A crew may be co-ed - the troop cannot.

They can handle/shoot pistols, after a training course.

They can serve youth up to 21 instead of 18.

Boys who earned 1st class in the Troop can earn other BSA advancements up to Eagle (by 18) thru the Crew.

They can attend the Jamboree as participants instead of staff or visitors (up to 21).

To name a few things that can be done with a Venturing Crew only

Shooting Sports
Venturing Crew can shoot any caliber rifle Boy Scouts are limited to .22 cal only
Pistols Venturing Crews can shoot pistils
Cave Exploring
Venturing Crews can go free caving (with an experienced guide of course)
Snowmobiles
Venturing Crew can go snowmobiling
Hunting
Venturing Crews can go Hunting
Aircraft
Venturing Crews can take Ground School and have Hands-On Flying Experience
Climbing
Venturing Crews can do Lead Climbing
Venturing Crews can do Project COPE (all activities)
White-water rafting
T here is usually an age limit for rafting trips depending on the class of rapids. Because Venturing Crews are older they can do higher class rapids.
Along these same lines because Venturing Crews are made up of older youth, trips like backpacking and canoeing can be done at a more challenging level

The best argument you could make is that there are youth in your community who want to be served by a program like this.
Our community had girls (sisters/friends of scouts) who wanted to go to Seabase. We had young men who were aging out of the troop but wanted to go to Philmont again. Both groups of youth wanted to also provide leadership to girl scouts and boy scouts in their community. Finally, young men and women were arranging unsupervised camp-outs together with or without the COR's intervention. Wouldn't it be nice if they had a pool of trained chaperons who could make these events of the highest caliber?

Now, our COR had implicit trust in any decision our troop committee made. So, this was an easy sell. But you get the idea. If you can say, "I have a half-dozen young men/women who have been asking for ___, and our troop can't provide that." You have cause for a program. It doesn't have to be an official distinction, for example, some boys may want to be expert kayakers, but that is nowhere on the troop's radar because the majority have wanted to focus on hiking and camping (noble activities indeed), being part of a Venturing crew may make it clear that they need distinct leadership and material resources to build their program.

My question for you would be, why do you want to have a Venturing crew? It must be that the troop isn't providing something that you'd like to see.

Sure, there are a few activities that only Venturers are eligible for, but a troop could just dual-register all of its older boys as Venturers and then they could be eligible for all the same activities.

I think the main reasons for a crew would be 1. girls, 2. those over 18, 3. the value of having a separate group where the older kids can hang out together without having all the middle school kids around, and 4. a vision of specializing in some type of activity that isn't regularly provided by the troop (a shooting group, or a boating group, or a climbing unit, or historical reenactment, etc).

My son's troop CO just launched a crew. Their reasons were (in descending order of importance):

1. A core group of guys who will age out of the troop within a year, but who want to stay active in scouting as youth and not as quasi-adults (being 18 year old ASMs doesn't appeal to that many of them and it could present a challenge for the troop to see their youth leaders all suddenly become young ASMs as a group)

2. Most of those guys have sisters or female friends who they like to hang with

3. Crews can do all kinds of things that troops can't (listed above)

4. They want a different social experience, without what they refer to as the "little kids" always hovering around them

5. Some of them also want to attend the 2013 Jambo but will have aged out of boy scouts by then. As Crew members, they'll still be eligible to attend as youth participants.

Eagle23
As another poster in this forum is always saying "It is a venturing crew not a venture crew" There is the option in boy scout troops to have a "Venture Patrol" for older scouts with more outdoor high adventure activities and that might be better suited for your purposes. The other posters here have done a good job describing the differences between a crew and a troop, the only thing I would add as a Venturing Crew Advisor for ten years is if you plan to run the crew the same way you do your troop then go with the Venture Patrol instead.

Venturing has its own dynamics and program, it is not boy scouts and those leaders who have tried to run a crew like a troop usually experience a mass exodus in the first year and then blame the Venturing program for their own failure. Talk to the successful venturing advisors in your area and find out why their programs work, what is involved in running a successful venturing program before you go to the trouble of starting a new crew. Remember Venturing is NOT boy scouts!!!!

BP touched on the downside: trained adult leaders. You need some folks committed to being trained in how to support a different program, yet also committed to scouting as a whole. Moreover, you'll be asking for some teamwork from the troop as well as the CO (scheduling use of the facilities, sharing leadership, coordinating with existing youth-groups, joint activities vs. separate, etc ...).

If you have a couple of adults lined up for crew advisor and CC, and you can get them to Venturing Leader Specific Training (VLST), then you're halfway there. If not, you may need to let your COR know that he/she may need to be giving your adult leaders that occasional "gentle nudge" to get trained.

Is VLST required? No. Most everything is in the leader's manual. But, I can say it has helped me set the program in the right direction and connect with other scouters who've been my advisors. Meanwhile, I have a committee that has passed on every opportunity to take it, and I can say it has limited their ability to serve the youth 100% effectively.(This message has been edited by qwazse)

"Is VLST required? No."

Actually, yes it is.

For the adults to be considered "basic trained", they MUST take this course, regardless of whatever other training they have.

Mandatory training for key unit leaders (advisors) and their associates is coming. This means that for units to get re-chartered, these leaders must complete training.

While these leaders may not need to take it RIGHT NOW, they DO need to take it. Claiming that its 'not required' is the wrong attitude. Have them take it.

Emb - I and my co-advisor couldn't agree with you more. And until somebody with more knots on their uni than mine comes and asks for my MCs' membership cards back we're stuck with "what should be and what is ain't always."