Active Venture Crews

[DDHII]

I'm the Vice President of Admin. in Crew 703 in the Cali. Inland Empire Council. Currently, we have 10 active crew members, and 6 adult advisors. Our crew is High Adventure oriented (we do most of our outings with HAT), focusing the majority of our outings on the Ranger requirements. We have 2 Eagle Scouts (me being one of them), and currently I'm the only one who has earned the Ranger and the Silver Award.

[TTalley]

We are starting a new Venturing Crew. We are associated with a sister Troop and a Ship. What advise do you have for new Advisors?

[Kenn]

I am an Assoc. Advisor of a very active Venturing Crew in Tracy, CA. We are a speciality unit..Search and Rescue. We are very active, have participated in searches and are currently working with local USAR team to teach some basic ssearch techniques. We are co-ed with leadership made up of former Boy Scouts (who are working on their Eagles as well as Ranger award) and those with no previous Scouting experience. Yes you can earn Eagle without being a member of a Troop as long as you have reached First Class in a Troop.

[expven]

There are many active Venturing units out there. I hast a web site called EVO - Exploring/Venturing Online which provides FREE web hosting and links to units web sites. I recieve sign-ups all the time from Venturing units which proves that there are units active out there from all over the USA and even from Puerto Rico! I invite you to visit the site at www.exploring.org or www.venturing.org to visit the units that have signed up that have web pages.

 

You should even contact the units and ask them what they are doing within their unit to make it successful as far as recruiting and program. Most units would be more than happy to share their secrets of success!!!

[Venturer2002]

My Crew is the most active in council, and all because of two main things:

 

I. We let the Venturers run the Crew

 

II. We do something at least once per month

 

 

Just recently our crew hiked in Hawaii, Philmont awhile back, and have our sights set on the Chilkoot Trail in Alaska for 2004. Aside from the bigger trips we have canoeing, backpacking, etc. scheduled with our sister Troop. Having a sister Troop really does help the Crew out a lot, as once the boys get older they (and their sisters :-) ) can't wait to wear that green shirt. If you follow the two cardinal rules you can't go wrong. And remember, Adults are there only to ensure BSA policy is operating intact within your unit.

 

Good Luck!

[maddoro]

I am confused.

So, does a boy in a Venture group need to be registered also in a boy scout troop to get his Eagle scout?

My son has Life rank and has all the requiremnets done except the eagle project. How does it work with the board of review?

[Venturer2002]

In order to receive your Eagle in a Venture Crew you don't need to be dually registered, the minimum requirement is that the boy be at least 1st class to work on Boy Scout ranks in a Crew. Since your son is Life, he certainly meets this requirement. The Board of Review for Eagle is comprised of people from your general area, with at least one member of the District Advancement Commitee present, so this would be unaffected. Instead of having a Scoutmaster's conference, he'll have one with the Crew Advisor. The BSA set up Venturing with this type of thing in mind, so you should find that it's almost exactly like advancements in a Troop setting.

 

Hope this helps :-)

[maddoro]

Thanks for the input about venture. Who approves the Eagle project in a Venture Crew? Is it the same procedure as in scouts? Is there a committee? Do they have a mentor to help with the Eagle process? How about scout sprit? Our troop was always so big on that, 75% of meeting and 50% of outings HAD to be attended to get the scout spirit.

Thanks.

[OldGreyEagle]

Maddoro,

 

FYI, a troop that has a set attendance policy to qualify for scout spirit is NOT following BSA polcies and procedures.