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Why not do both? My venture crew is also a Sea Scout ship. We follow Venturing Advancement and then we also follow Sea Scout advancement. During some parts of the year we concentrate on Sea Scouts and some parts of the year we concentrate on Venturing. Since we are a very active crew most of what we did as Venturers counts towards Sea Scout Advancement. During our meetings we either split time between working on Sea Scout stuff and Venturing stuff or we alternate meetings. This seems to work out the best with peoples intrests.

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I've been trying to reply for a while. We'll see if it takes my post this time. In general your link is how we see things. If your kids and the CO is after a specialty program focused on aquatic skills, be a ship. If they want to specialize in something land based (outdoors, sports, youth ministry, a hobby, etc ..), or be more general interest (like ours) and evolve their program in various directions over time, be a crew.

 

Also, what do the youth in your community need? If there already is a vibrant sailing community with a youth program (as we have just an hour north of us), you probably don't need to fill that niche. Some units have tried to form ships along our three rivers (I met one youth who was a member of several crews and a ship), but they haven't held together for very long. Boating is a subculture here, so only a few kids really see it as something they want to commit to. But, if you've got that few kids who are really interested (and maybe someone who'll donate the slip and the water craft), it may be the ideal program for you.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Does the opportunity for rank advancement in Sea Scouts as opposed to Venturing make a difference? In a community where there is a focus on college application resume padding, might a Ship that let's you earn both Venturing Awards AND Sea Scout Ranks/Awards help you with parental support for their kids involvement?

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A large portion of my community is college bound, and I have yet to have a youth or parent come to me enthused about getting a medal for all of this.

 

I've only met one youth who was in a ship and a couple of crews (at the same time), and the guy just loved earning medals! But, I don't think he did either program for the purpose of awards. (The cool uniforms, maybe.)

 

Just like in Troops, youth get sick of participating if their folks are making it all about the awards. They don't get sick of a unit that accomplishes stuff like activities and cool service projects. So, I pitch program more than awards. Simply put, I did not have the skills or connections to promote nautical activities, so starting crew was the most sensible thing for me to do. Now if I had a committee member come to me and say, "I have a slip on the river, and have acquired a sternwheeler..."

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm a bit late to this party, but I have to put in a good word for starting a Sea Scout Ship. Sea Scouts is absolutely the best program in scouting. Sea Scouts gives you all the benefits of Venturing, the community service, the moral compass, the camaraderie with your crew, all the things that people join scouting to get, but we also give you marketable job skills and a super awesome hobby. In Sea Scouts you learn a whole range of skills including how to drive and sail a boat (captain for hire, working in shipping, teaching sailing), welding, how to paint using two part epoxy primers, rigging, diesel mechanics. All of these skills are job opportunities in the making. Whether a scout is looking for a summer job, or their college plans don't work out, or they may even choose to make a career out of it.

 

I think Sea Scouts does a much better job of improving teenagers social skills too. There is nothing like cramming 34 kids and 8 adults onto one 65 foot boat for teaching people how to get along, and for making the best of friends.

 

All in all Sea Scouts Rocks!! You should start a ship.

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