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OutdoorThinker

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Everything posted by OutdoorThinker

  1. To answer your questions Buffalo2, and as long as you bear with me because I am relying on my memories of the event that happened almost a year ago, I won't worry about you putting me on spot. Our training was run by the adult crew advisors from the council. There were a number of crews involved. Each advisor went over a different section of the training. The training as a whole was not a failure. I think that the fact that the training was implimented and it was well attended is proof that it was a success, as you all probably know, it's difficult for those two elements to happen in Ven
  2. I survived my first camp staffing experience this summer. I served as a director at a Boy Scout Camp that I had only visited once before moving in for nine weeks. I am a Venture Crew member, and although I was a Girl Scout all my life, my gender prohibited me from being a Boy Scout as a youth. Not only did I have to get used to living in an unfamiliar place for nine weeks, but I was emerged to a culture (the Boy Scout culture) that was entirely foreign to me. I survived. I did, so, however, by thriving on mail -- both letters and packages from my family and friends. Nothing made me smile
  3. Eamonn you bring up some interesting points. First, one of our council's crew hurdles is not so much the small crews, but rather the crews that are not outdoor crews. We run into a lot of problems when we try to organize the youth to meet or when we try to put together programming for the Crews. Our first major council crew camping event we invited all of the crews that were registered in council, the SCUBA crews werent interested, neither were some of the arts and hobbies crews, nor were some of the other more specialized crews nor some of the camp posts. Any suggestions how we get them
  4. Our council executive has been very supportive of the Venturing movement. He really tries to listen to what the youth venturers have to say and he always lets us run with our ideas. Perhaps, it's only because he's not worrying about it, as it's our time if it fails and it makes him look good if it succeeds. But we get to have our activities. In addition, our council is making an effort to include Venturing in many of the whole council events, including a campout, where a few years ago Venturing really didn't fit in the mix. At times, I think the Venturing Program is like the stepchild of our c
  5. We actually used scenes from "Gettysburg" in our training. We used some of Jeff Daniels's monologues as Chamberlain (my personal favorite soldier of the Civil War) and a second segment, perhaps with Lee, I dont remember. The film led us into decent discussions. But as I said earlier, I think the training as a whole lacked something challenging and more age appropriate.
  6. Pounder: Yes, in fact, I, myself am working on the backpacking part of the Venturing Bronze Award.
  7. My understanding is that merit badges are outward representations of inward growth. I think the issue at hand is how much the scouts are learning from their merit badges, advancements and camping experiences and ultimately how much the scout is enjoying what he is learning, not how many badges he can rake in during a week of camp or how many eagles a troop has.
  8. I am new on the forum and I am sorry I didnt get to post about backpacking while it was fresh. My coed crew loves backpacking and often it's the girls that initiate the backpacking trips. Not only do the girls carry their share of the weight, they are usually in lead positions on the hikes. I wouldn't want to see the reprecussions of questioning their will and strength. On activities that work our crew does a lot of climbing, both indoor and outdoor, as well as biking, and white water rafting.
  9. The VLSC that my crew was involved in was organized by the advisors with a module from Council or National, I assume. Our course was done in a lock in also. We, the crew members, found that a lot of the training was rehashing of leadership skills that had been stated in Boy and Girl leadership trainings. Needless to say, we were trained, but the training as a whole was lacking something age appropriate and challenging.
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