OutdoorThinker

My Girl Scout council, and I am sure the rest of the councils in the country have something called Girl Scout groups (for you Boy Scouts reading this post, it's similiar to Scoutreach). The idea of a Girl Scout groups is to have someone (usually college age women, but not exclusively) faciliate the Girl Scout program to girls in high risk or impoverished areas, some meet in schools after school, some meet in community centers and other places where there are after school activities for high risk children. The groups are encompass girls kindergarten through twelveth grade, so faciliating the pr

OGE, I totally agree with the fact that although, youth-led, the Venturing Youth in leadership positions must be reasonable. However, despite our imperfections, the youth are supposed to run the show. To quote an earlier post of yours: "Actually the more I think about it, I think the Round Table topics should be 100 percent youth driven. Now thats a goal to strive for!" As we strive to be 100 percent youth driven are you ready to advise that? Adults role is to advise, which basically means sit back and reel us in when we get too far off the path (I'll use your example, when we want to go

I would like to commend Campaholic and Yarrow for their positive comments on the Girl Scouting program and the Girl Scout Gold Award. I would also like to take this moment to express what the Girl Scouting program has meant done for me. I hope everyone understands that the Girl Scouting program is more than cookies and crochetting. I know Campaholic mentioned the Career Exploration pin, which Senior Girl Scouts must earn prior to their completion of the Gold Award. This is actually a very interesting award and allows young women to think about their future career paths as well as the roa

To answer Pounder's question, despite a mission statement that has advisors working towards a youth'-led organization, we all know that most things are easier said than done. In the case that I have been dealing with, many of the adult advisors are still stuck in a Boy Scout mentality, rather than a Venturing Crew mentality. In the case of the council youth board, I've had my setbacks come from advisors who do not have coed crews and are not familiar with girls in the Boy Scouting movement, thus, I have had to on a number of occasions with a number of advisors (fortunately never from my

Eamonn, my advice for you to help get the ball rolling for a youth roundtable is (if your youth are truly interested) have them start to make the contacts to the other crews and get them to start putting it together. Our council was finally kicked into high gear after my crew began to contact other crews for an all-council crew camp out in 2002. When council got word, they decided to be supportive, and six months after a successful campout, the youth roundtable began. OGE, to answer your question, the youth officers of the VEB are ready, willing and able, and in fact have showed their cap

Senior_Patrol_Leader_T15: I dont understand why you find it unfair for a girl to be in Venturing Crew and continue the work on her Gold Award, when a boy can be in a Venturing Crew and continue to work on his Eagle. I also wouldnt recommend only recruiting Gold Award recipiants, because most girls dont recieve their Gold unti their senior year in high school. Everything else looks good with the age comparision, but your best bet to learn more about the Girl Scouts is to ask questions of the girls in your crew rather than assume stuff, because that could get you in some big trou

Our council has it's own youth roundtable for Venturing Crew members. It started out with the intent of being an officers meeting, with Presidents and VPs of the crews coming, but it has since expaned and includes anyone who wants to come. In fact, their president, myself, is not an officer in her crew. The youth board, called the Venture Executive Board or VEB, meets monthly with the adult roundtable meeting at the same time, and we plan events for all the crews in the council to participate in, as well as dicuss problems and issues that come up within the crews, and we inform the crews about

BT: Best of luck with your first crew campout!!!!! Are you doing anything high adventure, or just camping? Is your crew coed?

SPL_Tr15, Sounds like you've got it, just would you mind using the term age levels instead of ranks, because the girl scouts really dont have ranks. Best of luck on your recruitment! Keep us posted on how you do!

SMT376Richmond KY, I continued staying an active Girl Scout after I joined the crew and two of my best friends were crew members and went on to recieve their Girl Scouting Gold Awards. If your daughter wants to camp, she should consider becoming involved in the Venturing Crew. It's just a matter of time management. I unforutnately got a little too wrapped up in a Boy Scout Council project when I should have been working on my Gold Award and aged out before I earned my Gold.

Campaholic brings up a good point that I neglected to mention in my post, about why I enjoyed the Venturing Crew, as I have mentioned, I am a very active Girl Scout. When I learned that my friend's Boy Scout troop was chartering a coed Venturing Crew, he really pushed for the Girl Scouts to join, he knew that we all had camping experience --- working at Girl Scout Day Camp, summer camping, and the occasional weekend camp out, but with our busy lives and working on our Gold Awards, we really didnt plan many camping trips in high school. I almost didn't join my Venturing Crew, because of m

Comparative Scouting 101 As a Venture Crew member, Assistant Scoutmaster for a Boy Scout troop and a life time member of the Girl Scouts, and a Girl Scout leader I can offer a few pieces of information. First, Girl Scouting is set up very differently than Boy Scouting. Girl Scouts don't "advance" but rather move along the system by age and grade. Daisies are kindergarteners, Brownies are first through third graders, Juniors are fourth through sixth graders, as a Junior you can earn the Bronze award, which is the first step to earning the Gold Award (however, the Bronze is NOT necessary t

No where in the Consititution does it say that the President of the United States (or any other office holder) must place their hand on a Bible in order to take an oath of office. It just happens to be one of the long standing traditions and most presidents do either use a family Bible or a Bible of historic significane (like one that another president has been sworn in on). I dont think it would be a legal issue if someone wanted to take an Oath on the Koran or a Bible without the new testitment. I suppose a President could even take his or her oath of office on the Boyscout Handbook, if he o

I think that it's a great idea to invite the troop's moms along a campout, if only once a year. It'll keep them camping oriented so that when their sons join a coed Venturing Crew, you have some ready, willing and able female chaperones. Although, I am a huge activist for youth leadership, I dont think it would hurt if these guys were advised this one time on this particular issue.

In the most recent poll released by CNN-USA Today- Gallup pitting George W. Bush head to head with Wesley Clark, Clark had 49% and Bush only 46%. In the same poll, Bush tied with both Kerry and Lieberman. The Gallup also reported Bush's lowest approval rating of his presidency at 50%. The numbers are looking like we could see a new president in the White House.

Ah, NWScouter, Presidential Trival -- fantastic! The answers to your question is as follows: The pair with the same name and no relation are the Johnsons, Andrew Johnson and Lyndon Baines Johnson share a last name, but no DNA. On to the relatives: 1) George Bush and George W. Bush: Father and Son 2) John Adams and John Quincy Adams: Father and Son 3) William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison: Grandfather and Grandson 4) Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt: Teddy was FDR's fourth cousin once removed, but Elenor Roosevelt's uncle, so that makes him

Keep an open mind, open lines of communication between your youth, advisors and any council liasons and have fun. You won't avoid all problems, but it'll make the problems easier to manage.

OGE sounds like you have quite a crew. Have the girls always been in leadership positions in the council? How do the other crew members and crew adults in the council dealt with the girls in leadership positions? I know that I have had my uphill battles with the higher ups in council when I was beginning to emerge as a youth leader in my council. As an inquiry and to see how things worked out, have you advisors had experience working with teenage girls prior to having your crews become coed (ie working with the Girl Scouts or having daughters of your own)? If not, how are things working w

OGE, I know this message is too late for you and your son (I hope the bagpiping went well for the court of honor), but I hope that maybe it can help another scout who would like the bagpipes to play "Scouting Thunder" at his court of honor. Ask your bagpiper to play "Scotland the Brave" a common tune in most bagpipers' repitoire, it's the same song.

While we are on the topic of Venturing Crew awards on uniforms, I have a question about the Council Venturing Crew Leadership Award. I recieved the award a little over a year ago, in a very memorable Court of Honor that I had no really part in the planning, in fact, I almost didnt show up (it was a very hectic weekend), because I did not know I had been nominate nor did I know that I would be recieving the award. I really love my medal. It's beautiful, however it is bulky and pretty burdernsome to wear when in uniforms, does anyone know if there is a pin or bar or patch that can be worn

I have to say OGE (is that good?) started a thread that I am really excited about. Politics goes right up there with scouting when it comes to things that make me tick. And to Pounder, I didnt say I was voting for Wesley Clark, yet. I perfer to keep my options open for a a little while longer.

OGE (see, I am getting the hang of this informality thing.) In my unbiased opinion I do have the best Venturing Crew there is. I've had the same two awesome advisors since we chartered almost four years ago, you can't find two better advisors anywhere, no offense to all of you who are advisors. I can truly say I wouldnt be here or had spent my nine weeks at camp without them and their influences.

Just as an update, while I was writing my message about Wesley Clark, he officially announced his candidacy for the Democratic Presidental nomination. He began his speech: "My name is Wes Clark. I am from Little Rock, Arkansas. And I am here to announce that I intend to seek the presidency of the United States of America."

MomScouter has a point. Wesley Clark is looking like he could be the Democrats ticket to the White House. Keep your eyes peeled for his announcement by the end of the week. I am, however, a little skeptical, because he seems as though he's everything that the Democratic Party could have dreamed of as a candidate. I am, however, hoping he's the man. Wesley Clark, for those of you who arent up on your whose who of candidates for the Democratic ticket, is a retired General. He's a Vietnam Veteran, who is against the war in Iraq. Some of his other top issues include the enviroment and lowerin

Writes: Right Throws: Try not to Bats: You dont want me to Votes: Left