Venturing Rank

[charmoc]

So what is to become of Venturing? We now use the same oath, law and sign as Cub and Boy scouts. After reading the new revised awards program I’m under the impression that there will now be more of an expectation to expend a significant amount of energy towards rank advancement.

 

[qwazse]

Hate to break it to you, but that expectation was always there. Awards were never intended to be for the elite 1 in 1000 venturers. My take: I'm telling my youth that I expect them to be growing. As they do, I would be honored if they talked to me about how that's happening for them. From there it's just a matter of paperwork. So far they ain't biting.

[BadenP]

The changes in the Venturing in the long run can only hurt the program, because National still has not figured out how to deliver an effective and exciting program for high school age youth. Working with Venturing for the past 15 years and maintaining a crew of now 100 members the Venturing leaders in our council both adult and youth HAVE figured out what you need to do and how to do it the right way. All of the crews have members from adjoining councils whose Venturing crews are disappearing faster than their boy scout troops. Venturing is NOT about rank or how many badges you earn and never has been

[Eagle94-A1]

Qwazse,

 

I must respectfully disagree with you on the expectation with Venturing awards. When the then Venturing director came to my PDL-1 class to talk about the "new" program coming out, as well as at the "All Hands Conference" that unveiled Venturing, the "recognitions" were never suppsoed to besomething optional that the youth could focus on IF they desired. Again, in everything I heard and read at that time, advancment was not the focus, but an opportunity. The focus was to keep older youth involved in the Scouting program using the 5 focus areas.

[qwazse]

You were a victim of double-speak. When Bill Evans visited our council in '07, he said that every venturer should take advantage of the "awards opportunity" in venturing

 

The understanding was that not every venturer would get Silver, but there was an expectation that more than .001 of the membership would work on an award.

 

The notion that dozens of youth would gather together, plan adventures, serve the community, etc ... not one of them wanting to bother with being recognized for it ... that is completely foreign to the great minds in the BSA.

 

So if the new awards don't have any more curb appeal than the old ones, expect this cycle to repeat. In the minds of executives, underutilized=failure.

[Eagle94-A1]

Quazse,

 

I'm talking about the national Venturing director in 1998, sorry can't remember his name but it was the one before Holmes. Again in May 1998 at PDL-1, and again in August at the All Hands Conference, the director, as well as various other presenters at the conference, said the "recognitions" were an option for those Venturers interested in working on them. The focus of Venturing was to keep youth in the movement by using the 5 specialties and creating specialty crews.

 

I do agree with you on "The notion that dozens of youth would gather together, plan adventures, serve the community, etc ... not one of them wanting to bother with being recognized for it ... that is completely foreign to the great minds in the BSA." I really do think the further you are away from the field, the less in touch you are with the folks that matter: the youth. And having worked for national at one point, I can tell you that some folks do not have a clue how things work.

[Old_OX_Eagle83]

The changes in the Venturing in the long run can only hurt the program' date=' because National still has not figured out how to deliver an effective and exciting program for high school age youth. Working with Venturing for the past 15 years and maintaining a crew of now 100 members the Venturing leaders in our council both adult and youth HAVE figured out what you need to do and how to do it the right way. All of the crews have members from adjoining councils whose Venturing crews are disappearing faster than their boy scout troops. Venturing is NOT about rank or how many badges you earn and never has been[/quote']

 

I agree that "Venturing is NOT about rank or how many badges you earn and never has been", but will point out that neither is Boy Scouts.

 

The biggest problem I see with crews, even those touted as being "successful crews", is that they are simply adventure clubs, and have lost all sense of the purposes goals of the program. Fun adventures are a tool used to create an environment where the programs goals can be accomplished.

[h=2]Goals[/h] Young adults involved in Venturing will:

• Learn to make ethical choices over their lifetimes by instilling the values in the Venturing Oath and Code.
  
• Experience a program that is fun and full of challenge and adventure.
  
• Become a skilled training and program resource for Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and other groups.
  
• Acquire skills in the areas of high adventure, sports, arts and hobbies, religious life, or Sea Scouting.
  
• Experience positive leadership from adult and youth leaders and be given opportunities to take on leadership roles.
  
• Have a chance to learn and grow in a supportive, caring, and fun environment
  

[BadenP]

Old Ox what you describe is exactly what our crews do, and our crews also get an extensive background on a wide variety of outdoor experiences. That is why the crews in our council are continuing to grow and prosper along with the complete support of our SE and the community. WE have even had two National reps visit our crews and they were impressed. One of them even said, "I wish we could do this on a National level" and I answered him that there was absolutely no reason why they couldn't. All it would take would be taking Venturing into a new positive and exciting direction instead of trying to change everything in the program, and we would be happy to show them how to do it. They replied they would take it under advisement. We will see what happens.

[baggss]

I'd not hold my breath on that

[qwazse]

This is a negative viewpoint. For rhetorical purposes, the writer implies that we are moving to a required venturing uniform and that the new awards are actually "ranks". I don't believe that either of those are true. However, I haven't seen the new VLST training materials to know exactly how this will be fed to new leaders.

[dfolson]

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/training/pdf/511-904_WB.pdf

 

 

Officially Venturing does not have 'leaders' it has Advisors. The uniform is not require except when attending specific events and they are not ranks, they are still advancements.

[dfolson]

I ment to say... Recognition Awards (not rank)

 

[qwazse]

I ment to say... Recognition Awards (not rank)

 

Freudian slip or autocorrect?

[dfolson]

Let me try again.... There are no ranks in Venturing, they are recognition awards.

[MattR]

BadenP, with a hundred scouts in your crew, how do they organize? Is there something similar to a patrol that has some permanence or is it by event?