Council Camp-o-ree – Venturing Activities???

[CNYScouter]

For the Centennial Anniversary next year we are having a council-wide camp-o-ree.

 

It will be at a small fairgrounds.

 

Its a year away but I was trying to think about what we could offer to Venturing Crews/Sea Scout Ships that would only be for Venturers/Sea Scouts.

 

What type of Venturing only activities would you do?

 

[OldGreyEagle]

How about a Road Rally through the adjacent town, rememebr a road rally is not about speed

 

Or a "Drifting" demonstration put on by a road club

 

Staying with the automotive theme, a change the tire contest or even change the oil and filter

 

then again you may want to do a Video contest, who can make the best Comercial for Venturing, and show the best at the event, of course they would have to be made and submitted ahead of time

 

An all night Venturer only Movie Marathon would be special

 

How about a Texting competition, the fastest on a complete kepboard and then an "old style" phone

 

You could hold an Ethical Controversey Forum, for the Venturing Silver. Have the youth prepare ethical dilemmas and have then discuss them

 

 

 

 

[emb021]

I recommend you get some of your more active Venturers to be involved in the planning of Venturing events. Don't leave it to the adults.

 

You might be surprised.

 

Some Venturers don't care for competative events, other like it. So prehaps a mixture of both would work. My council's annual Venturee has a mixture of different competative events, all planned and carried out by the Venturers. So maybe get with your council VOA, challenge them with something along the lines of each crew come up with an event to man.

 

Some things we've done:

 

volleyball

four way tug of war

geocaching

challenges of the type of 'get from point a to point b' using certain items.

low cope events

tomahawk toss

 

You could also add in other things like say a video challenge (crews or venturers produce a 5 minute video on 'what it venturing all about' or something similiar, these are brought and judged), displays on some them (what our crew does, etc.)

 

take a look at some of the venturing events out there and what they do as activities, and see what is workable at your site.

 

hope that helps. I know we face the same thing, but we have a multi-council camporee next year with venturing activities, so we'll have to do the same.

 

[moxieman]

It may be a year away, but that year will fly by fast. Good for you to plan ahead!

 

As some of the others have said, get some Venturers from different crews involved in the planning. If you want the activities to be successful, what better way than to have those who want to do'em to plan'em?

[scoutldr]

My first impression is that the Venturers should be involved in planning and running the Camporee for the younger BS and CS. Isn't that part of their mission? If they want a "Venturing Only" event, make it on a different weekend.

[John-in-KC]

Remember that your event, by bringing in Venturers, will have both young men and women. Are you prepared to allocate space to meet the needs per Crew of the 4 required sleeping areas when the unit is co-ed?

 

I'm another one of the folks that say let the Venturers set their own plan and do Venturing things, up to and including a road rally weekend. Indeed, the high-energy allnighter (which a Webelo leader was rightly griping about in a camping thread) is something teens like to do now and again.

 

 

 

[fbh1]

Because Venturing is such a different animal then the CS/BS progams, it would be in your best interest to have a different event for the venturers. If you really want to include venturers in the camporee, you could have some of the crews get together and setup 1-2 stations for the scouts to visit.

 

If you decide to have a seperate event, do something that the venturers want to do and get input from the venturers themselves. Just because you think it would be fun, doesn't mean that they will. (I have a feeling that this will be a problem in the next few years with the one senior scouting activity, only one person who is activly on the committee is actually a Venturing leader and they want to change or replace activities) Some activities that we do at our event include volleyball, swimming, talent show, luau, dance (since this is coed), and my favorite canoe swamp (tie two canoes to stationary objects so that they are about a foot apart. three people get into each canoe. everyone is given a bucket. when the whistle blows both teams try to sink the other teams canoe by throwing water from the lake into the other canoe. you cannot bail out of your canoe). We are talking about trying a mini triathlon next year also.

 

Hope this gave you some ideas of what you could do for a ventring activity next year. Just remember this golden rule: Do something that the venturers want to do and probably get them to help plan it (also, just because cub scouts and boy scouts enjoy doing X doesn't mean that venturers will also enjoy doing X).