OutdoorThinker

To answer your questions Buffalo2, and as long as you bear with me because I am relying on my memories of the event that happened almost a year ago, I won't worry about you putting me on spot. Our training was run by the adult crew advisors from the council. There were a number of crews involved. Each advisor went over a different section of the training. The training as a whole was not a failure. I think that the fact that the training was implimented and it was well attended is proof that it was a success, as you all probably know, it's difficult for those two elements to happen in Venturing Crews all the time. On the actual training events, I found that the segement we had on goal making and mission statement discussions was really interesting, because each individual thought about their own goals and mission statement, but then the topic was broadened to how it applies to the crews. Another topic that worked really well was a section on non-verbal communication and listening skills, where crew members broke into pairs, and each person had a trait of poor listening skills (like interrupting, looking around, talking to other people, getting up and pacing) taped to their forehead, without them knowing what it is...their partner was supposed to act what was on the card. It was an activity to show how frustrating it is when someone is not listening. It was fun and I think another reason it worked so well was we saw the imediate application of the task at hand. I enjoyed using the "Gettysburg" segments, but I dont know how well it went over with the other crew members. I feel that activities like the human knot, which was used at our training, was really not age appropriate and what crew member has never done the human knot? Those are the things that really stood out in my memory about my training. I would really like to hear what other people have to think on how we can better this program. If I understand correctly, there's a lot of wiggle for us all to adapt the trainings and better the program.

I survived my first camp staffing experience this summer. I served as a director at a Boy Scout Camp that I had only visited once before moving in for nine weeks. I am a Venture Crew member, and although I was a Girl Scout all my life, my gender prohibited me from being a Boy Scout as a youth. Not only did I have to get used to living in an unfamiliar place for nine weeks, but I was emerged to a culture (the Boy Scout culture) that was entirely foreign to me. I survived. I did, so, however, by thriving on mail -- both letters and packages from my family and friends. Nothing made me smile more on a stressful day than an envelope with familiar handwriting on it. In addition, the staff became a second family and we supported each other on our low days. I know that this string was started at the beginning of the summer, KMGFINEART, I hope your son enjoyed his camp staffing experience, as much as I did. I know I am looking forward to reapplying. I miss camp already!!

Eamonn you bring up some interesting points. First, one of our council's crew hurdles is not so much the small crews, but rather the crews that are not outdoor crews. We run into a lot of problems when we try to organize the youth to meet or when we try to put together programming for the Crews. Our first major council crew camping event we invited all of the crews that were registered in council, the SCUBA crews werent interested, neither were some of the arts and hobbies crews, nor were some of the other more specialized crews nor some of the camp posts. Any suggestions how we get them all to come together, a united stepchildren front rather than all of us trying to get individual attention from their parent Council? Your comment about other school activites is not ignored. My crew, too, runs into that situation all of the time. And that crazy thing called a band sucks up a lot of the fall weekends. Our policy is we run the trip with who can show up, as long as we have two deep leadership (of the appropriate gender). Finally, I agree with you fully, Venturing Crews have a long road ahead of them, but steps are being made. Baby steps as they are most of the time, but steps are being made. I've been involved in Venturing Crews for awhile now and I've seen great progress. The fact that the road is still ahead of us, should be an exhilerating feeling, though, the Venturing Crews have the oppertunity to set the tone for how crews will be for the next generation of crew members.

Our council executive has been very supportive of the Venturing movement. He really tries to listen to what the youth venturers have to say and he always lets us run with our ideas. Perhaps, it's only because he's not worrying about it, as it's our time if it fails and it makes him look good if it succeeds. But we get to have our activities. In addition, our council is making an effort to include Venturing in many of the whole council events, including a campout, where a few years ago Venturing really didn't fit in the mix. At times, I think the Venturing Program is like the stepchild of our council, trying to fit into an already established family, but at least our council executive, the venturers, and the advisors are trying to make it work.

We actually used scenes from "Gettysburg" in our training. We used some of Jeff Daniels's monologues as Chamberlain (my personal favorite soldier of the Civil War) and a second segment, perhaps with Lee, I dont remember. The film led us into decent discussions. But as I said earlier, I think the training as a whole lacked something challenging and more age appropriate.

Pounder: Yes, in fact, I, myself am working on the backpacking part of the Venturing Bronze Award.

My understanding is that merit badges are outward representations of inward growth. I think the issue at hand is how much the scouts are learning from their merit badges, advancements and camping experiences and ultimately how much the scout is enjoying what he is learning, not how many badges he can rake in during a week of camp or how many eagles a troop has.

I am new on the forum and I am sorry I didnt get to post about backpacking while it was fresh. My coed crew loves backpacking and often it's the girls that initiate the backpacking trips. Not only do the girls carry their share of the weight, they are usually in lead positions on the hikes. I wouldn't want to see the reprecussions of questioning their will and strength. On activities that work our crew does a lot of climbing, both indoor and outdoor, as well as biking, and white water rafting.

The VLSC that my crew was involved in was organized by the advisors with a module from Council or National, I assume. Our course was done in a lock in also. We, the crew members, found that a lot of the training was rehashing of leadership skills that had been stated in Boy and Girl leadership trainings. Needless to say, we were trained, but the training as a whole was lacking something age appropriate and challenging.