Venturing Youth Cabinet vs. Venturing roundtable

[CNYScouter]

Currently our council does not have either of these.

 

A few years ago our council did try to get a Venturing Roundtable started but stopped after a couple because of poor attendance.

 

At the District Dinner I sat with the councils FD and had the opportunity to discuss the Venturing program in our council.

The FD told me there seems to be interest in starting these but no one has stepped forward to get them organized.

 

I would be willing to organize one of these but dont have the time to do both.

I have been asked by some of the Ship members about the Youth Cabinet.

 

My son attends roundtable with me but has asked why there is not anything for the Venturing Crews.

 

Can you do one without the other?

If you can only do one which would it be?

 

[John-in-KC]

First, you have to understand:

 

In our District, the concept of RT is "One stop shopping" for unit-serving Scouters. All three programs have their own RT. Cubs and Boy/Venturing have independent openings. The District Committee comes and mans tables in our "Activity Mall."

 

A few years back, our Venturing RT Commish (before Council yanked Venturing RT out of the districts) had two adjacent rooms: One for the Cabinet, and one for the leaders. The District youth cabinet would meet independently of the Advisors and Committee types. Then, they'd get together the last 20 minutes or so and cross-fertilize.

 

It worked.

[emb021]

They are different things for different (but releated) purposes.

 

Roundtable is an event. Its on-going training.

 

A youth cabinet (or VOA), is a group of Venturers who come together to plan and carry out the Venturing program at the council & district.

 

A Venturing Roundtable (there is a book covering this) is a venue in which Venturing youth and adults (yes, unlike Cub Scout & Boy Scout Roundtables, Venturing RT include the youth) come together to get program information (gives them a reason to come), share ideas and the like. You can have youth & adult break outs (giving them separate but related program), or keep them together.

 

Your Youth Cabinet (VOA, or whatever you want to call it) should be made up of atleast 1 youth representative from each crew, under the leadership of elected youth officers and guidence from adult advisors. The Youth Cabinet should be planning and carrying out district/council Venturing events, which can include your Roundtables, but also weekend Venturing events (Venturing Camporees if you will), Venturing training events (VLSC, etc), organize council Venturing contingents to high adventure bases, organize participation by Venturers in council events like Scout Shows, etc.

 

The 'Here's Venturing' booklet has a chapter on Teen Leader Councils, which is the term National used for such groups (depite the fact that the National one is called a Cabinet and most council seem to prefer Venturing Officer Associations. There are some sample bylaws, so understand that each council is free to organize a Cabinet/VOA/TLC as they wish.

 

[CNYScouter]

A couple of the reasons we are looking at doing a council-wide (or at least multiple districts) Venturing Roundtable that is separate are that most of our Districts dont have enough Crews in them to have a separate breakout session.

 

My District has 13 crews and the Ship. This is more crews that the other 5 Districts combined. The District with the next biggest number of crews has 4.

 

Another reason we are looking doing this separate is most Venturing Leaders are also involved with a Troop. Doing this on a separate night gives more people the opportunity to attend.

 

Right know my District cant find a BS Roundtable Commissioner and the CS Roundtable Commissioner just stepped down after doing it for 5 years.

 

Right know I am willing to take on one of these and so far no one else is willing to step up.

I have the literature on both the Venturing Roundtable and the Heres Venturing booklet.

 

I cant do both so which one of these would you start with?

 

[emb021]

Roundtables should always be separate. Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and Venturing Roundtables should be held at the same time and place, but each should met in separate rooms. Its one thing for everyone to come together for 15-20 for common info, but after that should be in there separate rooms.

 

The goal should be to have a Venturing Roundtable in every district. Reality is this is not possible in many districts or councils, SO the idea is to have a council-wide Venturing Roundtable (maybe quartetly or bi-monthly), with the aim that as the numbers increase in districts to encourage the formation of district Venturing roundtable (or have 2-3 districts 'team up' for this).

 

Getting a Roundtable together is a good way to get a VOA going. As you bring together the Venturing youth, give them the idea of getting a VOA/Cabinet to start planning the program of the Roundtable and getting council events going. Recruit additional adults to help with this. This is NOT a one-man operation.