David Wilson
If you recall, I mentioned in a previous blog post that I believe in “R & D” for almost all aspects of Venturing. In case you missed it — that stands for “Rip Off & Duplicate.” I don’t think we really need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to Venturing. There are some great things floating out there on the Internet that may only need a little tweaking to work for you and your crew.
When I come across resources that I feel would be beneficial for you I’ll share them here (and I would hope that you will share with others and so forth). If you have something that really works for you–hey, feel free to share with me and everyone else. We are all in this together, and we can all use whatever assistance we can get from others.
With that said, here goes a shout out to a Western Region Venturing web site. It’s the Columbia Basin Scouting webpage specific on LDS Venturing Resources. They have done a great job in making Venturing easy to understand and follow. I love their comment on why they have this site: “The intent of this website is not to duplicate efforts of other similar websites, but to simplify access to key information used frequently.” The drop down documents are easy to access and read. I strongly encourage you take a few minutes and check them out.
Here are a few highlights:
- Venturing Program Summary: This document highlights key program areas and can be very helpful to get a holistic perspective of the program.
- Venturing Activity Planning Worksheet: The core of Venturing is the development of leadership skills through the planning and execution of crew activities. This worksheet can assist a Venturer in organizing and planning various activities.
- Venturing Structured Personal Reflections: This document can be used to help Venturers understand the idea of reflective thinking, share their thoughts and ideas with others, and help them document their thoughts as they consider how they can develop themselves into better people.
- Venturing Program Calendar for 2016:This calendar is the program calendar for Crew 66/64 that is sponsored by the Church. For example, it includes Church-specific monthly activities that include the LDS Young Women program. Each activity is color-coded to correspond with the program area such as Adventure, Leadership, and so on.
I want to thank the folks of Crews 66 & 64 of Ephrata, Washington for developing this web page and sharing their insights with others.
So, now you have it: some additional LDS insights on how to make Venturing work. What works for you? I’d love to hear your success stories. Please feel free to share.
–David
David Wilson has been actively involved in Venturing since its inception back in the ’90’s. He is dedicated to working on strengthening the bridges and removing the walls that occur between the Church and the BSA for the older young men in the Church. David continues to work to bless and serve through his involvement in multiple levels of Venturing (from national to the local council). He currently calls Orem, Utah home. The views and opinions expressed in this message are solely those of the author.