The FORUMVenturing, Sea Scouting and Exploring Newsletter since 2003

April 2018 Issue

CR Central Point Highlights March 2018

World Scout JamboreeSea Scout Decals and Magnetic Sign

World Scout Jamboree Area 2Patriots’s Path AdVenturee 2018Venturing Jacket PatchLarge Crews –Orderly Change of Youth Leadership

Southern Region Board MeetingSea Scouts at the 24th World Scout JamboreeSea Scouts for Scoutmasters

The Current FORUM Newsletter:http://www.minsi-southmountain.com/newsletters/current_forum.php

The FORUM Back Issueshttp://www.minsi-southmountain.com/venturing_archive.htm

Large Crewshttp://minsi-southmountain.com/newsletters/documents/FORUM-Crew_27-Large_Crews_articles.pdf

UPDATED March Crew 27 Large Crew Series (Articles on Large Crew Operations)

The FORUM Attachments Central Region

The FORUM Attachments Nationalhttp://www.minsi-southmountain.com/newsletters/regions/NAT-0418.zip

CommissionerCommissioner_Tools_Troubleshooting GuideCommissioner-Service-to-Exploring-FAQsSea Scouting Info:Sea Scout Advancement RequirementsSea Scout Boatswain Nomination FormSea Scout Eligibility for Venturing Awards and Information Onother AwardsSea Scout Liability Insurance for WatercraftSea Scout National Flagship Competition ApplicationSea Scout New Century Universal UniformSea Scout Revised Safe Boating and Sailing StandardsSea Scout Standard Operating Procedures 2017Sea Scout Power Point—State of Sea Scouts Oct 2017Sea Scout Strategic Plan-SMARTSea Scout Sea Scout Log Fall 2017Venturing Info:Venturing Awards and RecognitionsVenturing Board of Review GuideVenturing Ethical ControversiesVenturing Goal Setting Time Management for Venturing CrewsVenturing Mentoring for Venturing Crews Facilitator GuideVenturing Standard Operating Procedures (CurrentVenturing Terms Lets get it RightVenturing Venturing FAQ

The FORUM Attachments Northeast Regionhttp://www.minsi-southmountain.com/newsletters/regions/NER-0418.zip

NER-World Scout Jamboree

The FORUM Attachments Southern Regionhttp://www.minsi-southmountain.com/newsletters/regions/SR-0418.zip

The FORUM Attachments Western RegionNo Attachments

The March 2018 edition of the Central Point, the Central Region Ven-turing newsletter, written by the Central Region's Venturing Officersis now available on our website at http://crventuring.org/Home/Newsletters/.

Articles this month include:

Stay Connected with CRVWestern Region Takeover

Where to Go VenturingBack to Basics: VOAs

VenturingFest 2018 and PTCApply to be a Region or Area Officer

Area 6 SpotlightVenturing Puzzle

CR Area HighlightsUpcoming Activities

Advisor's MinutePresident's Corner

Sea Scout Decals and Magnetic Sign

Designed to be waterproof. Peel off and stick to any surface. Useon a boat or any hard surface.

Order from: Keith Christopher, keith.christopher@scouting.org.Send your name and mailing address. Must pay by check made out toBoy Scouts of America and mail payment to: Keith Christopher, Na-tional Council, Sea Scouts BSA, 1325 West Walnut Hill Lane, Irving,Texas 75038. Mark envelope: Personal and Confidential

6-inch decal $ 4.00 each12-inch decal $ 10.00 each18-inch decal $ 17.00 each12-inch magnetic sign $ 15.00

2019SUMMIT BECHTEL RESERVE

JUL 22-AUG 2

GET CONNECTED

ARE YOU READY FOR THEADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME?

www.wsj2019.usfacebook.com/wsj2019usa

REGISTRATION FEES*$2,400 EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT

$2,500 REGULAR FEE

FOR MOREINFORMATION VISIT

wsj2019.us/faq/

The World Scout Jamboree is about Friendship, Fun, and Adventure. If you like to make friends, learn, and experience new things, this is the place for you! With 50,000 Scouts from 169 countries living side-by-side, you’ll participate in a global community and will meet amazing people faster than you can imagine. Don’t miss what will surely be the largest Scout celebration in the world! *Denotes pricing for Northeast, Central, and Southern Regions

JOIN THE JAMBOREEVENTURING CREWFROM AREA 2!The 24th World Scout Jamboree will be hosted by the threenations of North America – Mexico, Canada, and the UnitedStates at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia from July21 to August 2, 2019.

UNLOCK A NEW WORLD, for young people ages 14 to 17 yearsfrom all 166 National Scout Organizations.

The BSA contingent will include 10,000 people — the largestcontingent the BSA has ever sent to a World Jamboree. 80 % ofthe participants will come from over 160 countries, with co-ed unitsjust like Crews!

The World Scout Jamboree has special programs for participantsto learn about different cultures, sustainability, peace andcommunity service. These activities are intended to giveparticipants an opportunity to learn new things and to build newfriendships.

The focus is more on meeting people from different cultures andcountries than doing high-adventure activities. Sure, you willhave plenty of opportunities to zip-line, kayak, and ride mountainbikes, but you will also have many opportunities to meet newfriends and learn what Scouting and life is like in other countries.

To be eligible to be a Venturing youth participant at the 24thWorld Scout Jamboree

you must be born between 22 July 2001 and 21 July 2005 (no exceptions to this). If you are older on the given dates of the Jamboree, you may be able to apply to become member of the

International Service Team. The fee for participants and leaders for contingent crews in the Northeast Region will be $ 2,500 for

Venturing Youth and Leaders (includes travel from a designated hub) and $ 1,800 for ISTs (no travelincluded).

There is an early applicant discount: applicants who submit a $250 deposit between November 1, 2017 andJanuary 31, 2018, and make all payments on time will have a $100 discount applied to their last payment.

Go to https://wsj2019.us for information on registration and programsJamboree units will be set up within the 27 Areas of the BSA, and leader will be recruited by the area committees. Our council is part of Area 2 of the Northeast Region,serving the following councils: Connecticut Rivers Council, Greenwich Council, Housatonic Council, Connecticut Yankee Council, Western Massachusettes Council, RipVan Winkle Council, Hudson Valley Council, Westchester Putnam Council, Greater New York Councils, Theodore Roosevelt Council, and Suffolk County Council. The Crewwill be formed from Venturers in Area 2.

CONTACT YOUR COUNCIL SERVICE CENTER or email your council WSJ Chair for updates or more information.

Council staff contact : Matt Conlon Matthew.Conlon@scouting.org

Council WSJ Chair: Eric Anderson EEA-BSA@optonline.net

AdVenturee 2018!

When: May 4 - 6, 2018Where: Camp Somers, Mount Allamuchy Scout Reservation, 750 Waterloo Road, Stanhope

Who: Any registered Venturer, Adult leader or Venturing aged Boy Scout (14+)

What: The AdVenturee is a get together for Venturers held May 4th – 6th at Mount Allamuchy ScoutReservation (Camp Somers). Scouts from both within Patriots’ Path Council and outside councils are

welcome. The weekend will be full of fun activities, meeting other Venturers, and even completingrequirements for the Ranger Award and Discovery, Pathfinder and Summit Venturing awards.

Activities: ATV, Pistol Shooting, COPE, Archery, Shotgun, Mountain Biking, Night-time Rock WallClimbing, Movies, Star Gazing and more.

Cost: $45 per person - includes Friday cracker barrel, Saturday breakfast & dinner and Sundaybreakfast. Fee also includes a tent site and all activities. Saturday lunch can be purchased from thecamp snack bar or made in site by your unit. Cabin space is available at an additional $5 per person.

Due to the popularity of the ATV program and the limited number of ATVs, they will be offeredto youth participants based on earliest registration.

Questions?Sam Brothman, Vice President of Program: at 201-874-0223 or sambrothman@yahoo.comChris Rozek, President: at 862-266-1881 or christopher.rozek@gmail.comEvent Advisor: Mark Rozek, ppcventuringexploring@gmail.comCharlean Mahon, District Executive at 973-524-4459 or charlean.mahon@scouting.org

Registration: https://ppcbsa.org/ (click on the Council Calendar link and navigate to the date)

Large CrewsA series of articles

By Pete Mapes, NCAC Crew 27 Associate Advisor

Program is the most important element of a strong Senior Division Unit (Venturing, SeaScouting and Exploring). Without program that is interesting and fun for the Venturers, Explorersand Sea Scouts, any Unit will flounder and fail. For this reason, Dr. Pete Mapes leads off a series ofarticles this month on Large Crews with a discussion of Program. Over the next several months hewill follow up with articles on Large Unit Operations, Recruiting and Youth Leadership. Stay tunedfor a peek at what turned into the largest Venturing Crew in the fourth largest Council in BSA!

Large CrewsLarge Crews - Orderly Change of Youth Leadership

By Pete Mapes

INTRODUCTION: The orderly change of leadership is essential to the gov-ernment of the United States and it is equally essential in the life of the Ventur-ing Crew. Small Crews of 5 to 15 Venturers have a relatively easy time of it.They know everyone and the leadership positions are limited in scope becausethe number of members served is relatively small. The large crew is a 'horse' ofa completely different color.

ABOUT CREW 27: Crew 27 in the National Capital Area Council finished lastyear with 82 registered Venturers. After recharter, that number narrowed to amere 69 after the departures for college and loss of interest took their toll. Fifty-four of the 69 remaining are assigned to six MiniCrews and 15 are in a group ofregistered Venturers we refer to as 'inactive.' The inactive Venturers want tomaintain their association with the Crew and participate to some degree butcannot be active enough to participate in the life of the "MiniCrews."

Crew 27 currently has six active MiniCrews. Each MiniCrew is 'patrol sized',generally with five to ten Venturers assigned to it. The MiniCrews meet regular-ly outside of Crew 27 meetings, plan their own events and have their own pro-gram. A MiniCrew Guide (Leader) in Crew 27 is like a Crew President in a'normal' Crew. Here are the demographics on our current Venturing MiniCrew &Inactive organization.

Large CrewsLarge Crews - Orderly Change of Youth Leadership

By Pete Mapes

Note: Not included in this tabulation are 2 Silver Award holders and 9 EagleScouts

As you can see, MiniCrew B either needs to split or spin off some people to the'inactive' list.

The MiniCrews elect their own leaders (MiniCrew Guides) and the Crew Presi-dent convenes the 6 guides as the Crew Leadership Council on a monthly basisto handle the business of the Crew. This is identical to the function of the Pa-trol Leader's Council in a Troop. The President is the Chief Executive and onlyvotes to break a tie. Each MiniCrew has an elected or appointed assistant lead-er (Also a MiniCrew Guide) who can stand in for the principal Guide if needed.Whether they are elected or appointed is determined by the elected MinCrewLeader (Principal Guide). If both are busy, the MiniCrew can send any memberto the CLC to vote the intentions of the MiniCrew. MiniCrew Guides are reallyimportant and they run the Crew as a whole as well as their own MiniCrew.

ELECTING THE NEW PRESIDENT: The first order of business at the electionsmeeting are the nominations from the floor. This year everyone pretty wellknew who the incipient President was because she had such a distinguishedyear as Vice President. After she was nominated and seconded, no more nomi-nations were received.

Unit Male Female Venturer Discov-ery

Path-finder

Summit Outdoor-Bronze

Ranger

A 4 5 5 2 1 0 0 1

B 5 7 9 1 0 1* 2 1*

C 2 6 6 1 0 0 2 1

D 3 6 6 0 1* 0 1* 0

E 4 5 4 3* 1 0 1* 1

F 2 5 7 0 0 0 0 0

Inactives 12 3 9 2 0 0 0 3

Σ 32 37 46 9 3 1 6 7

* Same person in each row

Large CrewsLarge Crews - Orderly Change of Youth Leadership

By Pete Mapes

Her speech as a candidate follows in bold italics:

"Good Evening Crew 27. As many of you already know I am Mel. For thepast year I have served mainly as Crew 27’s Vice President of Program but forthe future year I would like to be your president. Aside from VP Program I haveled the crew on a shooting sports trip, on two ILSC training days and last butnot least the most accomplished two weeks at Goshen the crew has ever had.

I joined the Crew when I was 13. I found out about it from my older brotherGarrett. After hearing about all the awesome adventures he was going on andseeing how many friends he was making I decided this Venturing Crew was forme as well. I went to my first meeting and witnessed a basement full of peoplewho were all so friendly to me and so organized what with their different posi-tions and mini crews. Crew 27 has lived up to those expectations and gone be-yond. We have seen three scouts in the past year earn their Ranger, we havegone to a high adventure base the past two summers and are excited to go toSea Base this coming summer, and through all of this have continued to be thefriendly, down-to-earth yet intense (haha) crew I witnessed when I was thirteen.

These achievements are physical and easily measurable. However, Crew27 also has more subjective impacts. The active scouts of the crew learn lifeskills of cooking, leadership, accountability and communication, they supporteach other in times of grief, and they support each other in endeavors outside ofscouting like sports and drama. The crew also introduces youth to many inspir-ing adults ranging from our advisors, committee, and parents to special gueststhat come and speak to us. Where else would I meet a Tuskegee Airmen?

Outside of our monthly crew meetings, Crew 27 does other incrediblethings as big as attending the World Scout Jamboree in Japan to as small asday-trips. In addition to these monthly adventures, most everyone participatesin the leadership skill trainings that the BSA has to offer; Introduction to Leader-ship Skills, National Youth Leadership Training, and National Advanced YouthLeadership Experience (NAYLE). My combined completion of these trainings,makes me feel confident in my aptitude for serving as your President. Theyteach you skills of communication, you network with similar scouts from allover, you learn how to work through difficulties in a mature way and more.

As president my vision for Crew 27 is to continue to be an exemplary crew. Tome this means activities every month that have a purpose, have more than afew scouts attending them, fundraising more per scout than we did last yearand have at least 70 registered scouts when we recharter at the end of the year.When we don’t fundraise people who would love to go on trips and we wouldlove to have on trips can’t go. Simple fact. Secondly in order to have purposeful,popular activities the activity planning process needs to be refined. Each activi-ty needs to be promoted sufficiently, be planned in a timely manner, RSVPed to .. . DAD . . . and get the information about their trip in front of the committeethree months in advance. In order to do this, a clearer step-by-step standard op-erating procedure must be published on TroopTrack.

Large CrewsLarge Crews - Orderly Change of Youth Leadership

By Pete Mapes

Thirdly we need to continue membership growth. As people join, peoplegraduate so we can never let up. We can make recruiting as well as fundraisingfun, strategic, and effective as long as everybody participates. Popcorn does nothave to be our only big fundraiser.

As VP this past year, I have attended CLCs and committee meetings regu-larly and through this have gained a real respect for Amy’s hard work and dedi-cation to our crew. I hope to continue Crew 27’s legacy of great presidents andtogether we can. Thank you."

THE PRESIDENTIAL VOTE: The Crew had a quorum of 45 Venturers present (outof 69) and the secret ballot was unanimous in favor of the nominee.

ELECTING THE MINICREW GUIDES: The next order of business were the Mini-Crew Leaders (Guides). The six MiniCrews each picked a portion of the largemeeting area and held there elections for their Guides. Since the current Ven-turing Handbook doesn't contain a patrol method and since there is no Ventur-ing insignia for a patrol leader equivalent, Crew 27 calls its MiniCrew Leaders'Guides' and uses the pre-1958 youth leadership insignia. Each of the MiniCrewselected their leader and then the leader and the MiniCrew conspired to eitherelect or appoint their assistants.

Large CrewsLarge Crews - Orderly Change of Youth Leadership

By Pete Mapes

APPOINTING THE STAFF: The new Crew President now had two weeks to inter-view and appoint the VP-Admin, VP-Program and the other Crew officers(Secretary, Quartermaster, Historian, Treasurer and Webmaster). The firstmeeting in February would be the occasion for the new officers and staff to getsworn in.

ORGANIZING THE CREW SCHEDULE: Crew 27 plans a schedule a year at a timeand the schedule is staggered with the election of officers. This is importantbecause the new slate of officers arrive on duty in February with a publishedschedule already coordinated with the Crew Committee through the end of Au-gust. They do not have to panic to immediately plan and execute a new CrewProgram immediately upon arriving in office. Instead, the conduct an all dayplanning meeting and develop the subsequent schedule that runs from the endof August through the end of the August after that. That schedule gets present-ed to the Committee at the March Committee meeting.

INSTALLATION OF OFFICERS: The annual installation of officers is quite theparty. It occurs on the first meeting in February, right after the new chartertakes effect. The Crew has its winter awards ceremony followed by the installa-tion of officers. The Crew then moves to the common room where they have a'pot luck' dinner and an inspirational speaker. This year they were treated toColonel Martha Lenhart, USA, MC (Retired). Dr. Lenhart had a very distinguishedcareer serving our country. Her specialty is orthopedic surgery of the hand.She deployed twice as the Chief or Surgery into the area of responsibility. Onceto Baghdad, Iraq and a second time to Mosul, Afghanistan. The Crew was com-pletely spellbound as we listened to her tell us about surgeries on children whocomprised most of her patients as they tangled with land mines left in Afghani-stan over decades of conflict. Nearly every Venturer in the room wanted to en-list and help!

Large CrewsLarge Crews - Orderly Change of Youth Leadership

By Pete Mapes

Thus ended the orderly change of leadership in Crew 27 for another year! Nowthe Crew is ready to get back to having fun with a host of stupendous activities.Let's go Venturing!

ORDER YOUR VENTURING JACKETPATCH TODAY - $5/each

Send your order to: mapesni@aol.com

All profits support Crew 7 W&WC (782)

Include address, name, number of patches requested Crew

Southern Region Board Meetingby Southern Region Commodore

This past week, I attended a Regional Meet-ing for the first time. It was as incredible opportuni-ty to be introduced to the Southern Region Boardand connect faces to names. Not only did I feel wel-comed the moment I registered, but I was asked tostart and end the meeting. Thanks to Mr. Yarboro,the Regional President, I was tasked to do thePledge of Allegiance in the Opening Session and theSea Base Grace for the closing luncheon.

The meeting throughout the twodays were informative as well. I was ableto give a Sea Scout report in the Adven-ture Program meeting, which was a hugesuccess. A main focus the Sea Scouts asa region have been working on is mem-bership. Our goal is to have forty new

ships by the end of year 2018. I believe we can do it, with the right support andcommitment to the vision we contain.

An opportunity I took after my meetings were adjourned Thursday night,was to attend a local Sea Scout meeting. Ship 851, home of my Boatswain Mate,James MaGuirk, invited me to sit in their meeting and interact with them. This shipwas diverse, courteous, and kind to such visitors like Commodore Cook, SkipperPeter Cushman, and myself. A unique thing I encountered there meeting’s agenda.Instead of having copies printed out, the ship politely sat down in the designatedarea and waiting for their Quarterdeck to start. Then, once the meeting did begin,James and Nathaniel the Boatswain of the ship prepared a effective meeting. Theyincorporated knot teaching time and the “Challenge of the Week”, which includedscenarios that needed assistance.

These past two days havedefinitely impacted my life as aleader and individual. I was ableto experience a Board Meetingoutside of my home state, andinteract with fellow scouts. Infact to top off the meeting, I wasintroduced the Boy Scout of theYear in his council, Great SmokyMountain. If you have not heardhis story yet, it is incredibly in-spiring! And, you can make a dif-ference too, please continue sub-mitting applications for Regionaland Area Boatswain. The team isexcited to start reviewing appli-cations, and setting up interviewtimes!— Savannah Cushman, Southern Region Boat-swain

At the closing meeting

With Regional OA Chief andVenturing President

With Ship 851

Sea Scouts at the 24th World Scout Jamboreeby Sea Scouts, BSA

Are you ready to “Unlock a New World?The USA Contingent to the 24th World Scout Jamboree in 2019 is accept-

ing applications for participants, adult volunteers, and International ServiceTeam (IST) members. We hope that you can join us for an adventure of a life-time. Not sure what a World Jamboree is? Simply put, the World Jamboree is a12-day party, with 50,000 scouts from 169 countries who all came together tomeet, bond and begin life-long friendships.

Sea Scouts can apply to join the United States Sea Scout Contingent byselecting their home ship when completing the application. This group of 36Sea Scouts and 4 adult volunteers will come from across the country. Specialcoordination with Sea Scouts from other countries is being explored now.

Dates:July 22 – August 2, 2019 (USA Contingentwill arrive on July 21, 2019)Location: Summit Bechtel Scout Reserve West Vir-ginia, USAEligibility: Birthday between July 22, 2001 and July21, 2005– Youth participants (boys and girls) must be age14-17Birthday before July 22, 2001 (age 18 and older)– Adult unit leaders (age 18 and older)– International Service Team (IST) age 18 and old-erHow to apply: The USA Contingent application sys-tem is open now at wsj2019.us/apply.Application Process: Participants, adult leaders,and IST will complete an online application. Appli-cations will be reviewed on both a Council and Na-tional level.Fees: Total fees, along with a payment schedule,and scholarship information was published on the

web site.If you do not make the age cutoff, there are plenty of IST opportunities

which include water sports positions.If you have any questions about joining the Sea Scout Contingent, con-

tact the Sea Scout coordinator, Mike Philbrook at wsj2019@seascout.org. Formore information on the Jamboree or US Contingent be sure to check outwsj2019.us.

Sea Scouts for ScoutmastersBy Sea Scouts, BSA

At one time or another you have probably heard the age old adage, It iseasier to turn a scouter into a sailor than turn a sailor into a scouter. Commo-dore TW Cook has written the Sea Scouts for Scoutmasters guide make thattransition even easier. If you are an experienced Boy Scout leader but new toSea Scouts, this document explains Sea Scouts in terms familiar to you, andwill help you get off to a great start in Sea Scouting.

This guide is now part of the growing library at the New Leader ResourcePage.

SEE SEA SCOUTS FOR SCOUTMASTERS PDFin Southern Region Attachments

National Venturinghttp://www.scouting.org/venturing.aspxNational Sea Scouthttp://www.seascout.org/Central Region Venturinghttp://www.crventuring.orgNortheast Region Venturinghttp://nerventuring-bsa.org/Northeast Region Sea Scoutinghttps://seascout.org/regions/southern/Southern Region-Venturinghttp://srventuring-bsa.org/wordpress/Southern Region Sea Scouthttp://srventuring-bsa.org/wordpress/Western Region Sea Scoutshttps://wrseascouts.wordpress.com/Western Region Venturinghttp://wrventuring.org/USA Scouting Service-Venturinghttp://www.usscouts.org/usscouts/venturing/UniformingFAQ.aspVenturing Magazinewww.venturingmag.orgNational Exploringhttp://www.exploring.org/

Yahoo GroupsCentral Regionhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/crventuring/Northeast Regionhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/nerventuring/Southern Regionhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/srventuring/Western Regionhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/wrventuring/Nationalhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/venturinglist/

The FORUM is a National cluster conceptand a friendly way to help Scouting Leadersexchange ideas and programs among ourTroops, Crews, Ships, Posts, Councils,Areas, Regions and National..

The FORUM is shared by Volunteers andProfessionals across the country.

“The FORUM” has been publishedmonthly since 2003 and is not an officialpublication of any Council, Area, Region orNational. It is the Leaders and Professionalsnewsletter. Help support our teenageprogram by sending the FORUM yourstories, Newsletters. Council articles,By-Laws, Questions and Best Practices toshare with others.

As always, articles, questions andcomments are welcome. Promote Venturing,Sea Scouting and Exploring by promotingyour Unit and Council. We are seekingsupport from anyone interested in workingon the newsletter .Thanks for all you do!

Bob the BEAR Monto—Editor in ChiefPete Mapes—Associate EditorBernie Suess - Webmaster

TO SUBSCRIBE to the FORUM:Email Bob the BEAR atrmonto47@gmail.com

Use the email account you want to receivethe FORUM and give Full name andCouncil to place you in the right email list.