Camp staff Venturing crews

[shortridge]

Hi -

 

I'd like to hear from others out there who have experience with crews set up by summer camp staff members. How do you keep the crew together during the year? Deal with the inevitable departures? What activities do you do - high-adventure or other activities away from camp, or mainly support and service work on the camp's behalf? Does the Venturing crew run a campmaster crew in the off-season?(This message has been edited by shortridge)

[emb021]

Most of the camp staff Venturing crews I am aware of really exist only for the purpose of ensuring all the camp staff have BSA registrations. They pretty much have no existance outside of camp staff. What ever their existance is, it starts and ends with camp and any camp-related activities.

 

If any of the members of the camp staff want to do any Venturing stuff, its as a member of a 'regular' Venturing crew.

 

[OldGreyEagle]

The Council I serve has three Camp Crews, all registered in the District I serve as the COuncil Office is in the District I serve, except the Council Office really isnt but that's where they were registered so thats where they are. One thing I have to say, they are the campingest Crews the Council has, 8 weeks of long term Camping, no one else comes close. One Crew does advancements, one youth last year earned Eagle as a Crew member and a few have earned Gold. Mostly its a convention for the staf to be BSA registered. One thing that rankles my rear is the uniform. Venturing shirt with Boy Scout shorts. I have commented on this numerous times to no avail.

[John-in-KC]

One of our Crews in my Council is the CORE of a camp staff... but they are not the only youth involved. It's co-ed BTW.

 

Many of the youth join this particular Crew because the Advisor is just plain good people, and they really like the mentorship year-round.

[Eamonn]

While I am happy to hear that some of these units are indeed real and do something!

I have for sometime wondered why camps do this?

Our Council signs the youth camp staff up as a Crew.

They never do anything, outside of camp staffing. Even youth who are registered as Venturers are members of this camp crew.

We have two Sea Scouts who are staff members at a camp in Georgia. They are also signed up as Venturers in that Council?

To me this is just plain daffy!

For a very long time I have been told that the number of Venturers is a mess because Councils have played with the membership numbers.

This would seem to me to be a case of first class messing.

Ea.

[scottteng]

Our camp staffs are officially a crew too. They have spirit and camaraderie and are generally ok. I fear the main reason they are a crew is to cover them with insurance in case one of them should get hurt. Most are BSA members anyhow and for the cost of a new application the camp crew is covered.

[John-in-KC]

Ours is a Crew because the young adults like to do fun things throughout the year. There's lots of small stuff ... minigolf, winter ice skating, we do various VOA events, and the kids get to go to camp before they hit their own season.

 

 

[Vicki]

Just extrapolating from the three summer camps I've attended in three different councils - two were Venturing crews and young women were involved as instructors. One was traditional scouts in their home uniforms and none of the instructors were young women.

 

I think the co-ed nature of Venturing may have something to do with the reasons for setting camp staff up as crews.

 

I should add - I have no idea if they do anything as a crew during the off season.

 

Vicki(This message has been edited by Vicki)

[emb021]

"For a very long time I have been told that the number of Venturers is a mess because Councils have played with the membership numbers."

 

You've been misinformed.

 

Everyone is assigned a unique ID number in the BSA. So regardless of the number of units you may be registered with, you are only counted ONCE for purposes of membership. With Venturing Crews, the youth would be registered as primary in ONE (and only one) crew, and secondary in as many as they wish.

 

 

[shortridge]

John-in-KC:

 

In that active crew, do you know if most of the youth reside locally? Are they high school-age or in college?

 

Thanks -

[John-in-KC]

Since EagleSon is a part of that Crew (it's his 3d year on staff) ...

 

It's made up of HS and college kids. Farthest away member is 250 miles during the school year, but she makes holiday events. EagleSon this fall will be 140 miles away as a freshman, another young lady will be 60 miles away (different direction). A couple of the HSers are across the metro (35 miles or so) from the Advisor's home and the church where they meet (about 3/4 mile from Advisor's home).

 

Another 4 youth or so are within 5 miles of the Advisor's front door.

 

I do know that the kids communicate through facebook and email during the program year.

 

BTW, one great retention tool we have in our Council is a major scholarship endowment. Camp staffers going to juco, vo-tech, or university all get $$$, with awards increasing with service.

[gwd-scouter]

Our camp staff is Venturing Crew #1. Most, if not all, of the male staffers are from our Council. They do have a staff get together in the winter for anyone who ever worked on staff, but I don't know of anything else they do together as a Crew.

 

They keep in touch during the year through their staff facebook page and through their personal pages. Most of them go to college together, too.

[Eamonn]

emb021

Please believe me I do know what is supposed to happen.

But...

As we have seen from other forum members some are in fact registered more than once.

What about the Unit?

Is this not counted?

While, as I posted I'm gladdened to hear that some of these "Camp Crews" are doing something.

I know for a fact that the Camp Crew that our camp has does nothing after camp and during camp they work as camp staff members, not youth members of a crew, same goes for the Sea Scouts who "belong to the camp staff crew in Georgia.

I wonder how many of these Crews elect officers? How many of these officers plan anything? If these so called Crews do anything that they are not paid to do?

While I don't know very much about insurance, I would think (I don't know.)That as employees these Staff Members would be covered by the same insurance that any other employee would expect to be covered by. Workman's Comp and all the other insurances that every other employer is expected to provide.

Last time I checked OJ is still on the Camp Crew charter. He is no longer a youth member, he is now chartered with a Troop as an ASM. He isn't working at camp???

Ea.

[NeilLup]

"Everyone is assigned a unique ID number in the BSA. So regardless of the number of units you may be registered with, you are only counted ONCE for purposes of membership. With Venturing Crews, the youth would be registered as primary in ONE (and only one) crew, and secondary in as many as they wish. "

 

Hello emb,

 

This should be true, particularly if the person multiple registers. However, if they register twice, pay two registration fees and particularly if they use slightly different names in registering (not necessarily in a sinister fashion), they may get two or more different numbers.

[Stosh]

Double full registration is necessary in some cases. I am a troop SM and a crew CA. In order for me to receive full information on both programs I cannot dual register because my secondary registration doesn't get me full information all the time. Thus, I double register, with the same name and receive two different numbers. However, if I were to join up with two crews, this process would not be necessary, in that case I would dual register.

 

Stosh