Eman Posted February 8, 2002 Share Posted February 8, 2002 I just came home from my district banquet. While there I asked our district commissioner about any active Venture Crews in our district. Ther are 6 crews with a charter and yet none even have meetings. I have come to find out that Venturing was a big push by national so the councils pushed the DE's to start Venture units. The reason I am searching for an active Venture Crew is to try to retain some of the older boys, some over 18. I understand that the age for Venturing is 14-21 which would help retain boys in Scouting and keep them active in OA until 21. Are there any "true" Venture Crews that are active out there? What type of leadership do you have, and is it co-ed? What activities are you doing, only the adventures ones. What ages are in the crew? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9gold-scout Posted February 8, 2002 Share Posted February 8, 2002 Our crew is new, we meet 2x per month. We have 5 active Eagle Scouts the rest are Life most are age 16 except the girls who are 18 and in the National Guard. We hope to have everyone receive an outdoor Bronze Award by year end. They already have their own website for communications (password required for member access). www.crew746.com We have already outgrown our original meeting room and we just ordered our crew flag. By the time it arrives we should have doubled our size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slontwovvy Posted February 8, 2002 Share Posted February 8, 2002 I would like to point out that you are a youth member in the OA until 21 anyway, not just if you join a Venture Crew. Your wording is just a bit confusing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrews Posted February 8, 2002 Share Posted February 8, 2002 I am the (new) Committee Chair for a Venture crew in Dallas. We meet twice a month and do high adventure things throughout the year. The crew is coed, ages ranging from 14-20. Several Eagles, but a fair number of non-Boy Scouts as well, especially the girls. A good chunk of the members come from the local high school which has an ROTC program. We have a "normal" officers group with a President, 2 VPs, 2 Secretaries and a Treasurer. We just had elections, so involvement by officers is good. Last fall, when terms were 1 year, several positions were effectively unfilled, but we switched to 6 month terms and hopefully that will help things. Meetings are controlled chaos, even more so than young Boy Scout meetings, which was a bit of a surprise, though it probably shouldn't have been. I am driving across town (the Crew is near where we plan to move, and very near our church) because I couldn't find any active crews locally for my daughter to get started with. The number of crews is quite minimal. Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9gold-scout Posted February 8, 2002 Share Posted February 8, 2002 The OA is not an official Venturing activity since they do not accept girls(14-18) as members. In addition if a male Venture Scout want's to become an Eagle Scout he must also be registered in a Boy Scout Troop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrews Posted February 11, 2002 Share Posted February 11, 2002 In addition if a male Venture Scout want's to become an Eagle Scout he must also be registered in a Boy Scout Troop. I don't believe this is accurate. I don't have all the docs here, but the Venturing rules say that as long as you get to First Class in a troop, you can advance to Eagle in a crew. I don't recall having seen anything requiring troop registration for Eagle. Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9gold-scout Posted February 16, 2002 Share Posted February 16, 2002 Our council is having a powerhorn course in March. I may be able to find out a for sure answer that week during the training. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9gold-scout Posted March 11, 2002 Share Posted March 11, 2002 Our council has over 8500 Venture Scouts (including Sea Scouts) in more than 700 units. Venture Scouts who are at least 1st Class and want to receive their Eagle Scout rank must be co-registered in a scout troop. Eagle Scout is a Boy Scout award although leadership in a Venture Crew can be used for Eagle Scout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrews Posted March 11, 2002 Share Posted March 11, 2002 What purpose would that registration be? The Venture crew forms the board of reviews for Star and Life, with the Eagle being done by the council as normal. The Venturing-specific training clearer did not list being a member of a Boy Scout troop as a requirement to acheive Eagle while in Venutring. If I can remember to do so, I will try to find a reference from the Venturing Leaders Manual. I would be interested to find anything official stating it the other way, especially something from National. Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutPro Posted May 22, 2002 Share Posted May 22, 2002 There is no requirement to be a Boy Scout to be awarded an Eagle as long as you earned 1st class in the troop prior to joining the crew and are not 18. I have awarded 2 Eagles, the last one being last month, and they were registered in the Crew only. There is NO reason to stay dual registered. But, it does only cost one dollar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crew 1434 Posted June 5, 2002 Share Posted June 5, 2002 Hello, First some housekeeping; Venturing and Venture are not the same and refer to different programs. Venturing is the term used for BSA newest program. The members of a Venturing Crew are called Venturer. They may be male or female beginning at age 14 and completed the 8th grade up to the day they turn 21. Boys who complete 1st class in a traditional Troop program may elect to pursue Eagle within the Venturing program. The boy does not need to be 1st class before he joins a crew in order to exercise this option as long as he is still registered in a troop and completes the rank in the traditional program. Just like adults, youth can have multiple registrations; in fact the youth can be members of multiple crews. The only cost involved with this is to the unit that the youth is primary registered in, all other units should just write MULTIPLED FROM UNIT (and whatever the number of the primary unit is) and turn in the application to the council. The $1.00 fee is only when a youth has an active membership and wishes to transfer from one unit to another. Primary membership can be changed when the unit recharters as long as the unit pays the registration fee ($8.00 with insurance). Venture on the other hand is just a special patrol within a Troop. Scouts in a Venture Patrols cannot do all the things a Venturer can do in the Venturing program. Girls can come to Venture activities as guests but can not join because it is part of a Boy Scout Troop. I dont know why national choose two names so close to each other but the terms are not interchangeable. That being said, I work with several active crews, most of them meet twice a month and hold one weekend activity every other month or so (I also have one that meets every other week which on occasion ends up with 3 meeting in one month). I have also found that Crews tend to do things with other crews to add to the social facet. The way my primary crew is set up is that it is a sister unit to the troop. Any boy who wishes to join the crew is just multiplied into the crew until the next recharter at which point the boy is primared in the crew and multiplied in the troop. The crews by-laws state that you may not be President and SPL at the same time in order to prevent conflict of interest. I do have members from other troops in the crew too. The meetings are dates are set so not to conflict with the troop program. We meet the 1st Thursday of the month and one floating day which the kids pick out the month before. The crew does do a couple of thing with the troop as well. Retention in both programs is great. I have 10 members that are in college and come back on breaks and during the summer and pick right back into the program. The older boys in the troop tend to come more regularly because they know they have the opportunity to do some thing with out the 11 year olds. I also have a couple members in the crew that were in the troop as 11 or 12 year olds and dropped for whatever reasons but have come back to join the crew now that they were in high school. The kids like to be social and Venturing is the ticket for stopping the 2 Ps (Perfume & Petroleum) from pulling a boy out of the troop. The one thing that I would say about this age group is they care less about recognition, they just want to have fun with a group of friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advisor473 Posted June 5, 2002 Share Posted June 5, 2002 My Crew was converted from an Explorer Post, so we have existed as Venturers since August 1, 1998, and as Explorers since January 1989. We are still active and have a growing membership. We meet twice a month on Tuesday night and have at least one weekend activity each month (either a full weekend or a Saturday or Sunday). We are active on the District and Council levels and with our VOA. To succeed you have to passionate about the program, and my Crew certainly is. You also have to fight to get your Council behind you on the program. CHange is always painful, but they will just have to adjust. Venturing is a super program for retention and to introduce young men and women to the Scouting program. Good Luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffalo2 Posted June 6, 2002 Share Posted June 6, 2002 Recently involved with reviving a crew at a small private high school - went for an intro to SCUBA as a kickoff activity and are next electing officers and penciling in a schedule to carry us thru the summer. Surprisingly, most of the current members don't come through Troops; you have to speak slowly and carefully when you bring up concepts like advancement and service projects... Lots of sports buffs in this group but many have not been camping nor done much in the outdoors. I think that we're on a good course but would like to solicit advice from all concerned; this is a different environment from the Troop that I'm familiar with and we're hoping to get it right! Also, I would like to direct any who aren't already familiar with it to the 'Venturing Electronic Magazine' and its 'Lessons Learned' section. Thanks in advance (This message has been edited by buffalo2)(This message has been edited by buffalo2) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9gold-scout Posted June 6, 2002 Share Posted June 6, 2002 Our crew has 2 reasons to advance. First most are life scouts and while finishing their Eagle requirements they will receive credit on Venture advancement. Secound our unit is sponsored by the National Guard and they expect to see results in order for us to keep our facility. Our sights are set on Eagle Scout to Venture Ranger. We will be doing 3 Eagle Project this month with more to come. Also a follow the stream backpacking trip, everyone stays wet on this one. Website - www.crew746.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VCPrez Posted June 7, 2002 Share Posted June 7, 2002 Hello. My crew's still active, considering I'm the president of it . My friends and I created it, we've been running it a year and a half. We have two-deep leadership, however we have one advisor and 3 associate advisors. Our crew is co-ed and age requirements are 14-21. I will be 21 in September. We are doing both, advancement and high adventure. I have Outdoor Bronze and Ranger acquired already. I'm one requirement away from Gold and two from Silver. What's really funny is I'm the oldest, but I'm also the shortest . Last time we went caving and fishing Right now we're hosting a Chili Dinner to help us pay for Venturing Ranger Quest at Ransburg. To visit our website go to: http://crew13navigators.usclargo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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