Central Region Venturing Area 4 Newsletter - October 2014

THE ADVENTURER

Central Region, BSA Area 4 Venturing Officers Association Venturing

Summer Highlights 

Training, Training, Training

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2 Councils have Council Venturing Presidents for the first time

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Roll out— New Venturing

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New handbooks and trainings now available

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Plans laid for the future of Venturing in Area 4

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Inside this issue: Advisors Corner, 2 Area VTCs, New Handbooks ALPS, Membership, CSVE

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NAYLE / PLC / SLC

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Council Venturing Presidents & GOALS

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Our President’s Voice Hello Area 4!

I hope everyone is getting into and enjoying your school spirit! Just because school is going on doesn’t mean that all the fun activities have to end though!

Make sure to get out and get active with your Crew!

There are tons of fun activities that you and your Crew can get involved with all throughout Ohio and West Virginia this fall whether it be hosting a fall fun party,

going for a hike, or even going on a hayride. I also encourage everyone to invite a friend from school to come and attend a meeting or event. You could be surprised how many people you can get involved through peer-to-peer interaction! I hope to see many of you over the course of the next few months at upcoming Venturing events! Also, be sure to invite Area officers to your training and fun events! We would love to come hang out too!

Yours in Venturing,

Nate Steele Area 4 Venturing President

Planning for the Future of Area4Venturing:

Program plans & 5-6 WorldFest

Thanks and wait until you see what we have for you.

GTC Monster Mash

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Stay in Touch

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Thanks to all who answered our survey.

Thanks to all who contacted us and told us what they want from the Area. Thanks to those participating in council listening sessions during our first three Venturing Training Conferences in August and September. Thanks to those who attended our Leadership and Planning conference in Zanesville and at Muskingum Valley Scout Reservation.

Thanks to our Advisor Duane Zobrist for challenging the youth to develop a three year plan..

And the result? Every year, each spring, you will have a chance to participate in an Area Fun Event we will call… drum roll please…. WorldFest. We heard you and I think you will find this is exactly what Venturers in Area 4 want!

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Advisors Corner Duane Zobrist Area 4 Venturing Advisor I send an enthusiastic hello to Area 4. It is a great time to be part of Area 4 and Venturing. In the last few months our Area VOA, under the leadership of President Nate Steele, has rolled out a training program delivered in local councils. Now, nearly 100 leaders have been trained in the details of the new venturing program.

We are also pleased to announce that our new fun event, WorldFest, will

premiere April 2015. We have secured great facilities and are confirming the details of a program to remember. Stay tuned for more details.

Area 4 has moved from an area with no VOA to a vibrant and forward moving organization in just 2 short years. At this time I want to thank the youth leaders who have helped move this program forward. I also want to send a special thanks to my Associate Advisor Steve Myers for his tireless work in moving this area forward.

Area Venturing Training Conferences New handbooks now available

Your officers and advisors at the Central Region Planning Conference in Naperville, IL, in June made a decision to take training to the councils and effectively roll out ALPS, the new Venturing program planning model. At the same time they hoped to raise awareness of membership issues and to present our membership plan to all councils.

four conferences held in Wheeling, WV, Peninsula, OH , Ona WV, and Zanesville, OH. To support this effort we named the first VP of Training, Nathan Jarosz. Nathan a NAYLE staffer, has much experience to bring to us and is now working on outreach to the 11 councils to try to assist throughout Area 4 wherever we can.

Over 100 participants attended one of

And so, we start anew!

Now available is the new Handbook for Venturers! This book contains all the new changes made to the Venturing program, and much more!

Go to scoutstuff.com or your local scout shop to buy it now! With all this new information coming out there is a lot to figure out and you probably have a lot of questions or might even be a little confused about

some things‌ Well you are in luck! Simply go to the link at the bottom of this article for lots of resources to help you out..

Adult guidebooks, implementation guidelines and training for youth and adults are there too.

AREA 4 ADVENTURE WEBSITE

https://sites.google.com/a/crventuring.org/c4voa

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2014-2015 Issue 1

The ALPS Program Planning Model The Venturing awards and recognitions programs are designed to help Venturers grow in the areas of Adventure, Leadership, Personal development, and Service (ALPS). Awards serve as benchmarks that give Venturers a structure for developing their own personal vision into manageable goals that lead to recognition by their peers, mentors, and the larger community.

This awards program has four levels: Venturing, Discovery, Pathfinder, and Summit Awards. Simply put, ALPS is not an advancement program, but an recognition system for Venturers who benefit from and are rewarded as a consequence of a well-planned program supported by trained youth leaders and adults.

Meet less and do more!

Membership—Happy New Years!

Do you know that 29 councils in the Central Region had a Council VOA in 2012-2013? Did you know that they lost 9% of their members as estimated based on national registration data? The larger point Is that the 43 councils that did not have a Council VOA lost three times as many Venturers or a 27%.

So a good step towards building membership is to make sure the council has an organized VOA with a youth serving Council Venturing President.

This is the first point of our membership plan as developed and approved last March. There are many more points in it as well. Our officers have been teaching the membership plan over the last three months and now it is the council’s turn.

Nate Steele has asked that each Council study the Area 4 membership plan, develop their own and send us their council membership plan by Jan 1, 2015. Lets plan to build membership and make it a happy New Year.

Councils should develop their own membership plan by Jan 1, 2015

Council Standards of Venturing Excellence Jon Crawford VP Administration The Council Standards of Venturing Excellence Award (CSVE) is presented by the BSA National Council to the councils that complete the requirements during the calendar

year. This is a very prestigious award, as it is presented by the National Council. Last year, Muskingum Valley Council and Great Trail Council were awarded the CSVE, along with three others in the region.

A CSVE survey was sent to all councils last month. All seven areas of the Central Region are collecting this information so we and you know how to put your council on the right track to earning the award.

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NAYLE Nathan Jarosz Area 4 VP Training

NAYLE is the best leadership course the BSA has to offer as it is truly an experience of a lifetime.

NAYLE PLC SLC Registration open now and they fill up quickly!

National Advanced Youth Leadership Experience (NAYLE) is a leadership “experience” not a “training” course.

The learning is done through the activities and challenges presented. At NAYLE, you will enhance your leadership potential through application of the National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT) tools. What happens at NAYLE is that you will apply the skills you’ve learned at NYLT and practice using those tools with your crew.

(Crews are a group of 6-8 scouts and Venturers from all across the nation you will be teamed up with at NAYLE) By participating in the NAYLE experience, you will come to understand the most effective ways to use those leadership tools and grow in a tremendous way. Those leadership tools are given at NYLT, but are sharpened at NAYLE. Many scouts who participate in NYLT become their crew’s President or their troop’s SPL. At NAYLE, most of those participants have gone

on to do numerous things in leadership for scouting. Some examples being the Course Leaders/SPLs of NYLT courses, having expanded roles in the OA, staffing at Philmont and other High Adventure bases, and even holding national/regional scouting/ venturing positions. A NAYLE course accepts about 50 participants per session, and there are 7 sessions at Philmont. The main focal point of NAYLE is the concept of Servant Leadership. The Latin phrase “Primus Inter Pares” translates to “first among equals.” Lastly, there will be a multitude of team challenges ranging from a challenge events course (similar to a more complex COPE course), SAR, WFA, Geocaching, and much more.

You will also grow personally with some time to reflect on your time at NAYLE. Please take the time to look over the NAYLE link at the bottom of this page for more detailed information. NAYLE is a phenomenal leadership course that will have you leaving more inspired concerning your leadership tools; therefore, I believe NAYLE is the best leadership course the BSA has to offer as it is truly an experience of a lifetime.

PLC, SLC What about our adults? What is their next step? If you have Wood Badge or are a past staffer of NYLT then it is Philmont Leadership Challenge and Summit Leadership Challenge.

For courses at SBR go to SummitBSA.org and for Philmont go to PhilmontScoutRanch.org

LEARN MORE ABOUT NAYLE http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/09/25/nayle/

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2014-2015 Issue 1

Staffing the Spring Fun Event Virginia McGhee VP Program WorldFest is coming and it is going to be a blast. We are in the middle of planning this great event, but we need your help. If you would be willing to volunteer that would be fantastic. Just drop us a line at WorldFest@CRVenturing.org and tell us what you would like to do. We need facilities and program staff. You can be the

primary person bringing us an event we hadn’t thought of to a helper for the established events.

Our theme this year is Scouting: An International Experience. We have the International Scouting Museum as one of our exhibitors. And everyone will receive a “necker” and learn to tie that friendship knot just like most world scouts do.

April is just around the corner so sign up today for WorldFest. The first to sign up will be guaranteed classy accommodations in Buckeye council’s Leadership Village. I would rush to sign up if I were you.

Council Venturing Presidents Goals and Board Presentations Do you know that Area 4 has 7 youth serving presidents in our 11 councils? This is quite a growth over last year and we look to get more councils to adopt VOAs soon.

Our Presidents are: Scot Nielson, Buckeye Council Jonathan Whitley, Great Trail Council Rachel Hill, Greater Cleveland Council Kyle Dennison, Heart of Ohio Council Jessica Edstrom, Muskingum Valley Council Doug Reinbold, Ohio River Valley Council Kami Hisey, Simon Kenton Council

Congratulations to Scot and Doug who represent the first ever CVP in their councils.

“… everyone will receive a “necker” and learn to tie that friendship knot …”

7 of our 11 councils have active youth serving Council Venturing Presidents

Nate Steel had been in contact with all of the CVPs and has asked each to prepare and send in their goals as soon as possible and to share a copy of their report to their council executive board when they make it.

These CVPs (with their Advisors) are members of the Area VOA and assist in planning the future of Venturing in Area 4.

I don’t have time!

Anyone who has attended NYLT knows that you first have to have a Vision before you can set Goals. And to achieve the Goals you have to make Plans. Great theory right? The problem is how do I actually do that?

This 3 hour tour will help everyone from the Council Venturing Presidents who have to form goals (see last story), to the newest Venturer, to the adults that advise us.

Fortunately, one of the great new trainings just released is a course in Goal Setting and Time Management, because achieving goals takes time and most of us are masters at wasting time and squandering goals.

A requirement for the Discovery recognition, this course is excellent for everyone who has ever said I don’t have time and who has had a goal unfulfilled.

Goal Setting and Time Management training is now available

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Great Trail Council Only days remain to sign up!

For only $22 you get all your meals and a warm bunk so you can spend time having a howling good time at Camp Butler in Peninsula OH. Sponsored by the Great Trail VOA, this looks to be an amazing event.

Sign up now before they run out of warm beds in a warm cabin and you have to bring along a tent and sleep in

the haunted wood!

Most of all plan to come to have fun and bring a costume so you will fit right in with the other monsters.

Questions: GTCVenturing@gmail.com Registration link: sign up online at https://scoutingevent.com/?monstermash

Want to get your event or a story about your crew or Council VOA in the ADVENTURER? Send your entries to Area4VP-Communications@CRVenturing.org Recommended size: 1 picture and 100-175 words

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THE ADVENTURER

Central Region, BSA Area 4 Venturing Officers Association

Nate Steele 2014-2015 Area 4 Venturing President area4president@CRVenturing.org Duane Zobrist, Area 4 Advisor DZ@DuaneZobrist.com Dale Holbrook, Area 4 Director Area4.CRVenturing.org

Area 4 Vice Presidents Jon Crawford, VP Administration Virginia McGhee, VP Program Nathan Jarosz, VP Training Matt Larson, VP Communications Area 4 Associate Advisors JV Hooks, Administration Johnny McGhee, Program Steven Myers, Communications and Training Area 4 Commodore Mark VandenPlas

@area4Venturing

Stay in touch with us Matt Larson VP Communications

Hey Everyone! I just wanted to let everybody know that if you ever have any questions on absolutely anything in Venturing, from upcoming activities to the new ALPS model, that myself, and my fellow officers would be more than happy to help you in any way possible.

Furthermore if you have an article that you want to be put in the next newsletter that features your crew we would love to have it to publish in one of our

upcoming newsletters, and I’m sure other crews would love to see what you’ve been up to as well, you never know what program ideas you could be giving to other crews and vice versa.

Be sure to check our website and Facebook page as well as your council’s, there is sure to be important information on there that will be relevant to you and or your crew. I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully reading some of your awesome crew feature articles.

My email address is area4vpcommunications@crventuring.org Yours in Venturing, Matt Larson