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Venture Crew... w/ or w/o Girls? What's your take??


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I just got back from a differant thread where I realized that Joni was not a youth member. Sorry ,it must be my inability to gauge the age of member on this forum. I was under the impression that she was a "under 21 female" and was not being allowed into a crew.

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I think I should preface by saying the Venture Crew itself has not even been formed yet. I am an MC for the Trop. We have a few Eagle Scouts in our Troop, one of whom is the SM's son and is about to turn 18. He and some of the others in his Patrol are interested in either working a Venture Patrol within the Troop with the 18yr old as the Leader or taking up the responsibility of a new unit altogether and forming a Crew.

 

They have the makings of a Venture Patrol right now, until the boy turns 18. They would like to get with the local Senior Girl Scout Troop and do some hiking, camping, backpacking, etc. The volunteer Crew Advisor, who also serves on our Troop Committee has apparently had a bad experience in the past with Venture Crews that had girls and has basically boycotted the idea of having girls participate. The boys prefer otherwise. I've told the boys that they need to work it out with the Advisor. Either respectfully ask the Advisor to reconsider his position or politely inform him that we are Boy-led and if he can't agree to what they want, perhaps he should step down. I think he'll only be a hindrance to the Crew if he's against something so strongly that the BSA clearly allows and facilitates.

 

The need for a female leader would be met on any overnighters. The 18yr old's mother is a Troop Committee Member as well as myself. Also, the Senior Girl Scout Troop's Co-Advisor has two boys in our Troop (You know how it is, small Scouting world) Anyway I have not gotten too deeply involved in the politics on this issue, just thought I would pose the questions on this forum to gain a deeper understanding of those both for and against young ladies in the Venture Crews.

 

Thanks All!

 

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It's up to the Chartered Organization to decide if they'll allow Girls or not.

 

I have a Co-ed Venturing Crew since 1997 when it was an Exploring Post then. From experience, the girls have always been in charge in our Crew. I don't know why that happens. Maybe because there are more girls than guys. Most of the guys seem to just hangout since they've done their Leadership time in the Troop.

 

There are times when the guys just want to be with the guys and likewise with the girls.

 

Like others with Crews, It is hard to get 21+ yo female leaders. We also scramble to find one. Like OGE, we normally piggy back with another crew that has a female leader. When we have a female leader then they piggy back on us. It works.

 

Times are changing and it won't belong before we see young ladies in the troops and then in the packs. I'll say within the next 25 years. It'll be like the Venturing Crews with the Chartered Organizations deciding if they'll be Co-ed or not. If and when that time comes will be very interesting. I'm not gonna sweat over it.

 

 

Matua

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I think the crew should be co-ed. Thet's my personal, unvarnished, not coming from any sort of official thinking, just my personal opinion.

 

I think the High School years can be a great time for young men and women to get to know one anotehr outside of dating or school situations, and work together as people of two different genders in a supervised situation.

 

Let the boys learn that girls are human, and are extremely capable. Let the girls learn that boys can also appreciate a sunset, and sometimes be afraid when a big storm is looming over the campsite.

 

Perhaps I'm overly romantic, but I think a properly run Venturing program can be a great enhancement to social development between young men and women.

 

DS

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I am a girl and I am in Venturing. Plus I am also president of my Venture Crew. I do not understand why people wouldn't want girls in the venturing program.

 

Personally what I think it is all aot is that boys are affraid to have a girl be in scouting. Girls are supposed to sell cookies and do the girl things, and they do not think that they can go camping and hiking and all the other stuff boy scouts do.

 

In my Crew we have one girl has gotten the Ranger Award. Now I don't know about you but that is pretty darn good. Why not let a girl have the same opportunities as boys?

 

About the whole co-ed/camp out stuff. Everyone knows that it is in the by-laws that you can not have co-ed buddies, and that someone of one gender and not be in the living quartes of the other gender. Actually my crew didn't have its own by-laws so me and the vice president of my crew (who is a boy) wrote them ourselves. And we made it very clear that the co-ed buddies were not allowed!

 

Being a girl in the Boy Scouts of America really makes me enjoy it even more. I'm doing something not alot of people know about. I don't think that just being a girl should have any say it whether or not we are capable of doing something.

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Only once have I seen a problem in a co-ed activity in Exploring (which was the program predecessor of Venturing). It was at summer camp and involved a provisional Explorer post formed to accomodate any teenager who wanted to come to camp for a week.

 

The Exploring exec told me that he had to do "chastity patrols" every evening and have the "breakfast club" every morning.

 

However, this was NOT a standard Post (which would now be called a Crew.) It was a group thrown together just for this camp.

 

All the other coed Crews (or Explorer Posts) I have been involved with were outstanding and had no problems. Including the one where my daughter was a member.

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