Dcarleton 10 Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 This is my first time here so hope this is correct. I have a question. In my council and others in the West I am starting to hear this kind of talk. When it comes to these two program, and it concerns me. In my opinion about the only thing these programs have in common is some high adventure activities. I say some because Venturer's can do much more then Varsity. I have training chairs that believe coach's should be trained with advisors and not scoutmaster's. I think they should all have seperste training but if you have to combine at least stay in the same division. This is just one example of many I am hearing. To me it is taking away from a great program. Am I out in left field or what? Help me I see this as a real problem. Link to post Share on other sites
fboisseau 10 Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 I have not done much studing on the Varsity program, but my understanding of them does not suggest that Varisty and Venturing are close enought to combine. Venturing is a geared towards older youth that specialize in an area of interest, that could include a sport, but most likely does not. Varsity Scouting from what I understand is basicaly a Boy Scout troop that also competes in a sport durring the season and works on Boy Scout items durring the off season. Link to post Share on other sites
NJCubScouter 1389 Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 How many Varsity units are there, anyway? I have never seen or heard of one, and although I can't claim to have read every post in this forum, I have read a lot, and until the first post in this thread I have never seen anyone acknowledge being aware of any actual Varsity units. Nor have I heard any mention of actual units in either of the 2 other online Scouting forums I have participated in. (I did once see a boy wearing a uniform with "blaze" shoulder loops, and since he was on staff at a Cub Scouting event, I got a chance to talk to him. Turns out he actually was a member of a Venture patrol in a Boy Scout troop, but his SM had him wearing the wrong color loops (they should have been red). But I decided that I was not the one to tell him that.) Link to post Share on other sites
Eamonn 61 Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 We do not have any Varsity Units/ Teams in our Council and to tell the truth I don't know very much about them other then what is covered in the Wood Badge course. I have been given to understand that they are very active out west and the LDS Church is the chartered partner for a good many. Varsity and the LDS Church do not allow females into the program. Of course I am aware that crews do not have to be coed still I don't think that we need to combine the two programs. Venturing will take off in time and the Varsity Scouts seem happy doing whatever it is that they do. Welcome to the forums. Eamonn Link to post Share on other sites
scoutldr 726 Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 Varsity, Venturing, Exploring, Learning for Life, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Order of the Arrow, Mic-O-Say, etc. Seems to me we are trying too hard to fill every perceived gap in a youth's (and volunteer's) time. Like many corporations, it is my opinion that BSA needs to re-examine it's mission and return to it's core business. As the Department of Defense is realizing, by devoting infrastructure and resources to activities that do little to advance the core mission (warfighting), it dilutes the ability to complete that mission. Many councils are being forced to sell their council camps in order to remain financially solvent. In my opinion, their priorities need to be rearranged. Link to post Share on other sites
buffalo2 14 Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 Haven't looked too closely at the new Venture Quest program but looks like that the direction they're heading in... Link to post Share on other sites
NeilLup 13 Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 Hello Dcarlton, Welcome to the forum. I understand that almost 95% of Varsity units are chartered to the LDS church. The Varsity program is designed to meet some very targeted program needs of that church and it does that very well. It really has not had much usage outside the LDS church. Varsity units are part of Boy Scouting at this time. Venturing is a separate program. It is possible that Varsity could, at some point, become part of Venturing. However, unless something changed in the BSA or in the LDS church, it still would be essentially what it is now because that is the program of value to the LDS church. It would have no impact on the other sub-specialties available in Venturing -- high adventure, Sea Scouting, religious training, etc. I wouldn't get particularly worked up about it. My observation is that LDS Scouting happens and neither increases nor decreases much based on influences outside the LDS church. Unless you are a member and leader in that church, you won't have a big impact. But it won't matter. You can have a big impact on Scouting and Venturing elsewhere and that is where you should concentrate. Link to post Share on other sites
dana_renner 11 Posted February 5, 2004 Share Posted February 5, 2004 Varsity and Venturing could probably be put together in a program but a few questions first, would it be co-ed, would it be under the Boy Scout Division or go to the Venturing Division, would it just be the Sports and Outdoor clusters that would be a part of this, would it appeal on a much broader level to being chartered by more organizations, the LDS sponsors many Teams, Would the unit be known still as a crew or still a team, or would it be absorbed by Venturing or would Venturing create a different program using much of Varsity's program then incorporate the Venturing Advancement program, would it greatly influence the crews that are operating now,Iguess that these and many other questions would be answered by BSA further up the line, or the changes and differences would be seen, Varsity can work closely with Venturing and it is recommended in their Guidebook, Venturing can use the Program Guides for many of it's activities, Link to post Share on other sites
dana_renner 11 Posted February 9, 2004 Share Posted February 9, 2004 Varsity and Venturing could combine, maybe in Venturing's Sports and Outdoor clusters, also in Religious Life since the LDS church has worked with it for the many years that it has been around,But many other churches could charter teams, and in the case of venturing, crews, but retain a spruce green shirt, go from male, also go co-ed and use Venturing Insignia but maybe retain the team concept, just insert a Venturing logo on the badges of office, Link to post Share on other sites
matuawarrior 10 Posted February 9, 2004 Share Posted February 9, 2004 dana_renner, What's up with the double posting in all your postings? You maybe double clicking the "Submit Your Message" bar. You only to click once. Matua Link to post Share on other sites
Region 7 Voyageur 10 Posted February 9, 2004 Share Posted February 9, 2004 dana_renner, What is up with your grammar, lack of sentence structure, irregular capitalization and punctuation? Your posts are very hard to read. Link to post Share on other sites
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