Venture Program

[hendrickms24]

 

All,

 

Is anybody here a member or adult leader of a Venture Crew that has a program dealing with firefighting? My wifes Fire Company is looking into starting a crew and I would love to see some ideas for a crew of that type and the things they do at meeting. I think this would help out in their decision.

 

Thanks,

Mark Maranto

 

[ScoutNut]

This type of unit would fall under the Learning For Life umbrella rather than BSA.

 

Have your wife contact your council about starting a Fire Service Explorer Post. Here is some info:

 

http://www.learning-for-life.org/exploring/fire/index.html

 

 

[hendrickms24]

Thanks for that information! I was under the impression that Explorer post where career based. My wife Fire Company is a volunteer one. I have talked to my District Executive at the last Roundtable and am hoping to hear from him in the near future.

 

One interesting thing that happened at the roundtable that I did not think was a big deal at the time was when I was talking to the DE and a Venture Commissioner about this topic. The DE asked me if the fire company wanted to start a Post or Crew. I told him which ever program is a better fit. The Commissioner spoke up say the Post is better. Why would it? Is it better for the District to start a new Venture crew so that why the Commish push it? Would a Venture Commish have any say in the Post if one was formed?

 

 

Thanks again for the information,

 

Mark Maranto

 

[Eamonn]

Where I live, "Out in the sticks" nearly all the Fire Companies are volunteer.

We have not been able to start any Venturing Units in any of them. -Poor salesmanship?

Most do have Junior Firemen.

I know several Firemen and have made several presentations, trying to get in and start Crews. Many of the Junior Firemen it seems were at one time Boy Scouts.

I kinda think the problem I had with my sales pitch was that I didn't see us (The BSA) giving them anything that they weren't already doing.

The young people who join have a program already there. They don't seem to have any interest in: Advancement, High Adventure, Camping or the stuff that we could offer, they were already doing First Aid, Fire Fighting and Fireman Stuff.

They already had an insurance plan and people in place that were training them. So I wasn't selling them anything that they needed or didn't already have.

Scout Districts as a rule don't count Explorer Posts as part of Quality District. In our Council Exploring is under LFL and does not come under the District Committee.

For my part, while I'm sure the LFL can do a lot of good I'm not a great fan. In my view LFL takes money away from the traditional program and is part of a numbers game. It is supposed to be a separate division but isn't separate enough when it comes to needing money.

If you look over the areas of the Venturing Program, it isn't hard to see where a Crew could fit in really well -At least I thought so.

If the Fire Companies in Maryland don't have good Junior Fireman programs I think it would be a wonderful marriage!! But when I tried it was like bringing coals to Newcastle. They had no need for the product I was trying to sell.

I really do wish you the very best of luck and would look forward to hearing how you get on.

Eamonn.

[emb021]

First off, please use the correct terms. "Venture" and "Venturing" refer to separate BSA programs.

 

We are discussing the Venturing program here, which have Venturing Crews. Please don't use the term 'venture' to refer to them.

 

As others have pointed out, Firefighting (and search and rescue) are typically seen as careers, hence most units focused on firefighting and SAR are under LFL/Exploring. There ARE some SAR Venturing Crews, and I guess there could be fire service Venturing crews in rural areas. the only problem for such crews is all the program stuff is over with LFL. See this page: http://www.learning-for-life.org/exploring/fire/index.html for what I mean. There is a biannual Fire/Rescue Exploring Conference, for instance, and the like.

 

 

[purcelce]

"We are discussing the Venturing program here, which have Venturing Crews. Please don't use the term 'venture' to refer to them."

 

emb021 take it easy. There is no need to start one of those "class a vs field uniform" wars over on the Venturing/Venture side of the forums.

We know what they are talking about.

 

Cary P

Advisor Venture Crew 805