Venture Crews at Klondike Derbies

[qwazse]

(aw shucks, Moose)

 

InMyHumbleOpinion - Venturers, along with OA, as they mature, should be the "movers and shakers" of program at the district and council level.

 

Some of them will come in with too much swagger and a be little rough around the edges. Hopefully getting dinged for vulgarities or other misdeeds will straighten them out. Thus the importance of their participation in district events.

 

As they approach that 18-and-over mark they begin to be very helpful at pointing out what the program looks like from "the cheap seats." They have a feel for what events should be exclusive or inclusive, and who should "own" what activity. Us old folks would do well to listen to them. Some folks may be doing that in Fox's district, thus the changing of policies regarding their "Venturing fellowship weekend".

 

So I agree with Fox 76 that it's a pain figuring out where these kids fit in. I just think that there is some gain for all the hassle.

[SeattlePioneer]

Hello moosetracker,

 

 

Let's presume there is a unit out there thaqt has a bad culture. The adult leaders don't recognize the problems or haven't been able to deal with them.

 

Perhaps participation in a district Klondike Derby or Camporee would be the ticket for highlighting those problems and motivating changes.

 

 

A potty mouthed unit should expect repeated and sharp corrections from leaders at competitions.

 

A unit which has no camping skills is going to have a powerful inducement to improve when they see other units doing well (and winning competitions) while they can't get their tents up, a fire started or dinner prepared.

 

Unit youth and adult leaders may have a chance to start understanding how Scouting works at the evening crackerbarrel.

 

District and council events are ways that the common Scouting culture expresses itself. That has been stimulating youth and units to understand and get with the program for many decades.

 

I would suppose it would have a similar effect on all female Venturing units.

 

 

[Frank17]

We just did our Klondike a couple of weeks back and had separate awards for the cub scouts (mostly webelos) and the boy scouts who were there. It was ironic that this actually hurt the cub scouts, as if there had been an overall competition, 2 of the cub scout patrols would have taken 1st & 2nd place based on their scores. Tjhis, for a competition that was based on TF to 1st class skills!

[NJCubScouter]

I have never heard of a Venture Crew participating in a competitive district event. I don't think it happens in our district. I have seen individual Venturers on staff, and of course if they are cross-registered as a Boy Scout they can compete with their patrol, but as a crew competing with Boy Scout patrols, no. At least I have never seen it.

 

Not that it necessarily would be a huge deal in our district, because the competitions are already divided between senior patrols and junior patrols. (They seem to do the division differently for different events, but one example is "averaging" the ranks of the boys in a patrol and if the average is higher than (usually) First Class it is a senior patrol, otherwise it is a junior patrol. All patrols have to complete the same tasks in the competition, but the senior patrols and junior patrols are ranked separately and two sets of awards are given out. I guess putting a Venture Crew (under 18 only) in the senior category wouldn't be too far out of line, at least in terms of the age range.

 

As far as the gender issue... well, although Boy Scouts is still all-boy, the BSA ended the absolutist gender separation (among youth) about 40 years ago, when Explorer posts were allowed to go coed, so my attitude is that nobody should fall over in shock if a teenage girl is seen participating in a Scouting-related activity.