The Venturing Magazine will undergo major changes in January, 2012. Two longtime contributors and Venturing supporters, Joe Garrett and Craig Murray have committed to reorganizing the magazine and soliciting a group of regular contributors.

Joe said in his announcement to the Yahoo Groups Venturing List "We are thinking in terms of a bi-monthly issue with regular features of interest to both youth and adults involved in Venturing. We will be looking for contributors who can commit to new articles every eight weeks and can meet the deadline... In order to make a bi-monthly magazine work, we will probably set up an RSS feed for subscribers, rather than just putting it out there on the web."

We are looking forward to the new Venturing Magazine!

Note: In anticipation of this reorganization, additional user registrations on this site are being disabled.

Did you spend the weekend playing video games or maybe watching some tv? If you were a member of Venturing Crew 861 from Glasgow, you could have been shooting, climbing, hiking, and flying!

Members of Venturing Crew 861 from Fort Peck, Nashua, and Glasgow, MT traveled to K-M Scout Ranch in Hilger, MT to attend the first Venturing Experience camp. The youth joined other Venturers from Chester, Livingston, and Gillette, WY for a fun filled weekend of high adventure type activities.  The crew started the event with Archery, each taking time to learn the basics and practice their skills. From there they moved on to Rifle shooting, and found out that some posses a natural skill for it!  Other activities included an orienteering course, hike to the Kendall Ghost town for a night of sleeping under the stars, shotgun shooting, black powder shooting, rock climbing, rappelling, games, and aquatics (canoeing, rowing, swimming).

On August 14-16^th, 2009 Minsi Trails Council and Area 5 presented the 5^th Occasional Cardboard Boat Regatta held at Camp Minsi in Pocono Summit, PA. 15 Crews participated from all over Area 5.

The highlight of the day was only one boat did not complete the course. Crews had to launch from the dock, go out about 100 yards, turn around a buoy and come back to the dock, it was a timed event.

Many great themes were present from a replica Higgins boat to a floating Hawaiian Luau. The Crews also enjoyed shooting at the Camp’s Range and tomahawk throwing.

Over a chilly weekend at Naperville, Illinois Von Oven Scout Reservation, 13 youth from four Crews with two youth traveling from out of Council participated in the Venturing Program VLSC training delivered by nine Venturing adult leaders. The 13 youth took part in numerous leadership skill development sessions and put their newly recognized skills to the test in a variety of leadership exercises. All 13 youth participants earned their VLSC Trained patch.

Positive feedback was overwhelming. In fact, many of the youth wanted to know when their next training would take place. This course was enlightening and a great learning experience for both the youth participants as well as the adult advisors.

We are starting a Venturing Crew 8 in Hagerstown, Maryland. This crew will have a focus on photography, the outdoors and high adventure activities. The Crew will meet at St Joseph Church on 17630 Virginia Ave. It is open to all young men and women who are at least 14 and completed the eighth grade and no older than 20 years of age. Come an join us for a great adventure. Advisors and consultants are also needed along with the youth. http://www.crew8.org

John Unger (Advisor, Crew 99, Huntsville, TX) wrote a pretty cool article on the other day. I reprint it here for your enlightenment...

OK, here are some ideas for honoring those Venturers who, individually and with their Crews, help with Cub Scout Packs, Boy Scout Troops, Wood Badge courses, Powder Horn courses, or church and community organizations.

I've mentioned this before: Our council SE approved the wearing of the Bushman's Braid for any Venturer or Sea Scout who commits to helping staff a Wood Badge, Powder Horn, University of Scouting or other adult training. (Yes, I know there's no place to wear it on a Sea Scout uniform but if they wear a green shirt sometime they can still wear it.) It is a mark of pride for our Venturers to wear that braid.

(Side note - we've moved from using the leather thong of the original Bushman's Braid to a cord.)

The Corps of Discovery - an under-utilized (IMHO) method for recognizing and encouraging those Venturers who live a life of service to others in Scouting and out of it.