Is BSA trying to kill Venturing?

[EagleScout441]

"The council doesn't care as long as the money comes in."

And that's why there are crews focused on everything from role-playing games or anime, to what it's supposed to be: HA, Leadership, and "a chance to learn and grow in a supportive, caring, and fun environment."-"What Is Venturing" -scouting.org

:

"Typically in our area, the sports crews are ski clubs or specialty sports."

I see many of the specialty sports, such as skiing, to be HA. When someone says sports I would think of something more along lines of team sports: baseball, soccer, or football(though football is banned by the BSA).

"but I know of no church youth group that is truly youth led."

I didn't consider that.

"Venturing gives them a "big tent" where they can share their talents to make a better community and grow up to be thoughtful and caring adults."

It also spreads out units of the same interests where one area tends to have mainly outdoor crews(like mine), and some areas may only have art and hobby crews. And if an area with mainly hobby crews sends a crew representative to Jambo and they don't really know how to camp because they're focused on hobbies, it causes Boy Scouts to look down upon them because they only ever here about the HA crews. And that discourages many Boy Scouts from joining.

"Besides, if we extended your argument downward, maybe we should get rid of about 100 merit badges. Especially those STEM ones. What's a boy scout need to bother with programming languages anyway?"

I'm not saying to cut out the variety, I'm saying that Venture Crews should, like the Boy Scouts, establish a main focus and insert that variety into it.

[Stosh]

One of the biggest problems with Venturing is that it competes with the high end Boy Scout program. 1) it draws the top leadership out of the troops because now they can have co-ed and 2) do many of the things Boy Scouts can't do. However, its basically a free-for-all program. The Venturing Crew I started has contact with the Council once a year when they recharter. That's it. They even throw away any and all information that is sent out by the council. Basically all they are doing is slipping in under the insurance radar. The council doesn't care as long as the money comes in. I would doubt whether anyone from the council has ever attended an activity of the crew in the past 15 years. I know for a fact that they didn't for the first 12.

Unfortunately, not all units handle it as well as your crew/troop has. The only ones getting hurt with that process is both units and the kids. Yeah, co-ed venture patrols would be nice, but probably not any time soon. However, I don't see that being any different than the setup you have going for you at the present time. Nice to see it is working out for you.

[Eagledad]

One of the biggest problems with Venturing is that it competes with the high end Boy Scout program. 1) it draws the top leadership out of the troops because now they can have co-ed and 2) do many of the things Boy Scouts can't do. However, its basically a free-for-all program. The Venturing Crew I started has contact with the Council once a year when they recharter. That's it. They even throw away any and all information that is sent out by the council. Basically all they are doing is slipping in under the insurance radar. The council doesn't care as long as the money comes in. I would doubt whether anyone from the council has ever attended an activity of the crew in the past 15 years. I know for a fact that they didn't for the first 12.

I've spent a lot of time working with troops with crews and your success is rare indeed. We have one troop in our district that could be viewed as a success because the crew has been around a long time, but the troop is an Eagle mill and very few scouts stay in the troop past age 14. Sounds like you have a good group of adults.

[Eagle92]

"The council doesn't care as long as the money comes in."

And that's why there are crews focused on everything from role-playing games or anime, to what it's supposed to be: HA, Leadership, and "a chance to learn and grow in a supportive, caring, and fun environment."-"What Is Venturing" -scouting.org

:

Quazse,

 

Yep I know, and if my post offended, I'm sorry as that was not the intent. rather it was to agree with you. That was what I was trying to point out. There are those pros who understand Venturing,usually those who were involved in Exploring or Venturing as a youth/volunteer. That was me.

 

But the vast majority just do not understand the concepts behind Venturing and how it works. And as I pointed out, even those pros who should know better, the ones who got the info on Venturing before it came out in order to train the Pros at the All Hands conference, don't understand all the concepts. And if they don't understand, what about the pros who didn't get the advance info or were involved as youth.

 

441,

 

Venturing's greatest strength, as well as its greatest weakness, is variety and lack of focus.

 

I know it's hard to understand. Heck I had challenges getting the concept down pact when I was a Sea Scout, ok Sea Explorer but I still wore the "bugs," and the ship I joined didn't have the "focus." I was expecting something similar to my Scout troop and the stories the SM who was a Quartermaster told about his adventures in Sea Scouting. But he was a Sea Scout before it became Sea Exploring.

 

It wasn't until I became a associate adviser with a post and went through training that it clicked. Helped that the guy who trained me was an " Exploring Executive" who focused only on Exploring, and had lost of expereince with working on a variety of posts, most career oriented but some not.

[BadenP]

Talking with my SE this afternoon it really seems that National is hell-bent to cripple Venturing and the other scout programs as well. First there will now be one scout oath and law that will apply to all scouting programs, second the new venturing awards will be more like the boy scout belt loop awards of old, fast and easy to get with no real learned skills involved, and the list goes on. I told my SE that my crew will not be changing ANYTHING in our program that has significantly grown and prospered for over a decade now, in spite of what National puts out for Venturing unless the new awards program fits into the current Venturing model we will not use it at all and instead will have our own award system. My SE is in full agreement with us, mainly because he doesn't want to lose a crew of 85 youth and 30 adults (who make up over 50% of the council trainers). The SE has also agreed to send a letter along with our crew associate advisors and myself five page letter outlining how and why our crew is prospering while so many others are not, explaining why he feels Nationals Venturing plan is heading in the wrong direction. Our adult le