101 Helpful Venturing Tips
in no particular order - intended for the youth

  1. Ask for donations and discounts from businesses.
  2. Plan a year ahead of time, but be flexible
  3. True youth leadership is key
  4. Develop crew goals/vision, so you are striving toward the same thing
  5. Develop a “uniform” that identifies your crew as a group – not a bunch of teens hanging out
  6. It is okay to fail - if you get up and try again
  7. Invest in a Venturing Leader’s Manual and use it.
  8. Agendas are a good thing
  9. Be flexible
  10. Be respectful of other peoples time
  11. It is YOUR crew! Don’t allow adults to take over
  12. Communicate your expectations clearly
  13. Hold crew members and officers responsible
  14. Don’t try to do everything yourself
  15. New member packets help recruit new members
  16. Always have a Venturing and adult application on hand.
  17. Be enthusiastic about venturing.
  18. Pay attention to what people are doing. This way you can recognize their achievements.
  19. Get input from the crew often, that way they can’t complain about what you’re doing
  20. Use the Program Capability Inventory and Venturing Activity Interest Survey
  21. Contact organizations for speakers and/or consultants
  22. Speakers want plenty of time, so make sure to give them plenty of time, so they’ll come back
  23. The Venturing award program can provide an excellent, solid base for program
  24. Reach out to parents – they know more than you might think.
  25. Make sure that you’re dedicated before you take a position (Advisor, Officer, Activity Chair, etc)
  26. Get the youth leadership in place promptly
  27. Ensure that the youth leadership is trained as soon as possible so that they can run the crew.
  28. Bylaws will provide a solid guideline for a functioning crew
  29. Try to recruit a variety of ages so that the crew can continue later on – and for experience levels
  30. Try to discourage cliques, but don’t assign any groups, or seating – that’s elementary school.
  31. Advisors are allowed to act like kids on occasion.
  32. Roundtables are an excellent place to “network” - it helps to have an adult to show up.
  33. Think way outside the box
  34. Anything is possible given the support, training, and equipment
  35. Venturing is not simply "Advanced Boy Scouting With Girls”
  36. De-emphasize the advancement program: it is NOT the holy grail
  37. Adults are your advisors and mentors, not leaders
  38. Recognition can be for anything – not just the Venturing awards.
  39. Adults should never, ever run the program
  40. Never stop recruiting: youth, advisors, and consultants
  41. Personal invitations work the best
  42. Venturing Leader Basic Training for adults is helpful
  43. Wood Badge for adults is worth it
  44. Adventure Quest for adults is worth it
  45. Powderhorn for adults is worth it
  46. Why is there all this training for adults, but none for youth??
  47. Always ask questions
  48. Approach Venturing in the spirit of fun and excitement
  49. Some newspapers, TV, and/or Radio stations will accept email press releases
  50. The activity planner (in the Leader Manual) is helpful to plan activities.
  51. Activities should be planned ahead of time – and backdated
  52. A crew phone tree is vital
  53. Keep a record of minutes so that crew decisions may be reviewed in the future
  54. People really appreciate little thank-yous: maintain good relations
  55. Get a free checking account as soon as possible
  56. Have one person, who doesn’t go on activities, be the designated emergency contact
  57. Always bring a cell phone (if at all possible)
  58. Develop a crew budget early – and continue to review it periodically
  59. Parliamentary procedure helps ensure a smoothly run meeting.
  60. “Failing to plan is planning to fail”
  61. Call your council and try to get your crew involved with planning some Council level activities.
  62. Advisors, consultants, and guests are either observers or participants, but not leaders unless asked.
  63. Try and establish give/take relationships with troops.
  64. Provide a presentation in exchange for recruiting within troops.
  65. Sit back and relax!
  66. Read all the Venturing literature you can get your hands on
  67. Pair up with an existing crew for some activities
  68. Run a joint Venturing Leadership Skills course with another Crew
  69. Conduct officers briefing and seminars promptly
  70. Powderhorn is an excellent  jumpstart in getting a crew going
  71. Expect the first few months to be a struggle.
  72. Most information should be routed through the president – he or she is in charge
  73. A mentorship program within the crew can be helpful when planning activities
  74. If you’re lucky enough to have multiple advisors, pair them up with youth officers
  75. Individual crew member accounts might provide incentive to doing fundraisers
  76. Read the guide to safe scouting – Unless the crew says otherwise, only follow what is written.
  77. A website can be helpful for recruiting and promotion
  78. Create generic crew business cards. Give some to everyone in the crew – hand them out often
  79. Explore
  80. Rock climbing is a fun, easy tool to promote cohesion in a unit.
  81. It should be “venturing in action.”
  82. Read Jamie’s Lessons Learned: http://www.venturing-mag.org
  83. create a mission statement
  84. volunteer for lots of stuff – it’ll help promote Venturing in your community
  85. Develop a “tabletop display or presentation” about your crew. Take it everywhere you go
  86. Define, Delegate, Disappear
  87. A successful unit is defined by if it had a positive influence on it’s membership – not longevity
  88. Crew newsletters are great – if they’re consistent
  89. Convince scoutmasters that you’re not stealing their scouts
  90. Venturing has great potential for growth – tap into it
  91. A meeting agenda is essential – even if it’s a loose plan written on paper, written by president
  92. Military recruiters love the Venturing age demographic – they’ll bend over backward for you!
  93. Don’t be afraid to modify various syllabi to suit your own program
  94. Modify the Venturing Activity Interest Survey – to include more specific items.
  95. Join the Yahoo! and usscouts.org Venturing email lists.
  96. Email is great for communication, but don’t forget any members that don’t have email
  97. take a look at usscouts.org for lots of reference material
  98. Be prepared to educate your Unit Commissioner – if you are lucky enough to have one
  99. The possibility exists to create officer/non-officer positions, do so, but be careful
  100. Try and do your part for the crew, but also ensure that others do as well – it’ll let them grow
  101. Venturing is a catalyst – if everything comes together right, great things will happen! You have the power to control the destiny of your Crew – make it great! Good Luck!