Ranger Award & Other Stuff.

[Eamonn]

I don't know why? But I seem to have a knack of landing myself with extra things to do.

One of the reasons why I got involved with the Sea Scouting program (Other than some Lads thought it looked cool?) Was that I thought and still think that the Council that is lucky enough to have me does a poor job of doing anything for the older kids in the Council. Not just older Scouts but older kids.

While I'm sure that in some parts of the country the Girl Scouts are doing a wonderful job, that isn't the case in our area.

As ever I have been very vocal about my feeling.

I met with our Council Key 3.

Needless to say they seen starting more Crews as the answer!!

I very respectfully informed them that they were nuts. That the number of Crews was in fact part of the problem. I explained and pointed out that while we have 20 Venturing Units on paper, nothing is happening. As I expected they said in a very polite way that I was full of beans.

I asked our Council Commissioner what methods he used to judge the health of a unit? He said membership, Quality Unit, advancement.

My comment that I thought the membership reports were flawed didn't sit very well.

I had done my home work and met with the Registrar last year no Crew made quality unit!

There is no record of any Venturer earning any advancement (Come on 20 Crews surely there should be something?)

The only Tour permits issued this year not to a pack or a Troop wee to the Sea Scout Ship. The only money earning application submitted was from the Sea Scout Ship.

The Council President isn't what you might call a program type, but even he had to admit something was "Fishy"

The SE tried to explain to the President (Who really doesn't know how things work -The SE likes it that way!) That many of the Venturers are active in or with Boy Scout Troops.

I really wasn't trying to cause him any real embarrassment. My point was that we as a Council really had to start providing some sort of a program for older Scouts and the older youth in the area.

Nearly all of the Crews in the Council share the same CO as Boy Scout Troops with the same number. While a good number of these CO are churches, as far as I know none are what might be called part of the church youth group -If you get my meaning.

I explained this to the Council Commissioner and President, so while maybe there might be a couple of Crews that have some off the wall special interest, nearly all would be what I'd term general interest.

We came away with a plan to invite each and every Venturer in the Council to start working on the Ranger Award.

I agreed to try and set up whatever was needed to help them meet the core requirements. (So far only two Crews have shown any interest -But we are going to invite the kids not the unit.)

 

What is it with Venturing and all these Table Top presentations?

Any way so far.

First Aid:

The local Red Cross is being very helpful, but still want to charge $25.00 per person.

They are also willing to help with the Emergency Preparedness

We are using the same fellow who covered the Emergency Preparedness requirements for the Jambo.

Cooking:

We can cover the requirements and demonstrate them but they will need to do the cooking with their home unit.

Land Navigation

We can do all the requirements, but they will have to set up the teach the navigating skills on their own

Wilderness Survival

We can cover most of what is needed, but I think we are going to have to get some help with Search and rescue patterns and they will need to Write a risk management plan for an upcoming crew high adventure activity with their home unit. Who knows this might be what they need to start doing things?

Leave No Trace

I'm thinking about taking the Trainers course (Not Master) Has anyone taken this and is it worth while? On the LNT Web page they say that there is a chance that we might be able to get a Master to come and run a course.

There is a weekend course in VA later this year. It isn't that expensive.

I'm thinking that next year we might request a visit from the Traveling Trainers.

Communications.

I think we will will just explain the requirements and let them work on that with their Crew.

Some of the Sea Scouts are thinking about which

electives they want to try.

I don't plan on trying to help the Venturers from other Crews.

Not that I'm trying to be mean, but the hope is that when they have the core requirements done they will go back and start planning their own activities.

Me and my big mouth!!

Eamonn.

 

 

[CNYScouter]

Eamonn,

 

I am beginning to understand what you are going through as I am running into the same issues.

One of the things my son has asked was about having competitions with other crews.

 

It seems that our council tried to organize Venturing events but couldnt get any crews to attend. The same thing happened to Venturing Roundtables.

 

Now that we have a the ship and few crews not associated with Troops they may try again but this is something I will have be the driving force behind if it is going to happen.

 

I am not sure about Venturing Advancement awards in our council but it wouldnt surprise me if the same thing were true here also.

 

Let us know if you are successful in getting Crews interested in doing Advancement.

 

I remember from training that it was said that the more successful Crews are the ones that work on the Venturing Awards.

 

Im curious, why did the ship select the Ranger Award over Sea Scout advancement?

 

[OldGreyEagle]

The great thing about this forum is that we get to see how other people do the same, or almost the same thing in other parts of the country, or state in this case.

 

In the Council I serve, Venturing Recognitions (I call them recognitions as there are no ranks in Venturing) are quite scarce as well. When Venturing was first talked about, it was the flexibility of the program that attracted many of the first crew members and adults. The fact that advancement was not a method was advertised and darn it if it didnt resonate with a few crews. Crews were formed to "do things" not to work on awards, in the Crew I serve the charter members were composed of 5 Eagle Scouts and 5 Girl Scout Gold and a Silver, the last thing this group wanted was to work on more requirements, they just wanted to "do".

 

The flexibility of the Venturing program also attracted adults who were tired of the, excuse the expression "boy scoutyness" of the District. Having District and Council events and attending Roundtables doesnt appeal to a lot of people and in this area, these were the ones who gravitated to Venturing. So, after 6 years or so, the Council wants to know why there aren't recognitions being awarded in Venturing and why there are no Roundtables and the answer is, thats not the way the program was marketed. If indeed Venturing is Non-Traditional (and it most assuredly is) then how can traditional measurements (recognitions earned, Roundtables attended) be used to measure its success?

[SR540Beaver]

I have to agree from my very limited perspective. I see boys who enjoy the outdoor aspect of scouting, but get tired of "scouting". Sometimes they just want to camp and do whatever the program is. They get tired of the uniform, working requirements for advancement, duty rosters, teaching other kids, patrols, etc. Venturing was marketed as a sort on non-scouting scouting. Adventure without all the bells and whistles. Of course, it is often the bells and whistles of "organization" that makes scouting function successfully. I think Venturing "can" devolve into a bunch of kids setting across the table from each other a couple times a month asking each other what they want to do and not much happening.

[Eamonn]

"Im curious, why did the ship select the Ranger Award over Sea Scout advancement? "

Come the end of October till about the end of April it's too cold to do much on the water.

In fact I think it's too cold to do much of anything !!

We do plan to attend the Winter Training in Maryland. This year we lucked out the roads were fine, but things could have been very different!!

Located where we are at the base of the Laurel Hill Mountains, with some of the Scouts living almost in the state parks, it seems a little silly not to use them.

We do follow the Sea Scout plan as well.

Eamonn.

 

 

[John-in-KC]

One thing I've noticed about several VOA sponsored activities in my Council:

 

1) These are young folk, sometimes they want to PLAY! We've had a couple of basically all-nighter mixers, where they used a climbing wall, bowled midnight - 2AM, fed themselves, and knew they were in a good and safe place.

 

2) Advancement? Many of these kids are B and A students in the high schools. They want a chance to decompress from homework, rehearsals, and the other mundane things of life. They come to a Crew to HAVE FUN.

 

Just a couple of observations...

[CNYScouter]

I cant say that I am an expert in Venturing but I the Ship is not my first experience with the program.

I also talked with a couple of Venturing Advisors in the area about their program or the lack of one.

 

The Crew that I was first associated with was not much more than a group of friends that wanted to do things together.

This worked well for the first few months, but without any structure or goals it quickly became boring.

Even though the youth said they just wanted to do activities there wasnt enough of a challenge to keep them interested and things fell apart.

I talked with other Advisors who said that they saw the same type of things.

 

I think the reason that Crews that use the Advancement program are successful as it sets goals and gives purpose to the crew along with some type of structure to make it interesting and keep things going.

And it can be FUN too.

 

 

[purcelce]

Advancement is not big in my crew. So far we have only had 3 bronze and one gold award in the past 10 months. Four kids are close to completing bronze. I don't ram the advancment down their throats, but I let them know that I am there if they want to advance.

 

In our council only a handful of youth a earned any of the Venturing awards. We have about 10 Crews that are geared toward the Outdoors Cluster.

 

Last month one Crew in the council had some kids earn two silver and a ranger award. I had the pleasure of presenting the silver to one of the youth.