Venture Patrols

[Roy259 10]

My Troop recently took our older boys, aged 15 and up and Life rank, and formed a Venture Patrol. This patrol meets on its own, and does its own outings. Then only time they meet with the rest of the troop is if they are requested to help teach a skill. I have an ASM that is their leader, and a committee member is his assistant. NOW, my question. Does anybody else have such an arrangement in their troop? If so, what are the guidelines and regulations for them? The reasons I wanted this seperate patrol is because these older boys were board stiff with the regular meetings, and were disrupting more than they were helping. Also, I thought the ones that were almost Eagle could have time to work on their stuff, and the ones that are Eagle could work on palms. I have a new group of boys that I will soon be recommending to the venture patrol, but I reall wanted a set guideline/policy before they started. Your input is appreciated!

[k9gold-scout 10]

Look at a Venture Crew, many Scoutmasters are relucant to start a seperate Crew bacause it gives the control to the scouts themselves. They vote, plan, and do everything with little adult advice. It is really weorth the effort.

[buffalo2 14]

One of the things I think needs to happen on this is that the Venture Patrol members must remember that they are a significant element of the Troop, and CAN offer much more than they would give themselves credit for. These Scouts are on the high end of the food chain now, and should understand that their unique skills and abilities are needed and that they now have the opportunity to give back some of what makes them what they are.

 

Maybe what you could do is to require say 50% of the Venture Patrollers to attend Troop meetings and regular outings, and let them figger out who and when. They should have representation at your PLCs, and be a substantial presence on your Instructor and Guide staffs. Their Venture Patrol meetings and training should be scheduled around the Troop's regular activities.

 

Perhaps another way of smoothly integrating this into the Troop program is to run it on a by-event basis, so that the membership is revolving a bit. Again it is important to make this a supplement to the normal Troop program instead of a replacement.

If you're running at 3 or 4 Venture Patrol activities a year (be they larger or smaller) things should stay pretty fresh and flexible...

 

Having said all that I can't get the buy-in from our SM, who does an excellent job and supports an annual High Adventure activity

Go figger