VLSC

[LovetoCamp]

What are your impressions regarding the VLSC? What does it take to put one on? Any events stand out to you?

 

 

[Eamonn]

Ok, I'll bite and show how dumb I am.

What is VLSC?

[LovetoCamp]

Eamonn,

 

Have you seen the movie "Gods and Generals"? If so, my question is, when the Union's Irish Brigade charged the heights at Fredericksburg right into the Regiment of Confederate Irish defending, what exactly was the words or meaning of the show of respect the Irish Johnny Rebs were displaying to the defeated NY IRish Brigade? I thought the movie was fantastic.

 

Pounder

[OldGreyEagle]

Venture Leadership Skills Course

 

I put one on as one of my Woodbage ticket items. I have to say that when I first read the syllabus, I thought it was a little "hokey" or shaky even. However the staff and I resolved to present as written and it went over very well.

 

I think it plays out much better than it appears on paper

[OldGreyEagle]

oops double posted(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

[venture 15 mom]

OGE:

Does the council put on the VLSC or is it up to the Crew advisors? I've seen references in both areas and am confused as to who would be responsible.

 

Our council is doing the basic leader training for several new crews in a couple weeks, the boys really want to do training too and have asked about the VLSC. I plan to ask about it at this training coming up but it'd be nice to know how other councils do it.

 

VM

[OldGreyEagle]

When we put on VLSC it was just "US" adult vernture members. The Council had little to do with the whole thing, actually they had none.

 

 

[buffalo2]

We've had some luck combining Crews for this one, with each Crew putting on a different section - worked pretty well as a lock-in. Good opportunity to train some adults as well...

And agree with OGE that it runs better than it reads

[packsaddle]

Thanks for the good suggestions (I'm still a little confused about the Civil War history though). I really like the lock-in idea.

[OutdoorThinker]

The VLSC that my crew was involved in was organized by the advisors with a module from Council or National, I assume. Our course was done in a lock in also. We, the crew members, found that a lot of the training was rehashing of leadership skills that had been stated in Boy and Girl leadership trainings. Needless to say, we were trained, but the training as a whole was lacking something age appropriate and challenging.

[LovetoCamp]

Has anyone used the movies "Apollo 13" or "Gettysburg" as a tool? The videos are stopped after certain scenes and reflected upon.

[OutdoorThinker]

We actually used scenes from "Gettysburg" in our training. We used some of Jeff Daniels's monologues as Chamberlain (my personal favorite soldier of the Civil War) and a second segment, perhaps with Lee, I dont remember. The film led us into decent discussions. But as I said earlier, I think the training as a whole lacked something challenging and more age appropriate.

[buffalo2]

OT You're not alone in questioning the level of some of the pieces within the VLSC, and it is difficult to nail it down. Another example of a program attempting to be all things to all attendees...

 

Might we ask for a little more thought on this? Was there any one thing that really seemed out of place? Maybe the expansion on a theme or was it the entire section? (Haven't looked at this syllabus lately but will get to it soon) Or was something missing that several folks noticed?

 

Or coming from the other direction, what worked well? If you were going to facilitate one of these trainings (and those calls WILL come) what would you see as really important and what might you consider glossing over? Anything that you might consider adding?

 

One last line of questioning; was your program led by adults or Venturers? Was the course limited to your own Crew or more than one? Might that have had some bearing on your experience?

Apologize if you feel put on the spot; please understand that it's difficult to find good feedback on some of this stuff!

Thanks

O yes - Welcome aboard!(This message has been edited by buffalo2)

[OutdoorThinker]

To answer your questions Buffalo2, and as long as you bear with me because I am relying on my memories of the event that happened almost a year ago, I won't worry about you putting me on spot.

 

Our training was run by the adult crew advisors from the council. There were a number of crews involved. Each advisor went over a different section of the training. The training as a whole was not a failure. I think that the fact that the training was implimented and it was well attended is proof that it was a success, as you all probably know, it's difficult for those two elements to happen in Venturing Crews all the time.

 

On the actual training events, I found that the segement we had on goal making and mission statement discussions was really interesting, because each individual thought about their own goals and mission statement, but then the topic was broadened to how it applies to the crews.

 

Another topic that worked really well was a section on non-verbal communication and listening skills, where crew members broke into pairs, and each person had a trait of poor listening skills (like interrupting, looking around, talking to other people, getting up and pacing) taped to their forehead, without them knowing what it is...their partner was supposed to act what was on the card. It was an activity to show how frustrating it is when someone is not listening. It was fun and I think another reason it worked so well was we saw the imediate application of the task at hand.

 

I enjoyed using the "Gettysburg" segments, but I dont know how well it went over with the other crew members.

 

I feel that activities like the human knot, which was used at our training, was really not age appropriate and what crew member has never done the human knot?

 

Those are the things that really stood out in my memory about my training. I would really like to hear what other people have to think on how we can better this program. If I understand correctly, there's a lot of wiggle for us all to adapt the trainings and better the program.

[LovetoCamp]

What I think we're going to do is, sign up and attend at a VLSC given up in the big city or one of its big suburbs. Our Pres and VP want to go and I will sign up to help out wherever I can.