| Venturing (boy Scouts Of America) |
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Information AboutVenturing (boy Scouts Of America) |
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''' are the nautical oriented part of this division. As of the end of 2004, the Venturing program was serving 280,584 Venturers with 65,504 crew level leaders in 21,135 crews.1 IDEALS The Methods of Venturing are:
;The Venturing Oath As a Venturer, I promise to do my duty to God and help strengthen America, to help others, and to seek truth, fairness, and adventure in our world. ;The Venturing Code As a Venturer, I believe that America's strength lies in our trust in God and in the courage, strength, and traditions of our people. I will, therefore, be faithful in my religious duties and will maintain a personal sense of honor in my own life. I will treasure my American heritage and will do all I can to preserve and enrich it. I will recognize the dignity and worth of all humanity and will use fair play and goodwill in my daily life. I will acquire the Venturing attitude that seeks truth in all things and adventure on the frontiers of our changing world. ;The Venturing Sign :A raised right hand with the palm open, upper arm held horizontally and the forearm vertically. The right thumb is held slightly open, creating a "V."'' ;The Venturing Hand Salute :A full-hand salute, with the pointer touching the forehead or hat brim.'' HISTORY Shortly after Boy Scouting was founded in the United States, its creators encountered a problem with older boys. Some grew bored with the program, usually around 14–15, while others didn't want to leave their troops after reaching the age of 18. To alleviate this problem, overtime a haphazard group of new programs were created for older boys, including the Sea Scouts , Air Scouts , Rover Scouts , Senior Scouts and Explorer Scouts, among others. Around 1935, most of these were brought together under the overall Senior Scout Program Division. In 1949, these programs were reworked into Explorers, which included Sea Explorers and Air Explorers. In 1959, these were further re-worked and condensed into a unified Exploring program with Sea Explorers as a relatively independent sub-group.2 In the 1950s and beyond, many Explorer posts chose to run career awareness programs. Some of these programs became affiliated with specific organizations, such as police, fire departments and hospitals. In the 1960s and further into the 70s, this became an important aspect of the overall Exploring program. Even with the emphasis on more career-oriented posts, outdoor oriented posts still remained popular. In 1971, after a two-year experimental phase with Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Girls , the Explorer program went co-ed. On July 30 , 1996 , the ACLU issued a statement3 charging that members of Explorer posts affiliated with public services had a significant advantage over non-members in finding employment with these services. Because the BSA prohibits its members from being openly Homosexual or Atheist , these public services were discriminating against such people. On April 10 , 1997 , the ACLU filed a lawsuit4 against the City of Chicago for allowing these programs. Most of these problematic units were career-awareness posts affiliated with government agencies, especially law enforcement and fire awareness posts. In August 1998, the BSA moved all offending Explorer posts, and the Exploring program itself, to a subsidiary called Learning For Life . Participants in this program are not members of the BSA. All other Exploring posts were moved to the new Venturing program. This program was hastily designed (a change of this scale would take 7 to 10 years under normal circumstances) and as a result, there were many gaps and inconsistencies in the program guides. However, some of the new program (such as new awards) had already been in the works for several months. There has been some confusion between Venturing and the pre-existing Venture program. The awards system was incomplete. Many other details were noticeably less developed than their Exploring and Boy Scouting counterparts. Since that time, things have improved. New and updated manuals have come out. Additional awards (Quest and TRUST) have been added. New leadership training programs for youth such as Venturing Leadership Skills Course and Kodiak /Kodiak-X (formerly called Nature of Leadership) have been rolled out, as well as Powder Horn for adults. Venturing, like Exploring, continued the tradition of having a national president of the organization. Unlike other divisions, Venturing includes in its structure national and regional presidents. The pre-1998 Exploring program elected its national president at the biannual National Exploring Leadership Conference. The last president elected was Jon Fulkerson in 1998. He was elected to serve as the national Exploring president and served in that capacity for a period of two weeks, until August 1 , 1998 at which time he became the first national Venturing president. His first term of office was spent promoting the infant program and working on violence prevention programs that have been adopted by the Venturing division. Currently, nominations are solicited for regional presidents, who are selected at the Annual National Meeting of the BSA in May by a subcommittee from the National Venturing Committee. The president is now selected from the pool of the four region presidents of the previous term. Many councils have council level Venturing youth cabinets (which may be called Venturing Officer Associations or Teen Leader Councils) who plan and carry out Venturing events at the council and district levels. Many regional presidents are trying to promote the establishment of area-level Venturing presidents and events, but this effort is inconsistent from region to region. ORGANIZATION The Venturing crew is sponsored by a community organization such as a business, service organization, school, labor group or religious institution. The chartering organization is responsible for selecting leadership, providing a meeting place and promoting a good program. The chartered organization representative is the liaison between the crew, the chartered organization, and the BSA. The crew may elect to be all-male, all-female or Co-ed . The crew committee is a group of adults, led by the crew committee chair, who guide the crew program and activities and manage record keeping, finance, leadership recruitment and registration. The crew is led by youths who are elected to the positions of president, one or more vice-presidents, secretary, and treasurer. Other positions in the crew may exist, such as activity chair. The adult advisor and associate advisors provide guidance while allowing the youth to lead the crew. UNIFORM There is no official uniform for Venturing crews. Each crew may decide for themselves whether to have a uniform and if so, what that uniform should be. The BSA Supply Division offers the spruce green shirt for use by Venturing crews and the Venturing Division recommends that crews use charcoal grey activity pants or shorts as part of their uniform. Crews may also determine different uniforms to be used for formal and activity situations. {Link without Title} The Scouter Dress Uniform is appropriate for professional Scouters and all Scouting leaders on formal occasions. The term "Distinctive Dress Identity (DDI)" is no longer a part of the Venturing program, per se, but a modified version of this concept continues is that crews make their own decisions regarding uniform issues. ADVANCEMENT AND RECOGNITION Youth advancement
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