The Central Point Newsletter of Central Region Venturing | BSA February Newsletter 2014
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Happy 16th Birthday Venturing! A brief History of the Venturing Program The Venturing program was established on February 9, 1998. This fact is what most people know, what most don’t know, however, is how it came to be. In 1910, when the Boy Scouts of America was first established, the first National Executive meeting report noticed that they were losing older boys due to lack of program. It took a while but in 1939 they created a Senior Scouting program, which included the Explorers, Sea Scouts, and Air Scouts, which were created to try and keep the older boys in the program. In 1949, they consolidated the programs, with the exception of Sea Scouts, into a program called Exploring. In 1995, the Outdoor Exploring Committee met and discussed how to support and sustain the growth for the outdoor program. During a five year period in the 1990s, the program saw a 94% growth rate, which meant almost 100,000 members had joined during that period. They decided to go back to the 1950s version of the Exploring Handbook and followed how the program ran back then, with a few changes. Soon Venturing was born on February 9, 1998 with an outdoor program made for young adults ages 14-21. For the next six months, the Venturing program was adapted to the program that it is today. On August 1 st, 1998, all non-vocational Exploring Posts were changed to Venturing Crews. Over the past 16 years of Venturing, Eagle Scouts have talked about how Venturing gave them a place to be an Eagle Scout and to continue to learn and grow. Young women proclaim how Venturing gave them a place to be a Scout along with their mom, dad, and brothers. Venturing does change lives!
In This Issue: History of Venturing
1
NEW! Venturing Award Names 2 Area 7 Venturing Conference
2
See Our Venturing— Custom Generators
2
Your Chartering Organization and You
3
Area 2 Venturing Kickback Weekend
4
NYLT
4
Sea Scout Update
5
Area Pages
6
President’s Corner
7
Venturing Oath: As a Venturer, I promise to do my duty to God and to help strengthen America. To help others, and to seek truth, fairness, and adventure in our world.