Should Venturing drop the Boy Scout ranks to Eagle

[dana_renner]

emb021 "However some boys are only in a Venturing Crew, and they can work toward earning Star-Life -Eagle as a Venturer/Sea Scout and that should be fine." Now are these boys registered in a Troop or did they earn at least First Class Scout in that Troop because if these Venturers or Sea Scouts were never Boy Scouts they cannot earn Boy Scout advancement or merit badges in the crew/ship. your first point is correct but your second point is not specific. Silver Award may be Eagle Equivalent but Venturing Reference Guide in the back of the Venturing Leader Manual does not say. Hence my question and suggestion. These rules are in the Venturing Leader Manual and Boy Scout Handbook and the Sea Scout Manual. However I will conceit that Venturing is open ended and should remain that way.

[emb021]

"emb021 "However some boys are only in a Venturing Crew, and they can work toward earning Star-Life -Eagle as a Venturer/Sea Scout and that should be fine." Now are these boys registered in a Troop or did they earn at least First Class Scout in that Troop because if these Venturers or Sea Scouts were never Boy Scouts they cannot earn Boy Scout advancement or merit badges in the crew/ship. your first point is correct but your second point is not specific. "

 

Uh, again, do you having any of the literature? These questions you have are answered there.

 

The policy is (and has been since, oh, the 1930s or so), is that if a Venturer/Sea Scout has earned atleast First Class Scout in a Boy Scout Troop or Varsity Scout Team, they may continue to earn Star, Life, & Eagle IN A VENTURING CREW as a Venturer, until they turn 18.

 

They do not need to be dual-registered in a troop to do this.

 

"Silver Award may be Eagle Equivalent but Venturing Reference Guide in the back of the Venturing Leader Manual does not say. Hence my question and suggestion. These rules are in the Venturing Leader Manual and Boy Scout Handbook and the Sea Scout Manual."

 

Uh, we don't speak of ANY award as being 'Eagle Equivalent'. Silver is the highest Venturing Award. Quartermaster is the highest Sea Scout Award. Hence, they are 'equivalent' to Eagle.

 

"However I will conceit that Venturing is open ended and should remain that way."

 

Well, I would hope so as that is how the program was developed. I recommend you learn what the program is.

 

 

[Region 7 Voyageur]

The Sea Scout Manual states on page 84 "The Quartermaster Award is the highest award in Sea Scouting and is as important as the Eagle Scout Award"

 

I am not involved in Venturing. I was an Explorer Scout in the 1970's. I have a 14 year old son that is very involved in a boy scout troop and the OA. I have encouraged him to check out Sea Scouting, but as of now he is not interested. I have read the Sea Scout Manual and the Venturer Handbook. The program offered in those books is excellent.

 

In my opinion a crew or ship should work on delivering that (Venturing or Sea Scout) program and not being a group of older boy scouts and working on boy scout advancement. If an individual scout wishes to continue working on his Eagle Award then he should do that as an individual pursuit. The Ranger Award, Silver Award, and the Quartermaster Award are great goals for any young adult. The Silver Award and Quartermaster Award, while not widely known by the general public, may say more about the leadership and character of someone than the Eagle Award.

 

In some circles the Quartermaster Award carries a great deal of prestige.(This message has been edited by Region 7 Voyageur)(This message has been edited by Region 7 Voyageur)

[captainron14]

dana,

The great thing about Venturing is that it is so flexible. There are no two crews the same. You will find that there are Crews with a strong tie with traditional Boy Scouting, also you will find Crews that have little or no contact/knowledge of Boy Scouts. There are Crews that are made up of members of Girl Scout Troops, Crews that are JROTC, Church Youth Ministry groups, and many other types.

Their focus is what the crew decides, as is the uniform (if any). All boy, all girl or Coed.

As for earning the Eagle, as has been stated, as long as the boy has earned his first class prior to joining, no problem. National policy, by yourself, you can not make changes to it.

If your issue is that since a girl can not earn the Eagle rank in Venturing, a boy should not either, well same answer, National policy.

You deliver all of the program, regardless if you like it or not.

A great example is the OA and Venturing. The OA is a Boy Scout organization that Venturers who were elected as Boy Scouts can continue to participate (including the wear of the lodge flap on their Venturing uniform). Venturing Crews can not hold elections, and since one of the requirements is to be First Class. There are no elected youth female Venturers in the OA. Similar to the Boy Scout ran issue you have. Same answer, National Policy.

Will this change? OA & Venturing? Maybe, Eagle & Venturing? probably not.

Regardless, these issues should not detract from the fact that Venturing is a great program and should not affect the crew.

As for the Silver being the equivalent to Eagle & Quartermaster, it is. It's just much newer then the Eagle & Quartermaster. Give it some time.

[Backpacker]

I think you need to realize that all of these questions are covered and fully explained in Venturing Leader Specific Training, if you have not completed it you should not be a crew advisor, plain and simple. It also doesn't matter what your opinions are, the program is there from National,and just like any program in scouting you can not add to or take away from it as far as advancement is concerned.

 

The main problem I see in Venturing is that too many of the leaders are not taking leader specific training because they have the erroneous idea that they can make up their own program and guidelines, but that is not the case. This is also the main reason why many crews fail in the first year. Venturing is not a nebulous entity floating around out there, while it is flexible there is a program in place that you must follow.

So don't follow other peoples opinions, GO TO TRAINING, learn the program, and your crew will be successful, its that simple.