Encouraging Venturing/Sea Scout Advancement

[CNYScouter]

The Ship members have been asking about Venturing/Sea Scout Advancement.

 

For our next Ship meeting I am working with one of the Petty Officers to put together a presentation on the awards that Sea Scouts/Venturers can earn.

 

Any suggestions on how to make this more than just a sit and watch presentations.

 

I have looked through some of the requirements and dont see many that can be done during an overview type presentation.

 

We are talking about attending the Sea Scout training weekend in January that has classes that interest the Ship members.

 

What other ways can I encourage ship members to work on Sea Scout/Venturing Awards?

 

[Eamonn]

If you are a "Traditional" Sea Scout Ship, following the Sea Scout manual working on advancements will fall into place.

Once our members started mixing with other Sea Scout Ship's they became very interested in working on advancement.

We have a monthly theme and the Quarterdeck with some help from me (we are still newbies!)

plan the meeting around the theme.

If you can get to the Regatta over Memorial Day weekend, the Boarding Manual and events from last year are still on line, you will find a lot of the events are things that the Scouts need anyway. We used this to spur our Scouts on.

Thanks to you and your help, we now have a new 21 foot boat to work on over the winter, but some of the Scouts are looking at Venturing Awards that they are interested in.

I'm not pushing, this is entirely up to them. I'm willing to help where I can and help them find the resources they need.

All of our Sea Scouts are expected to own a Sea Scout manual when they join the Ship. Most take it home and come back very excited with the idea that they are going to be doing the activities needed to advance.

Last week at the QD-Meeting Sarah gave me a hard time for not spending more time on Navigation and relative bearings.

Navigation is the theme for November, Sarah is making two boards one with compass points and one with bearings (lots of cup-hooks)

I think you will enjoy the Winter Training Weekend, we plan to be there if there isn't a ton of snow!!

Eamonn.

[emb021]

What Eamonn says.

 

First off, Venturers/Sea Scouts should be award of what is available to them (5 Bronze, Gold, Silver, Ranger, Quest, Trust, 4-level Sea Scout advancement, Small Boat Handler, Qualified Seaman, World Consevation Award, etc).

 

As noted, in a traditional Sea Scout ship, your ship's program should be built around advancement. Most Sea Scout events will recognize it. I know with the Regional Commodore's Cup in my area, all events are tied to SS advancement, and we will even note what events will tie to what advancement.

 

In non-traditional ships and in Venturing Crews, many practice 'stealth advancement', in which the adults track what the kids do, then after a point (say a major event), point out what advancement they have done, so they understand what extra they need to do to get something.