Proud of My Crew

[purcelce]

Who says OA and Venturing don't mix.

 

Last night at our lodge's winter banquet. We had about 19 youth, 4 adults, and 7 parents and friends representing the crew.

 

Youth of my crew really impressed me last night.

 

Two crew members ran for the vacant lodge chief post...one won.

One crew member is now section chief

Four youth crew members were selected for vigil.

Plus I got three new members to sign up.

One of our members had earned his Bronze award so I presented it to him in the corner of the room, since he had his mom, dad, and grandmother there.

 

Best part was watching my kids having fun.

 

Boy I love this Scouting stuff!!!!!!!

 

Cary P

Crew 805 advisor

 

 

[John-in-KC]

OA and Venturing do mix well, right up to the gender line. There, the mix breaks down.

 

I also attended my Lodge winter banquet last night. Hundreds of young men, in both Scout and Venturing uniforms. I know quite a few of these young folk. They will be area leaders in just a few years.

 

There were about 25 other Venturers. They serve on camp staff, right alonside the Arrowmen. I know several of them as well. Several are high school seniors, planning on college. On is in college, getting ready for 2d semester of freshman year.

 

None of the 25 are Arrowmen. Why? They're young ladies, and they're not yet 21. I don't have the smarts to fix the problem. I see the problem is out there, though.

 

We have a disconnect because the Order's upper age bracket, as a PROGRAM (18-21) coincides with Venturing's upper age bracket in PROGRAM (18-21). We have a secondary problem that young folk 14 and above can work at Scout camps, and since Venturers are members of BSA in full right, they are eligible to work at our camps.

 

My thoughts. Others will disagree. That's OK.

[scoutldr]

Patience...patience.

[Eamonn]

We attended a Sea Scout Training weekend.

I was privileged to watch a Bridge of Honor, where two young Ladies were presented with the Quartermaster Award, the Sliver Venturing Award and one also received a heroism award.

These young Ladies must have worked their tails off!!

Our Ship had 11 of the 12 Ship members at the weekend. Four females.

All the males in the Ship both youth and adult are in the OA.

We have last years Lodge Chief, this years Lodge Chief, the Vice Chief Admin and the Section Secretary.

None of the females are in Girl Scouts, if they were and there was a Girl Scout equivalent of OA, I would be happy to add them and their involvement to the brag sheet.

The Scouts choose to wear Sea Scout Uniforms and while there has been a few moans and groans from the Boys that they can't wear Lodge Flaps. I'm OK with them not being on the Sea Scout Uniform.

A Sea Scout who hasn't been a Boy Scout can't be elected into the Lodge from the Ship, so in that respect they are all in the same boat.

I really like the OA.I know that OA involvement a lot of the time is what keeps older Scouts in Scouting.Which is a good thing.But I don't see any connection between what we do as a Ship and what the Lodge does.

I'm proud of a lot of the things that the Ship members do. Some are in HS marching bands, one is a very talented dancer, a couple play soccer, I see the OA the same as these other activities.

While I'm OK with our Sea Scouts having the OA as an outside interest, I really don't think that it is right that males can work on and complete Eagle Scout rank, in Venturing. That to my way of thinking is not fair to the females in the program.

Maybe one day the Girl Scouts will have a change of heart and allow girls in Venturing to work on the Gold Award, but it's their award and their rules.

And no I'm not ready to go and become a Trained Girl Scout Leader!! I'm too old and far too lazy.

Eamonn.

 

 

[purcelce]

Johninkc,

 

There were female youth from my crew at the winter banquet.

The females in my crew know that oa is a Boy Scout program. At our end we have no problems.

 

Cary P