high adventure patrol

[thebigguy]

our troop is currently looking at starting a venture patrol to try to keep our older scouts involved. there is intrest from the boys and one gole I would have it to have them plan the events themselfs.

 

but on that same note, what types of activitys are your venture patrols doing. we are looking to avoid the national high adventure activitys to keep them open for all of our scouts. rather we are looking for weekend campouts in the michagin and the surounding area.

[OldGreyEagle]

Is that supposed to be one "girl"? In that case you dont want to form a Venture Patrol, but rather a Venturing Crew and yes there is a difference. Big difference. The Crew is an independent unit charted by the CO, the Venture Patrol is part of the Troop

[Ohio_Scouter]

Other than attending BSA high adventure base trips, our Venture Patrol likes to do a lot of backpacking, cycling, canoeing, white-water rafting, climbing, rapelling, and caving within about a 4-hour driving radius of Dayton, OH. One of our favorites is a backpacking/rapelling/caving trip to Red River Gorge, KY, or the Great Saltpetre Cave, KY.

 

This summer, our guys are doing a 400-500 mile self-designed high-adventure cycling trip from Cincinnati, OH to Erie, PA along part of the Underground Railway bicycle trail.

[thebigguy]

yes I know about venture crews but no thats not what Im talking about, we have lost some boys to crews and I myself was a member of a crew for a time. but what the spls Idea that he has asked us adults to help him with are just sepret weekend outings for the older members of the troop. with a focas on more adventurus activitys from the car camping we do with the troop.

 

I know there are other troops out there doing this as I have had several of you camp at my scout camp.

 

dont get me wrong im still not sure how I feal about this type of a program in that the proper thing for these boys to do would be to join a crew. however the spl wants to do this and the sm asked me to do some proliminary probes to figure out if this is something that will work. so im willing to give it a try.

[OldGreyEagle]

so whats a "gole"?

[Lisabob]

Venture Patrols can have pretty much any focus the boys in the patrol want to have. Our troop has had a VP on and off over the last few years. Right now our VP is focused on backpacking treks (If you're in SE MI, think Chief Pontiac and Potawatami Trails, for starters) but in other incarnations the focus has been on other activities. One year I think the VP did little else but play frisbee. They were less interested in doing big things, than in having some time away from the "little kids" as far as I could tell.

 

In watching the ebbs and flows of our VPs I have noticed the following general trends:

1) The boys are willing to do lots of things, but where they fall down is on planning. In years where the VP advisor has taken a very hands-off approach, our VP has never really gotten off the ground.

2) The boys may not have any idea what kinds of activities are available to them, at least not at first. I've watched more than a couple meetings where the question "what do you want to do?" was met by blank looks and shrugs. This is followed closely by the fact that, until they have some experience with some activity, the boys may not know they want to do more of it! Backpacking seems like a good example - it sounds like an awful lot of work at first.

3) I've noticed that this year, the boys who are interested in taking things by the horns and really being active, are NOT the oldest boys in the troop. Those older boys are either too busy already or are comfortable in their routine, or are no longer that fired up about scouting (or a combination of the three). In past years some of our adult leaders have tried to limit the VP to boys who are in high school (10th grade+) but they've had little success. It is the 12-13-14 year olds who are willing to go out and try new things.

 

So it might be worth spending a little time thinking about how you will help guide your nascent venture patrol, in order for it to be a worthwhile and sustainable experience. And if your goal is really to get the oldest boys in the troop to stick around, think carefully about whether having a VP, by itself, is going to accomplish that goal. (And PS - much as it pains me to say this - at this point in time in the United States, there is no place for girls in a venture patrol because the VP is part of the troop!)

 

 

[hops_scout]

"gole"= "goal"??

[anarchist]

thebigguy,

 

some confusion...venture patrol or simply a powerful troop program..just what are you looking for?

 

The goal of "self-planning" should be done by all patrols (as much as possible). Even for troop events -the troop sets a general program and patrols should tailor the opportunity to their needs as much as possible/practical.

 

Our "high adventure patrol" is usually the oldest boys in the troop (for the most part our patrols stay together from crossover to age out)...sometimes boys are pulled into the High Adventure patrol if their patrol decides to split to other patrols but that is fairly rare.

 

The High adventure patrol schedules and plans several activities each year in addition to the general troop and independent patrol programs. Usually, they are strongly encouraged not to conflict with the troop calendar. This allows them to have the SPL/ASPL join in the fun, as well as some troop guides and some of the older scouts from "younger" patrols.

 

In practice, it works great some years...falls flat some years and just struggles and crawls along other years depending on that years particular group of High adventure scouts willingness to work as well as the High adventure ASM/SM's willingness to stay on top of them...("a body at rest tends to stay at rest" quoting some guy named Newton).

 

Our venture patrol does "real down in the mud" caving- one or two trips per year, an annual 100 mile canoe trek, one or two 4-6 day hikes (usually the AT), boundary waters adventures, Allagash (Maine) canoe trips, some years Sea Base or Philmont plus most of the troop activities and District camporees...

 

However, bigguy, most of these adventure patrol programs are limited to first class and fourteen Y.O. scouts...if it was open to the whole troop...it would not be high adventure...and the younger boys would have nothing which to look forward as their skill and maturity levels grew...(waiting can be a good thing)

 

If you want everyone in the troop to be a part of the "action", many adventures would need to be dropped or toned down...Then they are not really high adventure...just "the same old same old"...at a different location... Your "Adventure" patrol should be encouraged to reach high, do cool, challenging things and come back to the next meeting and "wow" the younger scouts with stories of the awesome stuff they just did...which, by the way, locks in the older boys (they feel important) and locks in younger boys -they just can't wait until they are 14 and can rappel 60 feet down a wall into a cave, crawl through an 18 inch keyhole or crawl on their back in 12 inch stream of 55 degree water, "shinny" up a 20 foot chimney to a cavern only fifty cavers get to see annually...thats cool...and worth working for!

 

my two cents...

Anarchist

[thebigguy]

the gole as oge put it, would be to get some of our older scouts 16 and above to attend our monday night meetings. we find that after a scout gets his eagle we see them less and less. so the gole would be to have somthng to peek the older boys intrest in scouting agen and have something for the younger boys to look forward to. that is how it was relayed to me from our sm.

 

my goal for the program is more simple. I love to camp, and I find that sometimes we ask alot of our older boys in the teaching role. my reason for signing on to this was to give the guys a few campouts a year where they could enjoy camping as I do without being asked to teach. just use the skills thay have and have fun.

 

I think the rest of the story on this, is that the crew the spl is in has begun to show signs that it may fold and I think hes looking for some place to replace it. Im going to entertain him for now and see how this all pans out. it could be good and alot of fun, or it could be a flop.

 

hops_scout it should be your gole to not correct spelling on a forum. its almost as bad as calling out the one who did the correcting.

 

thanks for your imput guys, by the way lisabob what do you think of the pot trail, have you ever tryed the waterloo-pinkney?

[hops_scout]

"hops_scout it should be your gole to not correct spelling on a forum. its almost as bad as calling out the one who did the correcting."

 

I only look for clarification on spelling when needed in order to understand the post. It was questioned if "gole" meant "girl" whereas I read it to mean "goal."

[thebigguy]

ahhh see that makes so much more sense. I apoligize for goin off on you there, spellings not always my strong suit. but yes the goal is to have them plan the events themselfs. curently in the troop the boys tell the camping chair were they want to go and then he makes the reservations and the boys plan the outing.

 

what I want for this project is to have the boys do it all, in hopes that we can carry that over to the troop level to remove the adult from the equation.

 

[FScouter]

In the "Post Reply" screen there is a "Format this Post" button on the left that includes a spell checker.

[OldGreyEagle]

the heck of it is I still dont know what is meant by a "gole"

[thebigguy]

a GOAL, yes its true I can not spell should have spell checked. typed it to fast.

 

 

our troop is currently looking at starting a venture patrol to try to keep our older scouts involved. there is intrest from the boys and one GOAL I would have IS to LET them plan the events themselfs.

 

[Lisabob]

bigguy, I'm not 100% sure on this but I had thought Pinkney-Waterloo was part of the Potawatami trail?? Our guys are looking at maybe doing this in the fall. They did Chief Pontiac recently and had a blast despite poor weather and lack of experience, and they plan to do the canoe trek later this summer. They have a planning meeting next week to discuss other options for next year. Some want to do boundary waters, some want to try to do Philmont. Either way they need some practice and local hiking is good for that. I'm just excited to see them thriving as a venture patrol.

 

Feel free to send me a PM and tell me what council/district you're in. There are a couple of new venture crews starting in my area and maybe they're close enough that some of your older guys might be interested.