Venturing Honor Soceity...APO style.

[trailfinder52@yahoo.com]

this may be bold or not but here goes...A Venturing Honor Society that is similar to the APO scouting fraternity. Open to both male and female Venturers and Sea Scouts on the district, council or just even crew or ship level. Service projects, fun events, good clean fun, leadership a junior partner of APO and a senior partner in BSA and a plus for the Venturing Division a help to the units in Venturing and a good ethics and leadership forum to encourage crews and ships and to assist the VOA in fact VOA could send a representative to VHS and VHS could send a rep to the VOA. Venturing Honor Society could be a simple society that is in the background serving Venturing and Scouting. This society would be somewhat more simple than OA and cooperative with the arrowmen as well.

[John-in-KC]

My question:

 

Is APO still have a relationship to BSA, or was that severed some years back?

 

Looking at the APO website, they are now tied off to Camp Fire, not BSA. Since they are headquartered down the road in Independence, MO, I will ask someone from my local council office.

 

BTW, how do you propose to hit the lower end of the ageline (14-16 year old members)?

 

 

[emb021]

APO still has a relationship with the BSA. If you had looked at our National Partners page, you will see the BSA listed with several other NPs (America's Promise, USA Freedom Corps, Camp Fire, Youth Service America, Better World Books, etc)

 

A member of the BSA National Council sits on our National BOD as an ex-officio member. We also have a member of APO sit on the National Relationships Committee. APO is still listed in BSA literature (BSHB, SMHB, OAHB, Venturing lit). This summer, two of us will be manning a both at NOAC. At the Jamboree we have both an Info Booth & an APO Service Corps. We also have info booth at the BSA National Meeting and Top Hands Meeting. While we have recently signed a MOU with Camp Fire, we don't have the same connections with them as with the BSA.

 

(I happened to be an APO Brother, and am also a member of our National Scouting & Youth Services Committee. I'm also one of the people to man our NOAC booth)

 

[emb021]

Also, keep in mind that APO is NOT an 'honor society'. APO is a college service fraternity. While there are some similarities with OA (college fraternities were one of the influences), there are differences.

 

As I've said before, if people have an interest in establishing a "Venturing Honor Society", please take a look at the wide range of similiar groups that were established in the past. (go to http://usscouts.org/usscouts/honorsociety/honorscout.html).

I think too many get wrapped up in this 'don't want to be like the OA' with little understanding of what the OA is, what it was originally established to do, and how it has changed over the years AND are totally ignorant of the other kinds of groups that existed out there.

 

Some groups were camp societies, others took their inspiration from college fraternities or fraternal groups like the masons, some took inspiration from American Indian culture, others from knighthood, others from the American Frontiersman. Others limited themselves to only Eagle Scouts, others were mainly leadership groups or service groups. There were a LOT of variety.

 

What do the kids want in an VHS? How is this different from what can exist with a VOA and the Venturing Leadership Awards, etc.

 

[John-in-KC]

Fair enough, thanks.

 

The other part of my question (how do you reach downard to the lower end of the Venturing age bracket) is still in play, though...