Venturing Magazine Website

I'm still trying to figure out how to tie all these social media together.  Here is a link to the venturing Magazine website. 

I'm contemplating a lead article about recruiting for a brand new Venturing Crew for our May issue.   I think i will go ahead and write this article, as I have started a bunch of new Venturing Crews and Explorer Posts (back in the day, before the 1998 introduction of Venturing).

My hesitation is that May is possibly the very worst time to try and recruit to your existing Crew, and is a potentially disastrous time to try and start a new Crew.  Teens are looking forward to summer, have made their plans, have Spring fever, and it is very difficult to get their attention or their commitment.  They aren't much different from those of us who have our teen years in the rear view mirror.

So I'm looking for suggestions!  Is May a good time to talk about fund raising?  Program planning?  Any ideas?

Venturing Corps of Discovery- Servant leadership for Venturing

Here is an unusual opportunity to introduce the idea of Service to Scouting and Community to your Venturing Crew.  The Venturing Corps of Discovery was launched in 1999 in the Central Region.  It was a “pilot” program and lives on through the efforts of volunteers.  There is a very nice website with information on how and why to get this service society started in your Crew, District, or Council.   The site can be visited  at http://www.venturingcorps.com .  There is also a Yahoo Groups list for discussion and news sharing at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/corpsofdiscovery/.

There are no requirements for membership other than a stated intent to promote Venturing within Scouting and your home community.   Finding opportunities for service is left up to the individual Venturing Crew or the individual Venturer.  Examples of projects that have been successful in the past are staffing a camporee or Klondike Derby, serving on staff at a Powderhorn or Kodiak Trek, and making a presentation about Venturing at a District Roundtable or Council event. 

The idea here is that you can use this program to introduce the concept of Servant Leadership to your Venturers in a very positive way.  This is a tool for Venturing, not a recognition program.  It is not intended to be a competitor to Order or the Arrow or the Venturing Officers Association.     

Check it out, and share your success stories on the Corps of Discovery Yahoo Groups email list!

Now that the March edition of Venturing Magazine is out, Craig and I are working on cleaning up some old web business.  The Venturing Corps of Discovery hasn't gotten much attention since last summer, so I just put an information sheet up on the Venturing Magazine along with links to the Corps of Discovery webpage and the Yahoo Groups Discussion list.  This is a neat opportunity to introduce the concept of SERVICE to your Crew.  It isn't a recognition program, its a pay-it-forward Service Society.

Check it out at www.venturingmag.org

Our second edition is out and I think it is significantly more informative than our first attempt.  This time we have addressed the old Exploring concept of Clusters while describing a Venturing Scuba program on the East Coast.  We have an article about youth leadership and the balancing act between running it yourself and throwing your hands in the air and letting the youth do it:.

Next time we will have an article about a program to take 8th graders and grow them into prospective college students by the end of their high school years.  This is an idea for an intentional, thought out program.   Not everyone can or should be going to college, of course, but this is a thoguth provoking idea for parents and Venturing leaders alike.

Check out  www.venturingmag.org

Our March issue is coming soon!  The feature article is about Scuba Diving in Venturing and was contributed by a very active Crew Advisor.  Another article is about the "Let the Youth Do It" dilemma and how to strike a balance between adult led and youth led.

We are still looking for contributors, too.  if you have an idea for an article, please let us know!  If you can write the article, GREAT!  if it;s just an idea, let us know anyway!!

I just received an email announcing the latest edition of Central Point, the newsletter of Central Region Venturing.   This is a very well done newsletter that ties together programs across the mid section of our country.  It is forward looking, announcing that Area Cabinet elections are coming up, and demonstrates that Venturers are part of something bigger than just their local Crew.

I think this is a very important point, and I fear that the vast majority of Venturers and Venturing adult Leaders are unaware of the larger community we have out there.   My local Council has only a handful of general interest Crews, and I daresay that most of them have little exposure to each other.  The larger Council south of me has a dozen or two really active  Crews, too, and if my experience is any indicator, each of them is an independent organization with little awareness of the larger Venturing world.

I don't have the solution to this problem, although Venturing Magazine may be able to increase awareness somewhat.  There is an ongoing debate within professional Scouters over whether Council sponsored events detract from local unit health.  The idea is that, by organizing and promoting such events as camporees, Scout Expo's, and the like, we take away from the local units' opportunity to plan and organize it's own activities.  I agree that this is likely the case for Cub Scout Packs and Boy Scout Troops, but I wonder if it really applies to Venturing Crews? 

I have several reasons for raising this question.  The biggest is that the average Venturing Crew has less than 12 active members.  That is just slightly larger than the average Den or Patrol in a larger Pack or Troop.  With so few youth, it is difficult to achieve the economies of scale to have a really exciting program.  Here is an example of what I mean:  Locally, the Experience Music Project (EMP), a large tribute to rock and roll and other popular music, offers discounts for groups larger than 15.  The group discounted price is $5.  The regular admission price is $15.  How difficult would it be to put together a multi-Crew event at the EMP?  Pretty easy, if you had an effective way to communicate with all your local Crews.  It might even mean offering the event across Council borders, something which seems to be a taboo.

My point here is that there are lots and lots of opportunities for exciting programs for groups larger than a Crew that we just don't take advantage of.  Why would it be harmful to the local Crews for the local Council, or the local District, to offer one of these events annually?  To me, it seems that there would be multiple benefits, including raising awareness that there are other youth and organizations in the is program called Venturing.  I think that, the more we get to know each other, the stronger the community becomes.