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OT, Why not Venturing?


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OT,

 

In previous posts, you said you couldn't wait to get started in Venturing but now you're "not to keen" on it. So I was wondering, what is it about Venturing that you, and others, don't find appealing?

 

This open to all. I know SMs who LOVE the idea of Venturing, and others who believe it is the downfall of civilization as we know it. What are the things about this program that should be changed or make it unattractive to youth.

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Well ntrog8r, this applies to me personally, but I'm a girl that needs alot of structure. I'm appealed to the rank advancements in Boy Scouts/ Cub Scout, and Venturing doesn't have that. Also,Venturing isn't that known in my area, so it'd be difficult to start a Crew (none in my area). I don't wanna be the crew that dies out after a year.

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You want structure? Design a schedule that will gget you an Outdoor Bronze in a year, and the Ranger in two. After that schedule yourself for the Gold and Silver. While doing the Gold and Silver fit in the Bronze for Religious Life, Sports, and Arts and Hobbies. Now that would be structure.

 

Finding a Crew? That is a whole nother kettle of fish

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As OGE noted, there IS structure IF the members of the crew want it.

 

Venturing has an advancement program of Bronze, Gold and Silver, plus the expert awards of Ranger, Quest, and TRUST. Some youth go after those, some don't. Most crews don't structure their program to earn them, some do. There are Venturers who get some of the awards, get all of them, and get none of them. But all enjoyed themselves in Venturing.

 

Venturing is dealing with a different age group them most troops. We are dealing with high school & college age youth, who many timed don't want a rigid structure where others are dictating what they should do.

 

 

As to crews. Crews that survive and thrive are those who work to make themselves known and recruit new people. The ones who die are usually the ones formed by a group of friends who treat the crew as their private club, with no interest to get others involved. When they get bored or age out, it dies.

 

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Our troop had a crew attached to it (founded by one of our leaders who wanted to get her daughter involved), I was even a member for first two meetings (I then had to drop out because Boy Scouts, hockey, and playing in a band were eating my time up). The crew went along in spurts for about eight years until it finally collapsed last year, much to the dissapointment of the girl running it (who was 15) and really killing herself to try to hold it together.

 

Our biggest problem was that most sucessful venture crews seemed to be based around offering a high adventure alternative to the regular Scout program, and we had a high adventure Scout program starting from the get-go when a kid joined at age 11. By the time most of the Scouts made it to high school and Crew, they did not have a whole lot of free time (they all had music, sports, homework, etc). The majority of Crew members ended up getting their high adventure fix from the troop, and skipping the "extra" high adventure opportunities with crew. The 1-3 girls didn't have that option, so they would get frustrated at having to cancel activities.

 

The eventual "solution" that someone came up with was to make the crew into a club where they saw movies, had pool parties, and shot pool. This killed it within a year, because teenagers can do all of that stuff anyway with the same exact people without crew advisers along for the ride.

 

The girl that ran crew is now attempting colorguard instead, and not really enjoying her new activity. The part that kills me is she is tougher than some of the guys her age and, if not for her being the "wrong" sex, would make one helluva Boy Scout. There are two younger sisters of kids in the troop now (one in 3rd grade, one in 4th grade, each of whom I've known since they were five years old) who I can already see are going to have the exact same problem.

 

Despite the headaches, extra amounts of training, and paranoia that it would 'cause me, there are times that I wish that the Boy Scouts of America, like Boy Scouting organizations in some other countries, would allow girls to join.

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"Despite the headaches, extra amounts of training, and paranoia that it would 'cause me, there are times that I wish that the Boy Scouts of America, like Boy Scouting organizations in some other countries, would allow girls to join."

 

The BSA does allow girls to join. Venturing is co-ed.

 

What the BSA does that other scouting orgs doesn't, is overlap the program. In other countries, the equivalent to scout troops ends at 14 or so, and the youth have to then move into the next section for 14-18 age youth. If Boy Scout Troops ended at 14 or 15, that would really help.

 

 

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Jersey, It's kind of late for a solution to the crew sinking, but the problem is obvious to me. The boys were in two separate scout units. That's like being in two separate school marching bands. After a while most of those involved will pick one and let the other go. For the Crew to succeed it can't be relying on those with a sit loyalty.

 

Our Crew are former members of the Troop and often support the Troop in training younger scouts but they are members of the Crew. I believe that's why BSA made the rule that scouts who join Ventures and are at least 1st Class can continue advancement solely through activity in their new unit, which many times even has the same unit number on their shoulder as their old unit.

 

So they don't have to attend with their old group for advancement and the new group for high adventure.

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emb nailed it by noting the problem of Venturing overlap with Boy Scouts. The boys have split loyalties between the troop and crew. And it really takes a special kind of girl to want to break into Venturing. That's not meant to be sexist. You don't see many boys with no BSA experience joining crews either.

 

Too many crews are formed as a subsidiary of a Boy Scout troop. Honestly, many of them are formed to accommodate district unit recruitment goals, not any real passion for the program (but that's another thread). The one truely successful Venturing crew in our area was advised by a college professor who ran it totally indendently of the Boy Scout program. That he was able to recruit college-aged boys and girls was a big plus, too.

 

And that's the other issue. The typical "career track" of youth in the US is to graduate high school and go away to college. This makes the effective age limit of crew members 18. Again, the above crew was successful because they were able to recruit from the local university (and may have met on campus, I'm not sure).

 

I had a long conversation with a SM and his 20 y.o. son from the UK about this. They were very clear that one of the big reasons Rover Scouts (more or less the age-equivalent program in the UK) is as successful as it is there is because youth there don't tend to go great distances away from home to attend college. (Hey, the country is an island, they don't tend to do much of anything at great distances.) This fellow went to a university close enough to home that he still attended most Scout group functions. And that was true of most of the college-aged kids in their group.

 

Unless BSA is going to make a commitment to organizing crews on college campuses so that Venturers can seamlessly move back and forth between their units at home and at school(and given the 3G issues that seems unlikely) I don't see this issue being overcome.

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Thanks! It seems like I might have to start my own crew, which I don't want to do lol.The largest crew in my district went from 18 to 7 to 4... to none. I agree with UK's co-ed program, but the uniforms look like a McDonald's burger flipping uniform :p

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Thanks! It seems like I might have to start my own crew, which I don't want to do lol.The largest crew in my district went from 18 to 7 to 4... to none. I agree with UK's co-ed program, but the uniforms look like a McDonald's burger flipping uniform :p

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OT, don't say that too loud.

 

This summer, two Rovers from the UK were on camp staff at the Reservation I do commissioner service at: One guy, one gal.

 

They had a fantastic summer, and at staff banquet, dressed out in full uniform (as were all the staff) they stood every bit as tall with the pride earned in their summer of work.

 

Of course, they had reason to be proud: They got staff scholarships too.

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