In the late fall of 1999 my then 16 1/2 year old son Blaine asked me if we could start a
Venture Patrol in the Troop. Around that time, the issue of Scouting magazine came out which had the article about Venturing's Ranger Award. Up to that point, all of my knowledge about Venturing was pretty much limited to the logo, and that was all I wanted to know about it.
We'd never really had an older-boy program in
our Troop, and I was beginning to really gain awareness about maintaining older boy interest, so over the course of next several weeks, we started working on the details for our Venture Patrol. I began to learn more about Venturing despite myself, and the program started looking good.I presented what I had learned to my Troop committee, and somehow I failed to generate any enthusiasm for developing a Venturing Crew at that level.
I presented what I had learned to the senior Scouts. The discussion finally came down to a matter of pursuing the Venturing Advancement plan. If they weren't interested in that, there wasn't any point in chartering a Crew. I showed them the "
Ranger's Rock " article and they got pretty excited about it. They pretty much saw things the way I figured they would, and the decision was made.
The goal of Crew 196 is to achieve the Ranger Award.
One of my son's buddies recruited his Dad, an Assistant Scoutmaster with the Troop, to be the Crew Advisor. I signed up to be an Associate Advisor, and we were in business. Crew 196 started having regular meetings (every two weeks) in September of 2000. A week or so later, we were joined by an Eagle from a defunct Troop in the next town as our 2nd Associate Advisor.
Get Your Mind Out of the Box
As a result of getting into Venturing, I was sent by my council to the North East Region Powder Horn, which took place June 12 - 17, 2000 at Resica Falls Scout Reservation, located in Marshalls Creek, PA. It was the first of the Regional Powder Horn courses to be conducted.
The
Powder Horn is an adult Venturing Leader outdoor skills course designed to familiarize Venturing leaders with the skills and resources required to assist Venturers in earning the Ranger Award. Classroom instruction and/or practical hands on experience is provided for all of the 8 Core and at least 10 of the 18 Elective requirements for the Ranger Award. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend going.Walk Softly
At the Powder Horn, I met a Master of
Leave No Trace who was working for the AMC at the time. She did my district and me a huge favor by coming down to Camp Sequassen the following September, and running an LNT trainer course. My youngest son joined me for that course. Three weeks later, Crew 196 helped me to staff our district's Leave No Trace Fall Camporee. The theme was based on material I found on the LNT.org site, and things we picked up on in the Trainer course. Teaching others is one of the methods of Venturing, and part of a Venturer's advancement for the Ranger Award requires teaching back the skills which they have learned.Other developments
In November of 2000 I ran
my council's first Venturing Leader Basic Training course.As part of the
Land Navigation core requirement, we had the Crew run map & compass advancement at a Troop meeting.We also conducted our LNT service project, by policing up trash on the trail while we hiked (Dispose of Waste properly), and obliterating the evidence of a campfire we found (Minimize the Use and impact of fires) in the site we stayed at on Saturday night. There are no open fires allowed in Connecticut on the AT anyway.
In March of 2001 I began running a Venturing Roundtable, and organizing a Teen Leaders Council for my district. A web site related to that effort is
here.
In April of 2001 members of our Crew and Troop went to New York city, and hiked the
New York Historic Trail. Pictures from that event are located here.
The trail is sponsored by the Greater New York Council's Man-A-Hattin Lodge #82. Contact info for this and other NY hikes can be found here.
Resources
Wepawaug Valley District Venturing Roundtable
