Ever hear of the Corps of Discovery

[dana_renner]

I was at a roundtable recently, and my District Commissioner informed me of the Corps of Discovery this is an idea for a Venturing

Honor Society it has been around for at least 5 or 6 years and now it has a flap patch and many other councils have been promoting it. This is open to both crews and ships and can be co-ed and can give OA a break from feeling the pressure to admit female Venturers. Is it in your council? If so, was it easy to bring in. From what I read it is up to the crews to incorporate it and hold crew elections. If anyone is involved in this please let me know. YIV Dana

[OldGreyEagle]

try looking here

 

http://members.aol.com/venturecod/index.html

[emb021]

While I am not opposed to a 'Venturing honor society', I don't see what purpose the CoD serves that isn't already covered by the Council Venturing Leadership Award and Council Venturing Officers Association.

 

Most of the people promoting the CoD seem reluctant to have it serve any purpose beyond 'you're a great Venturer, you're now part of the CoD, but we don't do anything beyond that'.

 

MB

[dana_renner]

OGE

Thanks for the info on the COD it sure does help. YIV Dana

[bluegoose]

Being the current president of crew 477 (one of the two original crews in the corps) I know all of the original members and many of the people that created the idea. Our crew has since drifted away from using the Corps, but I would be happy to give you contact info for those people if you'd like.

 

peace always...

[Greying Beaver]

I concur. I have never heard of it, don't know if our council uses it or not ( I will find out.), and sounds like the solution to a bunch of problems in the Venturing program.

It is different from O.A., but Venturing is different from Boy Scouts. It is right in line with the Venturing idea of ". . . here is what you can and cannot do; go, venture out - have fun with it . . . ". Make the ceremony fit the crew (What a concept!). The whole thing parallels O.A. but on that Venturing level that separates it from the boy scout program.

[frankj]

I'll throw in here, and maybe somebody can help me out. I'm Advancement Coor for our troop. There has been little to no talk of Venture Crew w/in our district. Can someone advise whether the Venture program, if that is the proper term, should come from within the Troop, or should it be more of a District-type effort?

 

It seems to me, as Scouts progress through the ranks, there is a cadre of Scouts within a District (but in different Troops) that might make for a critical mass of boys to take part in some Venture type activities. Any ideas on how to tap into this potential?

 

[frankj]

I'll throw in here, and maybe somebody can help me out. I'm Advancement Coor for our troop. There has been little to no talk of Venture Crew w/in our district. Can someone advise whether the Venture program, if that is the proper term, should come from within the Troop, or should it be more of a District-type effort?

 

It seems to me, as Scouts progress through the ranks, there is a cadre of Scouts within a District (but in different Troops) that might make for a critical mass of boys to take part in some Venture type activities. Any ideas on how to tap into this potential?

 

[emb021]

Uh, which program are you refering to? Venture and Venturing are two different programs in the BSA.

 

Venture is an option in-troop program (see both the Boy Scout & Scoutmaster handbooks) for boys 13 and older. They are formed into a Venture Patrol to do high adventure activities on their own without the rest of the troop.

 

Venturing is the BSA's co-ed program for youth 14-21. Youth are formed into unit called Venturing Crews. Each Crew will have their own speciality in one of the 5 areas of Venturing: Outdoors/High Adventure, Sports, Youth Ministries, Arts/Hobbies, or Sea Scouts.

 

Councils & Districts can support Venturing Crews by learning about the Venturing program and encouraging chartered organizations to form them. Because of the flexiblity of Venturing, pre-existing groups can become Venturing Crews and take advantage of what Venturing has to offer. For instance, a church's youth ministry group can become a Venturing Crew. Or a yacht club wants to form a Sea Scout Ship for their youth, etc.

 

Sometimes Venturing Crews form out of Boy Scout Troops, usually if there are a number of older boys who are tired of the 'same old stuff' in their troop, and want to do more challenging stuff with other older youth. Too often, Scoutmasters resist this because they think you are 'stealing' their boys, etc. Sometimes you can find scoutmaster (or assistants) who want to do the more challenging stuff, too.

 

I recommend you figure which of these programs you are interested in, and get the appropriate literature and training.

 

[OldGreyEagle]

(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

[dana_renner]

bluegoose

Why did your crew discontinue the COD idea?