Scoutmaster/ Trainer

[jshupe391]

What are your thoughts of having Venture Scouters or Older Youth Scouts (18 years of age or younger) as adult trainers for Scoutmaster Essentials, Outdoor Leader Skills, etc?

[emb021]

Let's work on the terminology. Its not clear what you mean by "Venture Scouters" or "Older Youth Scouts".

 

Are you speaking of Venturers, who are the youth members of Venturing (14-21)? Keep in mind that many of these youth have no prior scouting experience, and not all Venturers are knowledgable about outdoor skills.

 

Are you speaking of the adult leaders of Venturing, Venturing advisors? Also, keep in mind that they may not have prior scouting experience or outdoor skills.

 

Are your speaking of the adult leaders for a Venture Patrol? These people are just Boy Scout leaders.

 

Those involved in Boy Scouts who are 18 or older are Scouters.

 

Now, who might be good trainers for SME or OLS?

 

Yes, Venturers who have excellent outdoor skills and good teaching skills could be excellent OLS instructors. The same could be true of younger scoutmasters IF they have outdoor skills.

[jshupe391]

These are Venture Youth.... coed, less than 18 years of age.

[epalmer84]

This terminology has been a problem over the last ten years:

*Venture Scouts is not a BSA program

*The Venture patrol is a program within a Boy Scout troop for older boys 14 to 18; members are called Boy Scouts

*Venturing is a membership division for young men and women ages 14 through 21; members are Venturers

 

Getting past that, it sounds like you have a Venturing crew. If you have Venturers with the proper skills and teaching ability, then my opinion would be to use them. Venturing youth can be used as instructors in some of the Wood Badge sessions, so I don't see a problem. This needs to be coordinated with the course director.

 

Ed

[emb021]

"These are Venture Youth.... coed, less than 18 years of age."

 

Please note epalmer84 post. Again, you're confusing terms.

 

"Venture Youth" are Boy Scouts involved in a Venture Patrol within a Troop. Properly, they are called Boy Scouts. They are not co-ed.

 

Venturers are the youth involved in Venturing Crews. They are co-ed and range in age from 18-21. Please don't call them 'venture scouts' or 'venture youth' or the like.

 

Its important not to confuse 'Venture' and 'Venturing'. The terms are not interchangable.

 

Adding to epalmer84's post, Venturers are supposed to be involved with the second weekend of Wood Badge, working with the WB patrols. Sadly, in some councils they instead use Arrowmen. They should be using Venturers, both boys and girls. Doing so makes a big impact on the participants who have little or no experience or knowledge of Venturing.