Does your Troop and Crew????

[Basementdweller]

Does your Troop and Crew function as one unit?

 

Met at the Same time and Place?

 

Hold join outings or just plan one outing????

[Stosh]

When I had a troop and crew they weren't even in the same district.

 

Stosh

 

 

[click23]

I knew of a troop and crew that did this, it was an utter failure. Venturing is not boy scouts, if you try to operate them as one unit you are asking for a failure of the crew.

 

Occasional joint activities of troops and crew at the same CO on the other hand is a great idea.

[AnniePoo]

No

No

One or two joint events a year, but otherwise seperate.

[Sentinel947]

I agree, if you have a Venture Crew, it's to provide adventure opportunities that the regular troop program can't provide, why would you operate them with the Troop as well?

 

Yours in Scouting,

Sentinel947

[qwazse]

That is at the discretion of the Crew President and Troop SPL. We encourage them to work together, but ask them to use judgement as to when and how. I do show them the chart of appropriate activities for each age range. It gives them an idea of what allowed activities might be common to both groups, but also gives them a vision of things they can do that they might not have considered.

 

Boys who are members of both units may use both mailing lists for announcing their service projects.

 

Practically, about 1/3 of the activities are shared. Typically, that's the backpacking and service projects and the occasional council/area camporee. (It's interesting that given the choice, our VOA officers with ties to a troop have asked to share a campsite with their partner troop rather than a campsite exclusive to crews.)

 

We haven't met on the same night, but that's been a failure on the crew's end and a waste of my time. I'm thinking of us meeting on the same night with slight overlap for shared announcements. The crew meets every other week, so on the off-weeks that time-slot could be reserved for the PLC.

[Second Class]

No, and no.

Our crew is 95% young women, and they don't want to have anything remotely to do with brothers I mean troop.

 

[Eagle92]

While the key movers and shakers were there, yes.

 

Long story short, or at least I'll try

 

My troops Leadership Corps turned into a venture crew once we ran out of the round Leadership Corps patches. But the crew still ran like the LC, i.e. did lots of teaching and working with the troop, but occasionally doing their own thing.

 

When Venturing split from Exploring in 1998, and venture crews became venture patrols because Venturing used the term Crews for their units, there was some confusion among some of the Scouts and young ASMs. It wasn't until one of them actually sat down with a DE to find out why he couldn't earn a Bronze Award was the differences between venture crew/patrol and a Venturing Crew were explained.

 

So they went about creating a Venturing Crew, but used it the old Leadership Corps still, i.e. doing things with the troop, but doing some occasional stuff on their own.

 

It worked well for a while.

[ntrog8r]

One of the Troops and Crew I UC meet at the same place and time and the "Crew" does exactly what is on the Troop schedule. The only difference between the Crew and a Patrol is that the Crew members show up in jeans and t-shirts and the rest of the Scouts come in uniform.

 

There are no separate activities, no HA planned. Young women that inquire about Venturing are told to check out a different nearby Crew. The CO not only accepts, but actively encourages it, to stay exactly the same.

[Eagle92]

N,

 

The crew my old troop started specifically wrote no girls into their by-laws. Crews can be coed, all male, or all female.

 

Haven't seen it in the US, but one Scout Association troop in the UK was all female.

[fred8033]

Need to be slightly more specific. Troop and crews run programs differently.

 

--- "Function as one unit" can mean different things.

--- "Meet at the Same time and Place?" can mean different things.

--- "unit" can mean different things... even though BSA has clear meaning being a pack, troop or crew

 

Generally... IMHO... You can meet at the same time and place, BUT at minimum you'd need two different large rooms and a few other smaller rooms. One for the troop to run their program. One for the crew to run theirs.

 

IMHO, you don't need to meet at the same time and place to work as one unit.

 

But when I say "unit" I view unit as the charter org providing a youth scouting program. IMHO, pack, troop, crew are scouting program levels. And I'd add Webelos to that list as a separate program level.

[Eagle92]

Fred,

 

If your question was to my post, the way they did it was this. The Venturing Crew was essentially the venture crew/patrol that acted like the old Leadership Corps, with all under 21 ASMs added. Had to be registered in the Troop to be in the Crew. Crew's by-laws stressed that they were to help the troop out, and provide an avenue for them to do their own activities away form the troop. Also it provided continued challenges in the form of Ranger, Bronze, Gold, and Silver Awards.

 

[SR540Beaver]

While Boy Scouting and Venturing are under one umbrella organization and they share a common pupose and mission, they operate under totally different models. While there is room for some joint activities, they need to have their own identity, culture and traditions. One issue I've seen in the past was having scouts who were members of both the troop and crew. The troop and crew has a joint campout. What does the dual registered boy do? Does he camp with his patrol which depends on him as part of the team or does he camp with his crew that has a more individual flare? Or are you going to have the crew function as patrol(s) of the troop for the weekend and if so, then you aren't venturing are you?

[Deaf Scouter]

Separate units because their goals were different. Venture was a once a month activity that included sisters or other gals interested in Scouting along with some of the older Troop members that either graduated the Troop or not interested in the Troop's Trail to Eagle goals. The Crew gets many discounts being under the BSA umbrella while going high adventure once a month trying something new.

[qwazse]

What does the dual registered boy do? Does he camp with his patrol which depends on him as part of the team or does he camp with his crew that has a more individual flare?

 

I've found that the youth are quite capable of sorting this out by themselves. All you have to do is let them know before the event that they have responsibilities and need to work things out so everyone is taken care of. Generally, it's the SPL who has it the toughest. The younger one's tend to realize too late that they would rather be with one group or another, but haven't communicated clearly to make it happen. The older one's make arrangements for when they might be away from the troop, communicate to the PLC, and delegate accordingly.

 

The real problem with joint outings is that there tend to be more adults than there need to be. For me, that means I find myself coaching adults in keeping their distance -- more from the troop (where boys are just learning to work independently) than from the crew (where some of the older youth are looking for that adult partnership).