Venturing
and Sea Scouts are a very old division
of Boy Scouts of America, a division
that is designed for adolescents 14-21
years old, both boys and girls. They
have a broader range of activities that
are allowed than organizations with
younger youth, and often the groups
choose a variety of high adventure
activities to do such as rock climbing,
caving, white water rafting,
backpacking, camping, sailing, scuba
diving and shooting sports.
The key
element is that the way the organization
runs encourages development of
leadership skills, planning, and
provides a variety of potential new
experiences for these youth. They are
responsible for choosing when the group
meets, what they want to do, how they
are going to fund those activities, and
carrying out the plans. The adults are
"advisors", and our job is to facilitate
the planning process without actually
doing the planning. We make sure they
follow the rules of the by-laws that
they have created (which include
appropriate public behavior for co-ed
groups), and we also make sure that
safety and regulations of BSA are
followed with regard to scouting in
general (safety and supervision rules)
and co-eds specifically (an adult male
and female leader are required any time
there is an overnight outing involved,
and at least one of the leaders must
have had Venture or Sea Scout specific
training).
There is
also a great program of awards for those
who chose to have a greater challenge.
The Ranger Award for Venture Scouts and
the Quartermaster Award for Sea Scouts
are nationally recognized as equivalent
to the Eagle Scout Award for Boy
Scouts. The Quartermaster Award can
even let someone skip some of the ranks
if they choose to join the Navy.
However, we don't run our Sea Scouts as
a military-style unit; it hasn't been
our inclination. We are dual chartered
as both Sea Scouts and Venture Scouts
because the two groups will have greatly
different descriptions if one is to look
on the web to see what they do, and our
group does some of all of the
activities. We have to be registered as
Sea Scouts to take advantage of the
sailing training of the Atlanta Area Sea
Scout Squadron and to enter in the
regattas. Our first year our youth
earned a chance to sail in the regatta
in Miami, and this year again our youth
have earned a place to sail in the
regatta to be held on the Chesapeake Bay
in the summer of 2008!
As to
costs, currently membership is $30.00 to
join. Because these are high school
kids (though they could be in college),
we try to organize fundraising events to
help keep the costs of more expensive
trips down. We recently did a trip on
the Ocoee river, and that was $52.00 per
person, which is one of the more
expensive outings for us. Then we have
such things as tubing in Helen - that
only costs about $10.00 each, or
backpacking, which only costs the amount
of the gas money split by how many
people attend. We have had a week-long
trip camping on one of the outer islands
through the Florida High Adventure Sea
Base in the Keys. That trip was heavily
subsidized by fundraising, and provided
memories for a lifetime. This year we
are hoping to put together a Scuba trip
for next summer, contingent upon scuba
training for a few more of our youth.
Here
are some website links that might be
of interest:
http://olc.scouting.org/ All
adults who go with the youth are
REQUIRED to complete youth
protection on this website. In
addition, at least one adult on each
trip must be Safety Afloat certified
and Safe Swim Defense certified if
the youth will be around water, one
adult first aid and CPR trained, and
one Adult Leader Trained chaperone.
Please
understand that the calendar has
listed all of the opportunities that
are upcoming, and we won't
necessarily do them all. We elect
new officers every 6 months who are
in charge of planning what
activities we will pursue based on
current membership interest and time
commitments. High School kids are a
very busy lot, and we work on the
premise that each will attend the
things they are able or want to
attend and not the rest. There
isn't any pressure to attend every
event.
My
number is 770-604-9380 but I am more
likely to answer emails faster than
return phone calls since my work
hours are during the evening. My
email address is cdms60@earthlink.net.
I hope
this has given you the information
you need.
Best
Regards,
Carolyn
Sparks
Advisor for
Crew 477
