a member
of the crew committee, set one personal growth goal related to each of the
six experience areas of Venturing, in which the Venturer certifies
completion of the goals.
For personal growth, a candidate might:
1) Complete a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) course or an Emergency
Medical Technician (EMT) course.
2) Plan and carry out a personal exercise program over a four-month
period, i.e., jogging, running, swimming, weight reduction, or physical
conditioning.
3) Practice for, and attain, the Presidential Physical Fitness Award.
4) Complete a reading program of the scriptures, classic literature,
historical series, etc.
5) Serve for six months as a reading counselor for a child with reading
problems.
6) Visit a nursing home, on a regular basis, over a four-month period, to
help write letters or to read to patients or provide personalized services.
(e) The candidate must plan, prepare for, and lead to completion two or
more crew activity projects that relate to at least two of the six
experience areas; suggested crew activity projects are listed separately
below.
For crew/ship activities, the action should involve at least five
Venturers, and it should require a minimum of four to six months from
inception to completion; the project should be approved and the goals of
the project set by the crew Advisor and/or member of the crew committee and
the Venturer candidate. Both parties should certify the completion of the
project(s). Activities should be arrantged to fit into normal crew
programming. Qualifying crew/ship activities include, but are not limited
to the following:
1) Plan and, with the help of at least four other Venturers, carry out a
conservation project that is approved by an agency of the federal, state,
or local government, such as the National Park Service, the Department of
the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, state division of parks and
recreation, city or county parks department, etc.
2) Plan and chair a committe that stages a major social activity
involving crew members and their parents, or crew members and their entire
family.
3) Plan and carry out a series of crew activities over a four- to
six-month period, related to an interest of crew members. Professional or
volunteer consultants could be asked to present information regarding their
specialty, profession, or occupation.
4) Help organize or a new Venturing crew, or revitalize an inactive crew;
coordinate activity with BSA local council staff members.
5) Organize a receruitment drive to add members to your own crew or to
other crews in the district/council. The drive should last at least one
month, and the recruitment plan should include specific activities oriented
toward recruiting new members, goals, methods of publicity, etc.
(f) The candidate must be able to recite the Venturing Oath.
(g) The candidate must submit three letters of recommendation to the crew
Advisor that confirm he or she lives in accordance with the principles of
the Venturing Oath. The letters should come from adults outside the crew,
such as school or curch leaders, employers, or community leaders.
(h) After completing all other requirements, the candidate should prepare
evidence of completion of the work and submit it to the crew Advisor. The
crew president, in conjunction with the crew Advisor, should then appoint a
review committee of four to six people including Venturers and adults. The
committee shouold review the candidate's written presentation and interview
the candidate to determine whether that person grew as a result of the
pursuit of the Gold Award.
(i) Finally, the candidate must have qualified for the Gold Award before
his or her 21st birthday.
SUGGESTED QUALIFYING ACTIVITIES
Because of the designed, flexible nature of the program, crew Advisors and
crew committee members are permitted a reasonable degree of latitude in
approving activities that serve to meet the qualifying requirements for the
Gold Award in the areas of leadership, personal growth, and crew activity
projects. Likewise, crew Advisors, crew committee members, and Venturers
are encouraged to seek out additional appropriate activities, bearing in
mind the purpose of the Gold Award program.
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NOTE: The Gold Award is recognized nationally; however, the program is
administered and approved, and recognition is made, at the local council
level.
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Supply Information
Councils (only) may order the Gold Award from the BSA National
Distriction Center:
Ribbon Medal (for civilian wear)
Certificate
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Above information copied from _Silver Award Guidebook_ (25-015), 1998
printing.
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My apologies for any misspellings. I've tried to pick them up, typos too,
but do not guarantee the above to be free of these or other errors.
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Craig Bond
Mandeville, Louisiana
www.gnofn.org/~noac/chit2.html
Anyone can count the seeds in an apple;
only God can count the apples in a seed.
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