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This is not in the administrative sense. Yes Venturing is a part of the traditional BSA program , not to be confused with Exploring and Learning for Life which are non-traditional programs. In the prvious post I was saying that the Venturing program in it's program is not really traditional "scouting" as to say. First of all Venturing is divided into 5 clusters and each one of those clusters have specialties in them. Venturing Crews can be of any specialty, Say Sea Scouts that is a cluster and 1208 is the Sea Scout Ship specialty which is the traditional program with advancements, seamanship and say a maritime scouting program. Now in the Outdoor cluster, there is a specialty as Backpacking,Camping and Hiking this is a specialty for Venturing crews that specialize in Backpacking, Camping and Hiking. But all crews regardless of specialty can earn advancements if they want to it is not required. All crews can do high adventure if they want to again is not required. Crews can be Coed,all young men or all young women again it is up to the chartering organization. Each crew is independent no matter what cluster or specialty they are a part of. Different from other parts of the BSA. Venturing is a non-traditional part of the traditional BSA.

I do not wish to confuse people, what I do want to do is start some creative thinking concerning Venturing Crews and Sea Scout Ships as many of us know we are in an open ended area of the BSA. Although many of us are encouraged to think outside of the box when it comes to Venturing we still think in the area of the High Adventure Crew doing Philmont or the Sea Scout Ship sailing on the high seas. Nothing wrong with these, but doe we think of the crew doing community service, or the crew doing a handicapped camporee, or the crews that help with scouting for food. Or crews that do Ecology, Religious Life Crews that Venturers teach Religious Ed Classes in their home place of worship.Are we in green shirt box, Is Venturing wishing for the good old days of high adventure and nothing else are we too tied to the troop to be a crew. And when we do help troops do we try to be peacemakers with troop scoutmasters and committee people or are we on a "look at us, we are better than you" Please do not take this offensively. Venturing is one area of scouting where it can be one thing to one person and another thing to another person, what is it to us?

The Advanced Seamanship course in on page 99 of the Sea Scout Manual

it is in 8 sessions and each one of these sessions are 2 hours long. Also there is a Safe Boating Course and it is mentioned on page 98 of the SSM in this there are 2 sessions also 2 hours in length. Basically if a ship wants to it can use these as an alternative form of advancement or supplement the traditional apprentice-quartermaster with these courses. For the Safe Boating Course the Sea Scout can earn the Small Boat Handler bar and for the Advanced Seamanship Course the Sea Scout can earn the Qualified Seaman bar.On page 97 these two courses are explained in more detail.

Sea Scout Ships are 1208, Aquatic Interest Venturing Crews are 1200 General Aquatics, 1204 Sailing/Boating,1206 Scuba/Skin Diver,1207 Recreational Boating any one of these crews can also be a ship as well.

Some can be 1208(Sea Scouting) as well as an aquatic Venturing crew. Again depending on Venturer or Sea Scout interest.

and the Advanced Seamanship Course in place of traditional advancement or use the same to follow up traditional advancement in Ship.

Now we all know a Venturer that is a Boy Scout or Varsity Scout and are First Class Scout and under the age of 18 can finish their trail to Eagle as a Venturer or Sea Scout and can earn it in the crew or ship. And guess what in Venturing and Sea Scouts young men and women can earn the Venturing Bronze, Gold, Silver and Sea Scouts can

earn Apprentice, Ordinary, Able and Quartermaster and Sea Scouts can also earn the Venturing Awards as well. We see much about the Boy Scout thing, but we do not hear much about the Venturing awards system. It is not just all about Boy Scouts. When people join a crew or ship whether in a troop or team then they are Venturers and a part of the Venturing program. This is not to be anti-Boy Scout but Venturing as a stand alone program has many specialties and five clusters of their own. It is good to see young men and women earn awards and rank. In fact the National Venturing President is concerned why the Venturing crews are not interested in the Venturing advancement awards. Point is let the troop in the troop and the crew in the crew and let Venturing forge it's own trail, maybe the reason everyone seems confused maybe is because Professional scouters are not fully informed on Venturing and Sea Scouts. I see on the council and district levels most planning and conversation is done concerning Cubs and Boy Scouts. There are three programs in BSA and one of them is Venturing.

OGE we are located in southeastern Pennsylvania, Chester County Council

In our council we would like to do a Mountain Man Rendezvous, this will be a Venturing Rendezvous something like the Big Event that is done in Utah as a Varsity activity. We intend to do Black Powder Shooting, Archery, Dutch Oven Cookoff and such and we are also considering inviting Boy Scouts that are 14 years and older and in a Troop Venture Crew Patrol and Sea Scouts and Varsity Scouts. Anyone out there ever experience this kind of event and can you give me some advice as how to start this ?

this may be bold or not but here goes...A Venturing Honor Society that is similar to the APO scouting fraternity. Open to both male and female Venturers and Sea Scouts on the district, council or just even crew or ship level. Service projects, fun events, good clean fun, leadership a junior partner of APO and a senior partner in BSA and a plus for the Venturing Division a help to the units in Venturing and a good ethics and leadership forum to encourage crews and ships and to assist the VOA in fact VOA could send a representative to VHS and VHS could send a rep to the VOA. Venturing Honor Society could be a simple society that is in the background serving Venturing and Scouting. This society would be somewhat more simple than OA and cooperative with the arrowmen as well.

Is Venturing just all outdoor crews? I was speaking to our DE at a meeting and he says that Venturing is all outdoors. I know it is a large part but isn't there 4 other clusters? Religious Life, Sea Scouts, Arts and Hobbies, Sports and aren't there specialties in each one of these clusters? Would not one think to have a balanced Venturing Program a council or district would have a diversity of Venturing crews? We do have one ship and one Civil War re-enactment crew. Can anyone please give me an idea of what is in their area?

I must agree with Eamonn .A few years ago. I was a senior member in the Civil Air Patrol and we had a small Venturing Crew in the squadron, and the CAP Cadet Program overshadowed what we were trying to do with the Crew. However to be fair we did do a whitewater rafting trip on the Lehigh River, the CAP Cadets felt that Venturing was not quite tough enough for them, or even military enough.

Can Sea Scout Ships elect their own uniforms the way that Venture Crews can?

As previously posted there is an option for co-ed Venturing Honor Society and that is the Corps of Discovery idea coming from the Lewis and Clark Expedition Corps of Discovery. This idea seems to be outdoor oriented and it is not known quite how ships, or arts and hobbies, religous life and sports crews would react to it. It is on the crew level and does not interfere with the OA at all. Crew does the nominations and elects youth according to the size of the crew or ship. This is up to the crews. The previous pre-98 Exploring program had Post elections up to 1992 OA decided that Exploring was not outdoor enough anymore for the OA, but it was probably because of the co-educational nature of Exploring, and that is probably the case now. If a crew advisor is wise he/she they will encourage a crew to elect youth for the COD or have another idea for a Venturing Honor Society.Instead of having to tell the girls in the crew that they do not know, or saying that's how it is".

Berlin: The choice of uniform or not is the choice of the crew. If your crew chooses the BSA recommended Spruce Green Venturing Shirt and Gray shorts or trousers then that is their uniform. If the crew chooses the sweatshirt then that is part of their uniform for more casual wear. In reality there is no official Venturing uniform and as everything in Venturing is it is the youth's choice. Because Venturing Crews are youth led.

Berlin: The choice of uniform or not is the choice of the crew. If your crew chooses the BSA recommended Spruce Green Venturing Shirt and Gray shorts or trousers then that is their uniform. If the crew chooses the sweatshirt then that is part of their uniform for more casual wear. In reality there is no official Venturing uniform and as everything in Venturing is it is the youth's choice. Because Venturing Crews are youth led.

A few months ago I went to the American Legion and we tried to start a Naval Explorer Post we got as far as the firstnighter and only one youth showed up. Now the Explorer Executive said that our approach was closer to either a crew or ship than that to a Post, earlier we approached youth that were in an AFJROTC unit at a nearby high school and we had 2 earlier meetings the youth at that meeting were excited about what were trying to do. Patches were designed by myself and my Post Committee Chair at the time and we had developed a plan for at least 6 months ahead. Now I have since dropped the idea of a Post because in our council there is no council or district support for Exploring and because of other reasons but the American Legion still wants a post and I believe it is because of the money spent on the patches. However I would like to start either a crew or a ship or maybe even do an re-introductionary Air Scout Squadron I need to decide on what I need to do. Can anyone give me any suggestions? Maybe at a another chartering organization.