SFmike

OK so the Silver Award is the highest Venturing Award, So What's your point? THe Ranger Award is harder to earn than the Silver is... How about the Sea Scout Quartermaster Award? If Sea Scouts are a part of Venturing and Sea Scouts are one of five specialty areas of Venturing, isn't the Quartermaster Award then a Specialty Award under the Venturing Silver Award? Why does the Quartermaster Award rate a knot and not the Ranger, Quest or any other specialty award? SFMike

The Quartermaster Award may be the toughest award to earn, but it is not an award that the usual Venturer would try for. My point was that of the awards that my crew members had experienced, the Ranger award was the hardest. SFMike

emb021, The arrogance, IMO, lied with the Commissioner, a stranger to the boys, who stepped in to "their" ceremony and started pointing out errors or perceived errors on their part. If he had any tact, he would have quietly pointed out any errors or uniform problems to the SM and let him make corrections at an appropriate time. My son was not a smart___, but he did stand up for himself. He felt that the World Crest was a proper uniform adornment, but that the World Conservation Award also included the World Crest and conveyed a message beyond that of the World Crest. He wore the Venturing version of the World Conservation Award on his Green Venturing shirt as well. Chris was an Eagle Scout with nine palms, he held the Explorer G.O.L.D. award, the Congressional Bronze, Silver and Gold Medals, the Hornady Medal. the BSA Honor Medal and the Venturing Silver and Ranger Medals. He was a Vigil Honor member of OA and his last award from BSA was the Spirit of the Eagle Award. He wasn't arrogant.

There are a number of Eagle Scouts that I have encountered who are fine, knowledgable Eagle Scouts and there are some who are "Paper Eagles". One of these, "Wes", came to our troop as a 16 year old Second Class Scout from his fourth troop. His dad immediately offered himself as an ASM. Dad was told to complete "Fast Start" and "Adult Leader Training" and then we would talk to him about being an ASM. Wes had a session on knots that first night and completed his last requirement for First Class. He asked about merit badges and was given a council merit badge counselors list and an explaination of how to make an appointment with a counselor. Wes was placed into a Patrol where he immediately talked the 12 year old Patrol Leader into making him an Assistant Patrol Leader. Many of the boys in the troop attended a week long Council JLT Camp at the beginning of the Summer, but not Wes. Wes did go to Summer Camp with the troop but spent his time earning merit badges (7) and sleeping in a tent by himself. Every meeting, Wes would turn in blue cards for merit badges that his Mom or Dad signed off. (They had registered with the council as MBCs.) Wes was elected as Patrol Leader and later as SPL. He eventually fulfilled the requirements for Eagle Scout and when it was awarded, he immediately quit the troop and he and his Dad, formed another troop in another community. Meanwhile, the older boys from our troop along with other youth formed a Venturing Crew of seven females and 5 males. (All five of the males were Eagle Scouts.) The Venturing crew was on a high adventure weekend outing at a National Guard training base, climbing an obstacle on the confidence course when Wes and six Boy Scouts, accompanied by 8 Webelos came onto the course. Wes started making fun of the female Venturers and laughing at the males for being "saddled with girls". Rebecca, went to Wes and offered up a challenge. If Wes would organize a patrol of five Scouts and get them to the top of a five story obstacle faster than she could take the female Venturers up the same obstacle, than she and all of the females would go home. If not, then Wes would have to leave the area and keep his mouth shut. Becky gave Wes a 120 foot climbing rope and five swiss seats and carabiners. Wes needed instruction on how to tie a swiss seat and Rebecca showed the Boy Scouts. When they were ready to go, Becky inspected the Swiss Seats and found that Wes had tied a "Granny" knot instead of a square knot. Once this was corrected Wes and his patrol started to climb the obsatcle. This particular obstacle has five stories, starting at five foot six inches and getting six inches higher on each story. Wes and his patrol managed four stories in 90 minutes and came down without attempting the fifth story. Rebecca, Jamie, Debbi, Jenn and Liz went up the entire five stories in 18 minutes. Teamwork and practice had a lot to do with it. Can you imagine an Eagle Scout who couldn't tie a square knot? Paper Eagle Mike

My crew wears the green shirt/grey shorts traditional Venturing uniform. My question is do the youth wear knot awards or patches for their awards? Example One - Chris (age 20) is an Eagle Scout, was a Cub Scout with the Arrow of Light Award, earned the Hornaday Award and The Honor Award as a Boy Scout. He was awarded the Explorer G.O.L.D. Award and as a Venturer, he has been awarded the Silver Award, The Ranger Award, and the Venturing Leadership Award. What knots does he wear? Mike

My (then) 11 year old son was at his Court of Honor to receive his Star Rank when a Commissioner announced that he wanted to inspect the troop. This commissioner went up and down the ranks pointing out uniform errors to the Scoutmaster. These were mostly very minor such as an out of date Quality Unit Award patch and a boy wearing his three year pin without the colored plastic backing. When he got to my son, he mentioned that my boy was wearing a Boy Scout Conservation Award patch where the International Scouting emblem belonged. My son replied that the Boy Scout Conservation Award included the international emblem and besides, unless the commissioner paid for the uniform, he had no right to say what was and wasn't wrong with it. A year later, my son went to his Eagle Scout Board of Review and wore the same shirt with the same patch sewn in the same place. The commissioner was a member of the BOR and never mentioned this uniform gaffe. The point is, the one who owns the uniform has the right to wear it as he sees fit. The "Uniform Police" have no official standing and no right to enforce uniform regulations.

I have been a Venturing Advisor since the program began in 1998. I started with a crew of 12 youth (7 females and 5 males)and had five youth attain the Silver Award and seven attain the Ranger Award in August 1999. All five of the male members of my crew were Eagle Scouts. By far, the concensus of the crew was that the Ranger Award was the most difficult to earn of all of the Scouting awards (Eagle Scout GSUSA Gold Award, and Silver Award). SFMike