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Has anyone run into the problem of resentment towards a new venture crew from the troop which it originated? It's a small crew, all male and they are still registered in the troop. Basically it was a venture patrol which was headed in the venturing direction at breakneck speed. Is it a normal reaction for some adults from the troop to feel this resentment?

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I dont' know about "normal" but many Troop leaders view Venture Crews as competitors.

 

Competition can be healthy! As someone once said, build a good program and they will come!

 

The reaction of a first born to a new baby brother or sister is similar. Can you imagine your response if your husband came home one day and told you that he loved you so much and that having a wife was so wonderful he was going to get another one?

 

The troop members may have feelings of abandonment. The new crew may be still registered with the troop, but are they active (please, no debates on the active definition) with the troop? If not, the resentment may grow. Good luck.

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Been there on the "active" thing so know what you mean. All crew members are either eagle or life. We meet on the same night, want to offer what we can to the younger scouts and also want the remaining troop's older scouts to step up their leadership. SPL is in the crew, very active as SPL. Quartermaster is also in the crew, planning to train a new one. Can certainly understand the abandonment feeling. The scouts seem fine with it, it's a small handful of adults, so maybe it's just going to be a matter of time to digest the newness of it. Just don't want it to start to bleed over to others.

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I feel you need to change the night of your meeting for the venture crew since they are "active" in both. How do you make them choose? They choose the troop because they are leaders, then they let down the crew when they cant do anything because they arent able to plan anything. and vise versa.

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I started a post with following quote, and I do again, "Out of the mouths of babes..."

 

And Hops, I hope you realize I dont think of you as a baby, just as very young with a lot of peceptive skill.

 

I think Hops is dead on, change the night of the Crew Meeting to another day would certainly help out the situation

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Our new Crew and our Troop meet on different nights. We are joined at the hip. The Troop's SM is my Associate Advisor, as I serve as his ASM. Works like a charm.

 

The Crew Backpaced in June. 8 miles the first day and 7 the second. The Troop camped at each location the Crew backpacked to. Worked perfectly.

 

Hops, when's the first game? Good luck with the football career and congrats on passing that BOR!!!!

 

Pounder

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Is it resentment from the boys in the troop or from the adults?

 

It appears that all the Bronze, Gold, Silver, Ranger awards require some amount of instructing and teaching. Who better to share with and use as your class the then Troop.

 

Pounder(This message has been edited by Trail Pounder)

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We are starting a new one with explicit intentions to avoid such needless conflicts. The current SM is very supportive and as a Venture leader, I will encourage the boys with dual identities to live up to their responsibilities in the troop as well. This will be good for both groups. We also plan joint activities along the lines that Trail Pounder mentioned. I think this will encourage the younger boys to also join the Venture activities once they are ready. We already have a strong contingent of females in the crew...disappointed in GSA activities and longing to be Boy Scouts.

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packsaddle . . . you mean wanting to be Venturers,right.

 

We allow the leadership in our Venture Crew to trickle down to the Troop and Pack. So most of the Advance Scout skill intruction are taught by the Venturers.

 

Our Venturers also have their own Venture Only activities away from the Troop. This builds an incentive for the younger Scouts. There are times when all units (Crew-Troop-Pack) camp out together.

 

Havin Fun,

 

Matua

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Well...yeah. Actually a long time ago these young women wanted to do the things the Boy Scouts do but they had to wait for a Venture unit to form. Now they are older and Venturing is more suited to them. The Venture males are going to have to work hard to match the skill of these females! And so far, in a head-to-head competition my money would be on the double-x chromosomes.

Nice ideas on integrating the boys across the ages. Thanks.

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Thanks for all the input. The resentment is from adults, no boys. A very vocal parent,and the SM. It is not hard to understand I suppose. He is fairly new and getting his feet on the ground. This must feel like he's been robbed of the senior scouts. There are other scouts left in the troop who are life and star Trouble was, the venturers, when they were in the troop as a patrol, were doing all the major leadership, teaching etc. They enjoy teaching, but after awhile it can bog you down if no one else steps up to help.

 

The suggestion to move to another night came up right away, but the boys themselves want to stay where they can interact with the other boys. You are right, there are many opportunities for teaching with the requirements in venturing. Like I say, it's a small amount of adults who are unhappy. They have said nothing to the boys or we'd be gone yesterday. We want to nip it so to speak before it does filter down.

 

A positive is that several adults have said they really like the program and are glad we are there for the younger boys to see, perhaps one day they might want to go this route.

 

In the short time we've started, with these guys on a seperate track we have seen older boys from the troop step up and start to pitch in with teaching. I think once they realize the world isn't going to end without these guys, things will settle down.

 

Been in scouting long enough to know that adults don't always think before they speak.

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Well, what about staggering the meetings? Have the Crew Meeting start after the Troop meeting, that way the Crew still interacts with the troop, and have their own meeting as well. A crew member can attedn the troop meeting and the crew or just the crew

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OldGreyEagle

I think that is a possibility. We have even thought maybe at least do 1 meeting a month on a seperate night so the SPL can be there too as he is Crew also. We would like to see the crew members teaching the advanced type skills and let the troop work with the younger scouts on the basics. Thus the middle scouts for lack of a better term get the opportunity to teach skills they are comfortable teaching, and they in turn build confidence etc. What was happening; with the venturers in the troop as a patrol; was them doing all the teaching and the middle group sitting back letting it happen. By that I mean the ASMs were not doing their jobs, someone has to mentor them along and that was not happening.

I should add that the parent who is not happy with having a venture crew is also unhappy that the old SM stepped down last year and is now the crew advisor. In other words, this parent wanted the old Sm to be SM forever.

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Lots of good ideas and suggestions above. I have only one thing to add to the advice received by these struggling crews.

 

Send some adult to the nearest and fastest-coming Powderhorn course. The resources they will learn and the skills they can bring back to make sure the Venture unit is successful is mind-boggling.

 

I was the stand-in staff advisor for a Powderhorn course (run by the Region for Venturing Advisors and is an awesome course) and stopped asking questions like why I was signing a purchase order for live quail -- for the tracking portion, I found out.

 

I audited the course and found it to be terrific.

 

To find out more about Powderhorn, do a search on the internet. There are several good sites with lots of information.

 

DS

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Yo Dave, signed up to do Powderhorn this month, Sept 12-14 at Ockanickon and Sept 19-21 at Camp Minsi.

 

And while we are on the subject, a Venturing Crew doesnt have to be High Adventure (Outdoors) oriented, Crews may have a Sea Scout, Religious Life, Arts & Hobbies, or Sports focus.

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