DS is spending the week at Fall Fun Rally -the largest annual Venturing event. Harry Potter theme this year so tonight is the Yule Ball. I’m sure he’s having a great time.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

Since I often do reviews when I go camping, I thought I’d do an article about some of our experiences at John S. Swift Explorer Base. Swift is located at S -F Scout Ranch near Farmington,  Missouri.

It is difficult to do a real review of Swift summer camp because their program there is so diverse throughout the summer. They run several weeks of co-ed Venturing camp, Dad ‘n Lad overnights for younger Cub Scouts, three day Webelos mini-week camps, and then special interest weeks like the Catholic Adventure Week for Boy Scouts which we attended. For that reason, I am going to mostly focus on the program opportunities offered for Venturers and Boy Scouts and the camp itself.

Swift’s big feature is the waterfront on Nims Lake. Nims Lake is the largest privately held lake in the state of Missouri. At Swift, Scouts can swim and boat. The swimming area has a sandy beach. Scouts who want to build sandcastles can check into the “sunbathers” section on the buddy board. Boating options include sailboats, canoes, rowboats, kayaks, and stand up paddleboards. Speedboats take campers out tubing and water skiing.

Huck’s Cove, which is just around the corner is a small water park on the lake. It features two large slides on one side of the cove. On the other side there are things like zip lines and rope swings for water fun.

Other program opportunities include horseback riding, shotguns, rifles, and archery. There is also a high ropes course and a low ropes course. And of course for many Scouts, no trip to Swift is complete without a few hours spent rock climbing and rappelling on the cliffs.

Meals are served in a dining hall and the food is good quality and plentiful. There are five campsites at Swift and each site takes a turn for one day being service crew, which involves helping out at the dining hall and some cleaning duties. I like this as opposed to sending people to set tables for every meal. We shared our campsite with a provisional troop, so we only had to send our group up a couple of times for duty that day.

The campsites at Swift Base are spacious and wooded. Each site has a number of wooden platform tents. Most are large three person tents. If those fill up, you can pitch standard wall tents with floorboards. There is plenty of space to pitch additional tents.

The staff at Swift Base are excellent. We had a lot of campers the week we were there, but everything was kept running smoothly. Staff must be 18 or older to work at Swift (probably because they are staffing high adventure activities like horseback riding, climbing, ropes courses, etc.) , and this small but experienced group of staffers put on lots of great program. Since we were there for a Boy Scouts only week, the staff did merit badges in the afternoon.

I’d like to give a special shout out to the aquatics staff. One of our campers was not a strong swimmer but really wanted to pass the swim test. They did instructional swim with him all week, gave him lots of encouragement, and let him keep trying. Finally, on the fourth try on Friday afternoon he passed. This was a tremendous accomplishment for an 11 year old who had some anxiety about even jumping in water over his head at the beginning of the week.

So if you are looking for a camping experience for your older scouts (Boy Scouts or Venturers) or if you are interested in one of the special weeks of summer camp at Swift, I highly recommend it. Swift is a great place to experience the joy of being outdoors and independent and to remember that camping is about the experience as much as it is about earning merit badges.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

The Venturing Gold Award was developed to recognize the significant accomplishment in a young woman’s or man’s life as the Scout has proven outstanding performance in a broad spectrum of activities. Completing the Venturing Gold Award requirements will challenge and motivate Venturers over an extended period.

This award offers challenging and stimulating opportunities for Venturers to develop and achieve personal goals in the areas of leadership, character development, and personal fitness.

The Venturing Gold Award is available to all young men and women who are youth members in the Venturing program offered by the Boy Scouts of America.

Venturing Gold Award Requirements

1. The candidate must have at least 12 months’ tenure as an active, registered Venturer before final qualification.
2. Earn at least one Bronze Award
3. The candidate must have been an active member of the Venturing crew, and served in a leadership role within the past 12 months as follows:
1. For leadership roles within the crew, a candidate might be
1. A crew officer
2. A team leaders’ council member or committee member
3. An activities chairman for one of the crew’s two-day activities or superactivity
2. For leadership roles outside the crew, a candidate might be:
1. An elected youth officer of a church or school organization.
2. A den chief
4. The candidate must have participated in a district, council, area, region, or national Venturing event.
5. The candidate must, in consultation with the crew Advisor or a member of the crew committee, set and accomplish one personal growth goal related to each of the following areas: citizenship, leadership, service to others, community/family, outdoor experience, and total fitness (six personal growth goals). For personal growth, a candidate might:
1. Complete a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) course or an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) course.
2. Plan and carry out a personal exercise program over a four-month period, i.e., jogging, running, swimming, weight reduction, or physical conditioning.
3. Practice for, and attain, the Presidential Physical Fitness Award.
4. Complete a reading program of the scriptures, classic literature, historical series, etc.
5. Serve for six months as a reading counselor for a child with reading problems.
6. Visit a nursing home, on a regular basis, over a four-month period, to help write letters or to read to patients or provide personalized services.
6. The candidate must plan, prepare for, and lead to completion two or more crew activity projects that relate to at least two of the following areas: citizenship, leadership, service to others, community/family, outdoor experience, and total fitness. Suggested crew activity projects are listed separately below. (At least two crew activity projects). For crew/ship activities, the action should involve at least five Venturers, and it should require a minimum of four to six months from inception to completion; the project should be approved and the goals of the project set by the crew Advisor and/or a member of the crew committee and the Venturer candidate. Both parties should certify the completion of the project(s). Activities should be arranged to fit into normal crew programming. Qualifying crew/ship activities include, but are not limited to the following:
1. Plan and, with the help of at least four other Venturers, carry out a conservation project that is approved by an agency of the federal, state, or local government, such as the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, state division of parks and recreation, city or county parks department, etc.
2. Plan and chair a committee that stages a major social activity involving crew members and their parents, or crew members and their entire families.
3. Plan and carry out a series of crew activities over a four- to six-month period, related to an interest of crew members. Professional or volunteer consultants could be asked to present information regarding their specialty, profession, or occupation.
4. Help organize a new Venturing crew, or revitalize an inactive crew; coordinate activity with BSA local council staff members.
5. Organize a recruitment drive to add members to your own crew or to other crews in the district/council. The drive should last at least one month, and the recruitment plan should include specific activities oriented toward recruiting new members, goals, methods of publicity, etc.
7. The candidate must be able to recite the Venturing Oath.
8. The candidate must submit three letters of recommendation to the crew Advisor that confirm he or she lives in accordance with the principles of the Venturing Oath. The letters should come from adults outside the crew, such as school or religious leaders, employers, or community leaders.
9. After completing all other requirements, the candidate should prepare evidence of completion of the work and submit it to the crew Advisor. The crew president, in conjunction with the crew Advisor, should then appoint a review committee of four to six people including Venturers and adults. The committee should review the candidate’s written presentation and interview the candidate to determine whether that person grew as a result of the pursuit of the Gold Award.
10. Finally, the candidate must have qualified for the Gold Award before his or her 21st birthday.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

As many of you know, the old Quality Awards have been replaced by the Journey to Excellence program. The Journey to Excellence Service Project initiative is part of this program.

“Scouting’s Journey to Excellence” is the BSA’s new council performance recognition program designed to encourage and reward success and measure the performance of our units, districts, and councils. It is replacing the Centennial Quality Awards Program as a means of encouraging excellence in providing a quality program at all levels of the BSA.

All Scouting units are encouraged to carryout meaningful service projects as part of this initiative. I think that every BSA unit should be carrying out multiple service projects over the course of a year.

Once your unit completes a service project, you can go to the Journey to Excellence Service Project website and report your hours. This site will keep track of all of the service projects your unit has done and provides your local council a record of your service projects.

The Unit Tips for Success page provides some excellent advice for planning and carrying out service projects. There are lots of service project ideas available there and practical considerations for carrying them out. It also has a great section at the bottom called Ideas for Everyday Kindness and Good Turns. These are not really service projects, but ways to “Do a Good Turn Daily.”

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

A reader recently wrote to me with this question:

Looking for a little advice. My daughter recently joined a newly formed Venture Crew. The adults involved are very enthusiastic, which is great, but they tend to talk over the kids and take over the meetings. Some of the adults are keeping the kids form running the meetings successfully. My daughter doesn’t want to be rude, but she doesn’t feel that the adults are allowing them to make progress without being involved in every step of the process and she doesn’t know how to approach them.

These adults have been involved in Scouting for 30+ years and are a very important resource. No one wants to lessen the importance of their contributions… but the kids don’t want to listen to 30 minutes of  reminiscing .

Any words of wisdom?

I agree that this is a difficult situation. These Scouters probably mean well, but in the long run their over involvement in the meetings won’t benefit the Crew.

I don’t know what your meeting space looks like, but it is possible to divide it up into two different sections – one for adults and one for the teens? Some Scouters just like to get together for fellowship at meetings, so if you provide them with a separate area to do that, maybe they’ll let the Venturers carry on their business on their own.

The youth might also need to take a more direct approach. The officers could band together and be honest with the adults. “We have noticed a problem in the Crew. We would like the youth to run the meetings so we can develop our leadership skills. Would all of the adults mind sitting on the other side of the room so we can try to handle this ourselves? You can see what we are doing from over there. After the meeting, we’ll get together with you for five or ten minutes to review how it went and to see if you have any advice for next time.”

Crews tend to be more free form than other BSA units. They might want to consider holding some of their meetings elsewhere, like at the local burger joint. If it is a small Crew, the youth can all have their own table and the adults can sit nearby. They can even choose a table which only has room for the youth. This alternate format in a public location might discourage adults from hanging out with them all the time.

Does anyone else out there have some advice or solutions to offer to this reader and her daughter? Add your ideas to the comments below.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

Our parish grade school has a Trunk or Treat event every October. If you aren’t familiar with Trunk or Treats, it is an event where everyone parks in a lot and sits by their tailgate. The kids walk from car to car and trick or treat. The school charges $10 a car and sells pizza.

Well, it turns out that many of the teenagers miss going to Trunk or Treat. The Venture Crew had been throwing around ideas about what to do as an October activity. They thought about a Halloween party or going to a haunted house. And one of them said, “Could we go to Trunk or Treat?” And then they all started reminiscing about how fun it was when they were in grade school and they participated in the event.

So they are going to help distribute pizzas at the event and do some other small jobs for the organizers. In return, they will have a table where they can hang out together and pass out candy (since none of them has a car).  They will wear costumes and have a great time.

So this will mostly be a social event for them with just a little service thrown in.  It should be fun for them.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

Our parish Fall Festival is coming up in a couple of weeks. This also serves as a homecoming for the parish grade school. This year, the organizers are trying to make the event appeal more to teenagers.  Our Venturing Crew asked if they could do some sort of service project at the event, and it was decided that they would provide some sort of gathering spot for the teenagers. So they are going to have a pavilion type tent which is for teens only – no little kids allowed.

It sounds like they are going to put up some decorations in the pavilion and have some snacks and a cooler full of Gatorades. And there will be music. They might also run some sort of games from time to time. They are still mulling it over. After all – they still have three weeks left for planning.

I’m not sure exactly how this will turn out, but as the Advisor, my job is to sit back and let them make the plans the way they want to do it. They know I am there if they need me. This is probably the most difficult part of being an adult in a youth led program, but it is also where I see them grow the most. It is a great experience for these teens to call up the event organizers, who they don’t really know, and ask about this and that.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

Maybe you’ve heard about this coed Scouting program for young men and women and you’re ready to try to organize a Venture Crew. You might even have a specific group of young people in mind. It could be you know of a group who want to go out hiking or work on model trains together or maybe you just want to get a church youth group going. So where do you start?

The Boy Scouts of America way of starting a Crew is shown in bold below. Our Crew is about 18 months old now. Like many things in life, we didn’t follow the plan exactly, but it was close enough and seems to be going alright.

Your chartered organization makes a commitment with the Boy Scouts of America to charter a Venture Crew. We already knew that our Crew was going to serve as the high school youth group as our parish. And there had been a Crew a few years back, but it had become inactive. So this was already in place for us, especially since our church already chartered a Cub Scout pack and a Boy Scout Troop.

A committee is organized to recruit Advisors and Committee members. This was basically my husband and myself. We wanted to get this moving, so we asked around and spoke with some other adults who also thought we needed an active youth group at our church. The funny thing is though that none of the adults actually involved in this initial process ever became active in the group once it was formed.

The new Committee members get trained. We did this a little out of order just due to the timing. Plus, I didn’t really have a firm commitment from any adults at this point because they all wanted to see if there kids were really interested before they signed up as Advisors and Committee Members. So we had our kickoff meeting in October, but our adults did not get trained until December. Since my husband and I were already very familiar with BSA rules, regulations, and procedures and we already had youth protection training and since the other adults involved were willing to defer to us, we were comfortable with this.

Program capability inventory is completed. We did this out of order also. We waited until after the kick-off meeting to do this. Once again, we really needed to see who was signing up before we took this step. At the kick-off we had the youth members fill out some surveys about what they were interested in doing. And we had all adults present fill out surveys about their talents and interests.

Invite new members to join. We sent out flyers and encouraged kids to come to the kick-off meeting. We had a good turn out – about 20 kids – but not all of them signed up. In the end we had about 15 sign up and 7 parents volunteered to join my husband and I as advisors.

Crew officers are elected and trained. We waited before doing this. Even though a Crew is supposed to be youth run, we decided to wait until January to have elections. I told them up front that I would take care of the first few months and then they would be in charge after elections. This actually worked out well for us, because some of the kids who were really enthusiastic at the kick-off only came to one or two more activities and then were never heard from again. If they had been elected officers I’m not sure they would have stuck with it. As it turned out, our officers are youth who are really taking charge and participating.

So are you ready to start a Venture Crew? It really is a fun way to bring the values of Scouting to a whole new group of young adults.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

I was recently asked to review a book on teen leadership. The book is called Developing Teen Leadership: A Practical Guide for Youth Group Advisors, Teachers and Parents. It is written by Dan Appleman who has 20 years of experience working with youth.

While this book is not specifically written for scouting programs, many of the ideas expressed in it correlate directly with some of the methods used in scouting. I think some of the advice offered in the book can be very helpful to Scouters working with youth in Boy Scouts and Venturers.

The book is divided into five sections. Today I am reviewing Part 1 – Guiding Principals. This section includes 25 chapters, but don’t despair. Each “chapter” is really only one or two pages. Each chapter gives a very specific piece of advice for adults working with teens.

I have given the complete list of chapters in part 1 at the bottom of this page. I think some of them will resonate immediately with Scouters. For example, Chapter 1: Anything they can do, they should do parallels the familiar quote from Baden-Powell: “Never do anything a boy can do.” Similarly, Let them fail, Don’t be a back-seat driver, and Who owns the group? delve into ideas which have been presented to us in adult leader training.

The chapters in this part are straightforward. The language is easy to understand, unlike some books of this type which are full of jargon and seem to be aimed at psychologists  rather than the average parent. Most of the chapters in the first part end with a list of phrases you can practice to bring the idea into your program. In many cases I wouldn’t say things the way the author does, but the phrases do make you consider how you are dealing with your teens and if there is a better way of going about it.

So while this book is not specific to Scouting I would recommend that you read it just to think about some of the ideas presented about working with teens. I think they will come in particularly handy when dealing with the teenagers in our Venture crew.

I will review the other parts of the book in later posts. You can learn more about the book on Amazon. So, as promised, here is the complete list of topics covered in the first part of the book:

1. Anything they can do, they should do
2. Don’t try to get them to like you; earn their respect
3. Thou shalt not lie
4. Let them fail
5. Limits
6. Find ways to say yes
7. Initiative and control
8. Admit your hypocrisies
9. Role modeling is everything
10. Apologize for your mistakes
11. Set high expectations, but not perfection
12. You really don’t know best
13. Wait – most problems solve themselves
14. Be a back-seat driver
15. Don’t take it personally
16. Talking back is good
17. Plant seeds
18. Boundaries and rules
19. Being there
20. Consistency
21. Who owns the group?
22. Trust
23. Remember the positive
24. Turf and communication

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

The methods of Scouting are the ways that Scouting’s aims of developing character, citizenship, and fitness in youth are achieved.

One of the methods for Venturers is “teaching others”. Teaching others is the best way to really acquire deep knowledge of an area. By sharing their skills with others, Venturers retain their knowledge better and provide service to others

This method fits in well with the older Scout focus of the Venturing program. Teaching others gives Venturers a way to share their knowledge with others. Most teens I have worked with are hungry for more independence and responsibility. This is a good way for them to exercise their growing maturity.

How can this method be incorporated into a Venturing program:

• A crew with a hobby focus could share their knowledge with a school, troop, or pack.
• Crew members can serve as Den Chiefs in a Cub Scout pack. (As far as I can tell, both male and female Venturers are eligible to be Den Chiefs.)
• Recruit new members into the Crew and teach them new skills.
• A crew member with specialized knowledge can do an orientation for an upcoming event, such as skiing or rock climbing.
• Volunteer to serve as a mentor or a tutor to younger children in need.

If you look at all of the references to the requirements for the various Venturing awards below, you will see that they all involve some sort of teaching. And this is really not the whole list. Teaching others is really core to the Venturing program whether the Venturers are working on awards or not.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

Scoutmaster Clarke Greene – of The Scoutmaster Podcast fame – is developing a database of high adventure destinations.  I love the idea! Adding a little adventure to a program keeps older Scouts engaged.

I hope the mid section of the country gets filled in over time. Currently it looks like most of the sites are on the periphery. And while we have some beautiful country just south of here in the Ozarks, it would be great to know of any Scout high adventure programs in the area, for both our Boy Scout Troop and our coed Venture Crew. The youth I am working with seem to carry through on their plans more if they can start with a program rather than planning adventures from scratch.

So go check it out! And if you are not a subscriber to his podcast, give that a listen while you are there also. This is definitely one of my favorite Scout podcasts. As you might guess by the name, it is focused on the Boy Scout program.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

The Crew is planning another activity this month. They are all going to church together and then they are heading to the City Museum. The City Museum is often described as a giant playground for teenagers and young adults, so this should be a fun activity for them.

I advised the Crew member who is organizing the activity to find out about Scout pricing. He came back to me and said we couldn’t get it because the website said we needed proof that we are a Scout group. This made me chuckle. I reminded him that we are a Scout group and if he calls them up and gets more information, I’m sure I can come up with whatever proof or document he needs.

This is part of the fun of being a Crew Adviser. To a 14 or 15 year old, organizing an event like this and calling up people they don’t know for information is a completely foreign concept. But it is great real world practice for them. I really enjoy seeing them learn how to make their ideas happen.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

Those of you who are involved in Boy Scouts might be saying “That’s not one of the methods of Scouting”.  Remember there are different methods Boy Scouts and Venturers. “Group Activities” is one of the methods for Venturers.

Many Venturing Crews are built around a purpose. A Crew chartered to a religious organization might be focused on service projects. A Crew could be organized to learn more about model trains. Whatever the interest of the group, they will need to organize some group activities. This will give the participants real world experience which will help them as they continue to mature.

How can this method be incorporated into a Venturing program:

• Have a regular schedule – how many activities will there be each month?
• Let the members take turns organizing the activities so that they are sharing the work
• If attendance is poor, encourage them to review their plan and try something different if necessary

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

One of the things our Crew has been discussing lately is planning a super activity. A super activity is something beyond the normal weekend campout. It is usually an activity which the crew members would not normally get to particpate. Usually it involves a high adventure component. It needs to be planned over a period of months.

With the exception of JD, who is an 11th grader, our crew is comprised of 9th graders. So saying they want to plan a big activity is a big step for them. They have never done anything like this and will need a lot of adult guidance. But I think it will be a great learning experience for them. With today’s helicopter parents, many high school freshmen have never had anything like this level of responsibility.

At our last meeting, the crew decided they want to try to go to the march for life next January in Washington DC. Our crew doubles as our parish youth group, so this is a natural thing for them to request. It will not be a high adventure super activity, but it fits in well with the goals of our chartered organization and they brought it up themselves, rather than me suggesting it to them.

I think this will be a good first super activity for this group. Travel and lodging arrangements will be easier, since we can go with a contingent from our area.  So they can focus their planning efforts on things like

1. finding someone who has gone before to come in and speak about the experience
2. recruiting adult advisers and consultants to help them
3. fundraising
4. working with other parish organisations (run by adults) to try to get additional support or information
5. registering
6. presentations about what to bring and what they want to do during free time in Washington DC

I’m very happy that this was their own idea and that they are very enthusiastic about it. I think that planning this over the next six months will be a great learning experience for them.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

We had a Venture Crew meeting last Sunday and officer elections were on the agenda. It turned out to be more like “officer volunteers” since we only have about 8 really active members and there are 5 offices.

We have the same young woman as president as last year, and she’s been doing a really good job, so that’s great. JD was persuaded (by me) to run for Treasurer instead of doing VP-Admin again since we really need a Treasurer who will keep track of finances. DS is going to be VP-Program again. And we have a young man who volunteered to give VP-Admin a try. No Secretary yet, but we might still get one.

So what do  all of these offices mean? The leadership structure in a Venture Crew is much different than in a Boy Scout Troop. Here is a brief summary of the suggested responsibilities for each officer.

Venture Crew Offices

President:

The Crew President works with the other officers to ensure that the Crew runs smoothly. The President presides over Crew meetings. The President also works with the Crew Advisers and other adult consultants, actively seeking advice when necessary.

Vice President – Administration

The VP-Admin takes charge of the Crew when the Crew President is not present. The VP-Admin also is usually in charge of membership and recruiting. He or she tracks advancement .

Vice President – Program

The VP-Program oversees the execution of Crew activities. He or she recruits and supports other Crew members who plan and carry out each activity.  The VP-Program regularly surveys the Crew members to learn their interests.  He or she keeps a calendar with activity dates.

Treasurer

The Crew Treasurer maintains the Crew financial records. In some situations, he or she might be responsible for maintaining the Crew checking account and writing checks.  The Crew Treasurer collects dues and keeps track of Crew member accounts. He or she works with other Crew members to organize fundraisers.

Secretary

The Crew Secretary keeps track of attendance and records meeting minutes. He or she is responsible for Crew communications in the form of newsletters, emails, phone trees, etc.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

Our Crew has been trying to recruit lately. The problem they are having is they talk to Bob and he isn’t sure he wants to go unless Tim and Amy are going. They talk to Tim and Amy and they are wondering who else will be there. And on and on…

Then there are the dues. We charge $30. $15 of that covers the BSA registration and the other $15 lets us have a small budget for the Crew, which is also our church youth group. The parents are reluctant to pay the dues. They don’t know if the kids will like the group. What if they only come to a couple of activities? Are their friends joining? We’ve already said that they can come to one meeting and one activity and see if they like it before they pay, but the parents are still unsure.

How do we get beyond these barriers? Our youth members are doing their best efforts to contact these kids and get them in, and they seem interested. But they just can’t seem to commit by signing up.

Case in point – our council is having a ski night for Venturers in a couple of weeks. I need to register the kids by Dec 27 to get the really good group rates.  About half a dozen of the teens they are trying to recruit in say they want to go. But they won’t send in their money until they know which of their friends has already signed up. It is the same with registering them as Venturers, which they must do to participate in this event. Who else has registered so far? It is like a game of chicken!

I am going to contact the Crew officers to see if they want to contact the ones who said they wanted to go skiing one more time before the deadline.  The officers are getting frustrated though. They have really been trying to recruit for several months now and still haven’t been able to get one new member.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

At our Crew meeting this past Sunday, the focus was on skiing. Our council is having a ski night for Venturers at a local ski resort in January. The original plan had been to have a guest speaker come in and give some skiing tips. He couldn’t make it at the last minute, so our Crew president made a presentation instead.

There is only one ski resort in our area of Missouri and they have to make their own snow.  So it is not surprising that many of the Crew members have not skied before, so the presentation was to give some basics. Our president started off with some tips on how to dress. She talked about how the boots should fit. She had a pair of skis with her so she could show them how to put them on, how to orient them to slow down, etc. She also talked about getting on and off of a ski lift.

It was a good meeting. Hopefully they will be better prepared for the ski adventure next month. The complete meeting agenda is below. We met right after 11AM services at our church, so we started with lunch. We’ve found that the members really like incorporating their Sunday church attendance, lunch, and the meeting.

December Crew Meeting

• Lunch
• Business (planning upcoming events, dues, etc.)
• Chicken on a Hut Game
• Skiing presentation
• Two Hands and a Foot Game
• Cleanup

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

The three aims of Scouting are Character Development, Citizenship Training, and Mental and Physical Fitness. Today we look at how character development is incorporated into the Scouting programs offered by BSA.

Venturing

Character development is an integral part of the Venturing program:

• In the Venturing Code, Venturers state “I will recognize the dignity and worth of all humanity and will use fair play and goodwill in my daily life.”
• Venturers develop leadership skills by planning their program
• With the program emphasis on teaching skills to others, Venturers learn to see through a perspective other than their own.
• The Venturing Code also states “I will, therefore, be faithful in my religious duties and maintain a personal sense of honor in my own life.”

Boy Scouts

The Boy Scout advancement program provides lots of opportunity for character development:

• The Boy Scout Law is basically a roadmap for character development: A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, clean, brave, and reverent
• Opportunities for leadership help develop confidence
• Instruction in first aid and emergency preparedness help Scouts prepare to take care of themselves and others when their help is most needed
• Religious observance is a regular part of the Boy Scout program

Cub Scouts

Cub Scouts also have lots of character development material incorporated into the program.

• Character Connection activities help Cub Scouts think about how they can make the right choices in their everyday lives
• Religious emblem programs help develop their spiritual lives
• Cub Scouts learn the basics of what to do in an emergency and how to get help
• The Cub Scout motto – Do Your Best – serves as a guide for their actions and participation

Character development is such an important part of a youth’s education. I’m glad that we can do our part teaching our youth through the Scouting program.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

The three aims of Scouting are Character Development, Citizenship Training, and Mental and Physical Fitness. So how are physical and mental fitness is incorporated into the Scouting programs offered by BSA?

Venturing

• Venturers develop physical fitness through sports and high adventure activities
• By interacting with other young adults in a safe envirionment, Venturers learn to develop healthy personal relationships
• By seeking guidence from adult advisors, Venturers learn how to make respoonsible choices concerning drugs, alchohol, and dangerous behaviours which young people are exposed to in their daily lives.

Boy Scouts

• Physical fitness requirments must be met throughout the rank advancement program
• Boy Scouts learn about topics such as drug and alchohol abuse, bullying, and internet safety
• The Boy Scout program encourages young men to continously work to improve their minds and bodies.
• A challenging outdoor program provides the opportunity for lots of physical activity

Cub Scouts

• Cub Scouts learn the importance of good nutrition
• Age appropriate outdoor activities help Cubs stay fit
• The Cub Scout Academics and Sports program encourages Cub Scouts to explore different sports

These are just a few of the ways we can encourage fitness in the various levels of Scouting. And it is important for all of us Scouters to set a good example and to try and improve our own fitness also.

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting

The featured core value for Cub Scouts for the month of November is citizenship.  Our Pack will help encourage citizenship in our Cub Scouts by participating in the local Scouting for Food program this month.

This program has been going on since 1985 in our council. It provides three months of food for our local food pantries. On the second weekend in November, Scouts deliver bags to every house in the area. Then, the next weekend, the pick up the bags which have been filled with food and left out for them.

In our Pack, participation is mandatory. Cub Scouts are grouped as pairs or triples. With their parents, they arrange a time to deliver the bags on the first weekend and pick them up on the second weekend.  If we know a family is going to be out of town for one of the weekends, we put them in a triple group. Otherwise, they just need to arrange a time to get out despite all of the sports events and other activities.

The Boy Scout Troop and Venture Crew also get involved. On the second weekend, they run a food collection point at our church. The Cub Scouts bring the bags of food they collected. Then the Boy Scouts and Venturers sort it and box it up so it can be delivered to local food pantries.

Hopefully your Scouts will be participating in a Scouting for Food event or other service project this month also.  If they do, make sure they know that they can use this as one of the requirements for their Citizenship belt loop.

Citizenship Belt Loop and Pin Requirements

Copyright Scouter Mom - A resource for adults and youth involved in Scouting