Eagle94-A1

Concur with @Eagledad. While it is easier to start a Venturing Crew within a Scouts BSA Troop, in the long term they fold. The initial group of Venturers leave, Scouters get burned out, or the troop starts suffering and all hands are needed to support the troop.

So that is what the Baden-Powell Service Association is calling themselves these days. No experience with them whatsoever. Nearest group is over 3 hours away.

First warning sign that this is not a good troop is that they stop meeting for the summer. Summer is the absolute best time to do stuff because you don't have school and extracurriculars to deal with. Second, Agree with @MattR. Talking to another adult may help. If that doesn't work, another troop.

THIS. IS. THE. WAY!

Don't I know it. In 1994 I was a YMCA Lifeguard Instructor, who also worked and trained with ARC Lifeguards, and a 3rd national organization's lifeguards that I cannot remember, at the college pool. I took BSA Lifegaurd in 1994, and it was the hardest, most demanding lifeguard course because it not only covered pools, but also lakes , rivers, and open water. It started before 2013. One reason why I never went for BSA Lifeguard as a youth was because A) I did not have Rowing MB, which was a prerequisite along with Swimming, Lifesaving, and Canoeing MBs and B) I was working summers as a Y

As a former BSA Lifeguard, I can tell you it is 99.98% ARC to the point that the books and videos used in the class was ARC. In fact if you were willing to pay an extra $20 and take the ARC exam, you would be dual certified. the .02% difference was BSA's Safe Swim Defense and Safety Afloat. So BSA Lifeguard is not a good example of BSA going their own way.

BSA is to blame. I remember as a 18-20 year old ASM, I was treated as an adult by my troop, and most other adults on the district/council level. Yes, some folks looked at my age and lack of Wood Badge and ignored me, denigrated me, etc. But for the most part I was treated as an equal. I maintained friends in the troop, and hung out with them at school and outside of Scouting. But at Scouting activities, I was treated like any other adult by them. I was able to do Swimming and Lifesaving MB sessions at the pool I worked at with just a parent present. I was even the acting SM one summer si

Tell me about it. I remember the first time I was eligible, and I didn't vote for myself because the other three candidates were better Scouts than me, AND I HAD A DIFFICULT TIME PICKING THE 2 I DID! It was rough. Under the old rules, it was possible to get everyone elected under the right circumstances, i.e. odd number of eligible Scouts. I had a SM tell his Scouts how to vote so that the three scouts had 2/3s of the ballots each. Found this out after the fact and it infuriated me. Now it is common.

No clue. I am an old fogey and what I wanted at that age may be completely different from what folks today want. But I would start with with following. 1. Get input on what the young adults want. Not just the various VOAs, but also rank and file members. A. Have actual town halls and various meetings where the members, not the advisors, have input. B. AND HAVE THE MEETING BE REAL AND NOT A COVER UP FOR PREARRANGED CHANGES, I.E. THE MEMBERSHIP TOWN HALLS. Let's face it from everything I have heard from pros, the timing of the town halls, read i.e. gender neutral langu

Tell me about it. We have folks who not only know school board members, but some who have been friends with them since elementary school. We have folks who work in the school system, are part of PTOs, various parents' booster clubs, etc. But council does not want us doign anything.,

As I stated, this council does not want units contacting anyone the school system and it has been like this since before I got here. As for outside groups, I will repeat, NO OUTSIDE GROUPS are allowed. This law was brought up once or twice when we had a DE, and this is what he was told. And from what I get from the Sxcouts, it is enforced. Trust me we had relationships prior to the current superintendent. Now everything needs to be focused on "teaching time."

1. I have deleted texts and emails. And I cannot find the letter I sent to a SE selection committee about one of the potential candidates. 2. For me the OA lost its uniqueness when they changed their election policies. At the time, I said it would be a slow death. I admit I was wrong as it is taking longer to die than I thought. But I also know a lot of folks are fighting tooth and nail, to preserve the OA. I was in that number until unit responsibilities took over. From the outside looking in, OA is a pale shadow of itself. 3. The Venture Patrol concept has been tried in one shape o

"OUTING is three-fourths of ScOUTING." William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt, 3rd ed. SMHB "SCOUTING IS OUTING!" William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt

I agree completely. But when you are not allowed in the schools to recruit, eventually your pack ages out or moves to a thriving one when they get too few to recharter. Depends upon the council as I have found out. Some councils, for whatever reason, do NOT want units doing their own recruiting and round ups. Instead they set up everything, and tell us when they want us to be at the round up. And in other councils each unit has assigned schools, usually to get Scouts int eh same neighborhood to be together, because of bussing, multiple packs recruit form the same school. It is crazy.

I have mixed emotions on this one. One one hand I fully understand the rationale. It is a lot of work to support a struggling unit. On the other hand, i am in a struggling troop. Our pack folded about 10 years ago when we stopped having a DE that would get us into the school system to do round ups. The troop has dwindled, and was on the verge of folding. Work of mouth has been our best recruiting over the years. Almost have the troop have transferred from another, larger troop, that on paper is "more successful" but is actually not doing much. One large troop locally had a strong pac

If i have not deleted them, i will share the emails and texts.

Are you serious? Several years ago BSA had a poll in which 94% of the respondents were either against (18%) or strongly against (76%) the proposal, yet BSA did it anyway. 94% OPPOSED AND THEY DID IT ANYWAY! (emphasis). National has repeatedly announced membership increases AT THE LAST MINUTE. One year they even told units to hold off on rechartering until they finalized the price. People repeatedly complained because units had already created budgets, and round ups were going on. Again, National was told repeatedly to give more notice to help the boots on the ground prepare, especially t

Ah, another Sea Explorer . Agree that the constant rewrites to the Exploring and Venturing programs over the years have severely hurt the program. And the lack of professional support also hurts, because most execs are clueless as professional training is focused on Cubs Scouts and Scouts. In all my time in Scouting, I have only ran into 2 dedicated Exploring/Venturing execs, and one of them was put in the position and had to teach herself about Exploring/Venturing. When I went thru PDL-1, everyone was suppose to go through either the Exploring Leader Basic Training or the Exploring Leader B

To clarify, the Venturing logo is green, white, and gold with green lettering. BUT I have clip art with the logo in maroon, white, and gold with maroon lettering. The solid maroon golf shirt was the Venture Crew/Patrol Activity Uniform shirt from 1989 onwards. Venturing had a maroon, white, and green golf shirt, that was an activity shirt. Varsity had a tan golf activity shirt with blaze writing. See below.

Forgot to add, maroon was the Venture crew/patrol signature color, and it almost became Venturing signature color. I have clip art with the Venturing Logo in maroon, gold, and white as well as green gold, and white. In fact, the Venturing golf shirt was maroon.

Actually Venturing did not have advancement, but "Recognitions" back in 1998, and there were 5 different Bronze Awards: Outdoors, Sea Scout, Sports, Arts& Crafts, and Youth Ministries/ Religious Life. It may sound like semantics, but it was emphasized that Venturing Did not use advancement as a method, and did not have ranks. You also had the Ranger Award as well. 2014 was when Advancement was incorporated into Venturing. I think you meant Sea Scout Quartermaster, as the Ordinary rank corresponded to the Sea Scout Bronze Award. The 1998 National Venturing Director actual

I admit our legal environment plays a part, but BSA gave a stat on peer-on-peer abuse, without citing the sources and/or showing the evidence, in the YPT 2.1 training I took. The 50% peer-on-peer abuse is what Michael Johnson has stated without showing the data.

My comments. 1. If memory serves, BSA tried that in the 1950s or 60s, and it didn't work out. 2. BSA tried it again from 1989 to sometime in the 2000s/2010s, again with no success. 3. Very few current Scouters are familiar enough with Venturing to make it work properly. Heck it is hard enough to get Troops working properly as many adults do not get how Scouting sis suppose to work, even with training. You can see that on all the various comments and questions on social media. 4. The demographic that other countries use to support this range, 21-30 year olds, have usually b

For reasons beyond my control, I have an ASM who is a helicopter grandparent. Good news is that at meetings I have a CC who will ride herd on them when I supervise the Scouts. And they are limiting the number of camp outs they go on since the adults sleep in tents, or hammocks, just like the youth, and he likes his comforts. But at home it is a different situation. The Scout may be packing his own gear, but grandparent is telling him what to bring and not bring. It is obvious extremely obvious when the Scout was doing a shakedown and kept asking the grandparent what a piece of gear is that he

Great question. Quick and easy answer is : IT. IS. NOT. SCOUTING! (bold and cap for major emphasis and not shouting) Detailed Answer. I do not know when exactly the shift occurred, But when I took Cub Scout Basic Leader Training way back in the day, and when I taught Webelos Den Leader Specific Training, there was an emphasis on transitioning from Cub Scouts to then Boy Scouts. The syllabi discussed how you needed to give them more and more responsibility, start letting them do things for themselves, and getting away from parents signing off on advancement. That is when the "whi