S/O Venture Scouting

[skimomma]

Can anyone explain Venture Scouting a bit more to me?

 

I went on the website and tried searching for Venture Scouting in my area.  None showed up.  There are Cub and Boy Scout groups listed.  Would Venture always show up independently or are they attached to BS groups?  I have a dd who would be interested but there does not seem to be a good way to even find out if such a group exists in my area.  The website lists a council 200 miles away in a different state.

 

For those familiar with the program, are there areas with no Ventures at all? 

[Alessandra]

My dd and ds are both in Venturing. I can't really answer your question, but I do know that Venturing is stronger in some councils than in others. It can also be extraordinarily difficult to find info online.

 

Venturing crews are arranged into 'Areas.' Our area includes includes parts of the northeast and also parts of Europe! My advice would be to get in touch with your Council and neighboring councils to see if they have info on crews in the area. You could also look for an event in an area near you and call the organizers.

 

Venturing is great, but I cannot begin to describe how uncoordinated their online presence is.

 

ETA

Although some crews are aligned with a local troop, they do not have to be, and many crews are independent.

 

Btw, some of the most active venturing crews we have met are from areas with a lot of homeschoolers. 😊

Edited October 12, 2017 by Alessandra

[itsheresomewhere]

They are harder to find. We found one but our problem was DS was the youngest and all the members were about to graduate high school. The way I found the one by us was not in the website but by someone posting a flyer saying that a restaurant would donate a percentage for dining.

 

Maybe try emailing/calling a local BSA troop and see if anyone has a lead on one.

[AK_Mom4]

If you can find the phone number for the scout council that covers your area, a call is usually all it takes to get the info about Venture crews in your area.

 

DD16 does venturing with an all-girl crew, but she and DH drive 50 miles every Tuesday evening to go to the meetings. They hike, swim, bike, camp, ride horses, ski, sled, snowshoe, whatever at least once or twice a month. It takes a huge amount of planning time on the part of the girls to coordinate these activities.

 

DD16 went to the National Scout Jamboree this summer. There were not enough venturers from our state for a crew, so Western Region connected her with a crew from Colorado that needed to fill an empty slot. She had an amazing time! She also went on a three day sea kayaking trip and a five-day bike trip. It was a super-busy summer for her. The summer before, they did a 10 day hiking trip in Canada that included hiking the Chilkoot Trail.

 

Venturing is about adventure and leadership and DD is certainly getting exposed to both of those. Her crew raises money to offset costs and buy crew gear like tents by selling Christmas trees. They also do many, many hours of volunteer work for the council, their host organization, and for the community.

[theelfqueen]

Yes. Find the BSA Council for your area. Contact them. They'll help you.

[Ravin]

How much does it cost?

[AK_Mom4]

DD16 pays $30 a year in charter fees, but those at set individually by each council.

 

As far as activity costs, they pay most of it out of crew funds, but that is going to vary by crew. Sometimes there is gear that they need for activities and some of that is expensive. DD has made-do with her brothers’ hand me downs and she has successfully leveraged birthday and Christmas gifts from relatives and grandparents to buy new gear. She asked for a backpack for Christmas and REI gift cards from relatives to buy a new sleeping bag and pad. However, her crew also has gear available for members to borrow if they don’t have their own. She could have borrowed everything she needed except for a good pair of hiking boots, which we bought for her after she wore my boots for a year and literally wore them to shreds.

 

All to say that your real costs will depend on what the crew does.

[chiguirre]

I found Trinqueta's Sea Scout Ship by googling the local BSA Council name and "sea scout" and all the Ships popped up. They did have current contact emails for the leaders but all of the websites are old and inactive. If I hadn't known that Sea Scouts exist because I had met one at a district meeting once when I was a cub scout leader I'd have never found out about them. Their online presence is beyond dismal even though they have an actual base in our council. 

 

Our ship costs $135 for the first year including a uniform polo since they don't wear the official uniform (which is just a bunch of Dickies item numbers and isn't sold at BSA stores apparently--I'm really glad I don't have to hunt down the correct shade of navy chinos and light blue shirt). If you already have a shirt, it's $85. Obviously boat maintenance and rental requires a boatload of money so the fee seemed very reasonable to me.

[skimomma]

I finally found contact info for our district and sent emails and left phone messages.  I don't have a whole lot of hope.  I put out a general FB inquiry and no one seems to have heard of any local groups, but I will await word from one of the people I contacted before giving up.

 

I'm not sure how I had never heard of it before but it is right up dd's alley.  Our local GS troops are not into camping or the outdoors in general.  Dd has resorted to joining a college mountain climbing club and recruiting any remotely-willing friends to go on other adventures.  She has expressed disappointment in not being able to do the things her male friends do in Boy Scouts.  She already has a lot of gear.

 

The websites are terrible. Sheesh.