20 Facts about Venturing for the Program's 20th Birthday
Today, Venturers everywhere have the green light to party. That’s because today is the Venturing program’s 20th birthday!
The BSA’s executive board created the older-youth program on Feb. 9, 1998. In the 20 years since, Venturing has enabled more than 1 million young men and young women to choose their own adrenaline-packed adventures.
Let’s begin the celebration with 20 things you need to know about Venturing.
1. Venturing was launched in 1998.
An announcement about Venturing appeared in the September 1998 edition of Scouting magazine.
Venturing began Feb. 9, 1998, when the BSA’s volunteer-led executive board split the old Exploring program into two.
Career-oriented Explorer posts became part of Learning for Life under the name Exploring. All other Explorer posts, including those with a focus on outdoor adventures, became part of Venturing.
2. The name Venturing was chosen to align with similar programs worldwide.
The Boy Scouts of America is part of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, which represents 40 million young people in 169 countries.
As such, it only made sense for the BSA to align with other countries when selecting a name for its older-teen program. The name Venturing also is used in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland and Japan — to name five.
3. Venturing units are called crews.
Cub Scouts are in packs. Boy Scouts are in troops. Sea Scouts are in ships. Venturers are in crews.
That’s the proper term, by the way: Venturing crew. They’re not called Venture crews or Venturer crews.
Crews are not divided into patrols.
By the way, if you’re not yet involved with Venturing, you can find your crew here.
4. Venturing is for young people ages 14 to 21.
Venturers can be males or females who are at least 14 but not yet 21.
Young people may also join at 13 if they have completed the eighth grade.
5. Venturing crews include young men and young women.
Ever since its beginning, Venturing crews have been coed.
6. Youth members in Venturing are called Venturers.
This may seem simplistic, but you’ll occasionally hear people refer to Venturing members as Venture Scouts.
Actually, they’re Venturers!
That said, because Venturing is part of the Scouting program, Venturers also may be referred to as “Scouts.”
7. Adult leaders in Venturing are called Advisors.
An adult is called a Venturing Advisor, not a Venture leader or Venturer leader.
The BSA’s official style is to always capitalize the word “Advisor” in a Venturing context — just like we capitalize the words Cubmaster and Scoutmaster.
The word Advisor has important significance, as I’ll explain in the next point.
8. Venturing is completely youth-led.
Adults in Venturing don’t lead or direct. They merely advise. They’re Advisors.
Venturers lead the meetings, plan the outings and make all decisions about the crew’s direction. This challenges each young person to learn and apply leadership skills — experience that will prepare them for careers down the road.
9. The top youth leader in a crew is the president.
The crew president is elected by his or her peers to lead all meetings and activities.
Other elected crew positions include vice president of administration, vice president of program, crew secretary and crew treasurer.
10. Venturing has four main areas of emphasis.
They spell out ALPS:
Adventure
Leadership
Personal growth
Service
11. Venturing uses the Scout Oath, Scout Law and Scout sign.
You’ll find crews for basketball or BMX, fishing or fencing, magic or model railroading.
14. Venturing lets young people discover their world.
Building off that last point, Venturing provides youth-inspired experiences young people can’t get elsewhere.
A Venturer might:
Rappel a cliff
Perfect her shot
Build a robot
Kayak into the sunset
Explore his faith
Volunteer at an animal shelter
Re-enact living history
Design a video game
And that’s just Year One.
15. Venturing has four core awards, including one that’s as tough as Eagle.
Like the Venturing program itself, the core awards in Venturing are flexible enough to meet the needs of any crew.
All Venturers should earn the Venturing Award soon after joining.
After that, Venturers work on the Discovery and Pathfinder Awards.
Finally, Venturers strive to earn the Summit Award, the program’s highest honor.
The Venturing Bronze, Gold and Silver Awards were discontinued Dec. 31, 2014.
16. It’s possible to earn Eagle in Venturing.
Venturers who earned the First Class rank as registered Boy Scouts or Varsity Scouts are qualified, until their 18th birthday, to continue with Boy Scout advancement through Venturing.
Venturing has no official uniform that all members must wear. Each crew decides what constitutes a uniform.
There is a recommended uniform, however, and it’s why Venturers are unofficially referred to as “Greenshirts.”
The BSA makes a green Venturing shirt that helps Venturers stand out in a crowd of khaki. If a crew does decide to wear the green Venturing shirt, they’ll need to follow these uniform guidelines.
18. There’s a whole national organizational structure to Venturing.
Like Cub Scout packs and Boy Scouts troops, each Venturing crew is part of a BSA council.
Most councils have a Venturing Officers’ Association (VOA) with a youth president and vice presidents for administration, program and communication.
Each council is part of an area and region — each with its own VOA and elected youth leaders.
Finally, there is a National Venturing Officers’ Association with the National Venturing President, National Venturing Vice President, four Regional Venturing Presidents and their respective advisors.
The National Venturing President, who for 2017-2018 is Michelle Merritt, represents Venturing and the BSA at national events.
19. Venturing will share “20 for 20” stories all year on social media.
Be sure to Like and Follow the page so you don’t miss a thing.
20. VenturingFest 2018 is happening this summer.
New
Final District Journey To Excellence Scores
Congrats to all districts who made color. In 2018, lets make sure all 7 reach Bronze or better! Thank you to staff and volunteers who dedicate many hours to benefit our youth.
Ricci Dula, Assistant Scout Executive/COO
New
MR District Dinner
New
Tips for Deducting Scouting Expenses on Your Tax Return
UPDATED: This text, first published in 2011, was updated Feb. 6, 2018, with 2017 tax season info. This includes a complete refresh and an accuracy review by Eagle Scout Michael B. Carr, CPA. (Thanks, Michael!)
DISCLAIMER: While this text was reviewed by a CPA, this material is intended for informational purposes only. It is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. Always consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.
When Baden-Powell said “Be Prepared,” I’m pretty sure he wasn’t talking about income tax returns.
But still, there’s no better advice than that two-word phrase during tax time.
Scouters who heeded the Scout Motto last year remembered to track and document their Boy Scouts of America-related expenses. And now, they know that they can include those expenses if they plan to itemize their deductions.
But what if you didn’t know that BSA expenses were deductible? Or what if your “filing system” is really your glove compartment that’s stuffed with gas receipts and crumpled-up napkins? And what qualifies as an eligible expense, anyway?
Your fellow Scouters and I are here to help. Along with other Scout leaders on Facebook, I’ve collected some tips to help you track and deduct your BSA-related expenses.
And with the April 17, 2018, deadline approaching fast, there’s no better time than now to get started.
General facts you need to know
Further clarification for this section comes from the Taxwise Giving newsletter (November 2016 edition).
On IRS Form 1040, “2017 Instructions for Schedule A”, the Boy Scouts of America is listed by name on page A-9 as a “qualified charitable organization,” so BSA expenses are eligible.
Four types of contributions can be deducted:
Cash/check donations
Property donations
“Out-of-pocket expenses you paid to do volunteer work”
Uniforms for leaders. “Uniforms that aren’t suitable for everyday use and that you wear while performing donated services for a charitable organization are charitable items in the year purchased,” Carr says. “Scout uniforms for leaders qualify.”
The cost of driving to and from BSA events
Some types of relevant contributions cannot be deducted:
The value of your time
Scouting dues or membership fees
A contribution to a specific individual. This includes giving to the Boy Scouts and specifying a particular person or Scout as the beneficiary of your donation.
Easy enough, right? Scouters will mainly be concerned with that third type of eligible deductions, “out-of-pocket expenses you paid to do volunteer work.”
Some items that you purchase to benefit your unit can be deducted, provided your unit didn’t reimburse you for them. You’ll want to check with your tax professional to be sure, but Scouters have told me they deduct merit badge pamphlets, den meeting activity kits, Wood Badge course fees and much more — again, as long as their pack or troop didn’t reimburse them.
However, there’s one expense that I’m certain you can deduct: the cost of driving to and from BSA events.
How to include driving expenses
Included in the third category is driving to or from a BSA event. Here’s what the IRS says about mileage:
First, you’re eligible to deduct the cost of driving to and from the volunteer work, which would include most BSA activities.
You can deduct parking and tolls, so add that to the amount you claim under either method above.
As a reminder, you cannot deduct any expenses, mileage included, that were repaid to you by your unit, district, council or anyone else.
You also cannot deduct insurance or depreciation on the car.
Traveling as a volunteer
If you travel as a volunteer and must be away from home overnight, reasonable payments for meals and lodgings, as well as your transportation costs (previous section), are deductible. Also deductible: your transportation costs (air, rail and bus tickets, or mileage as described in the previous section).
This is where it gets tricky. You can’t deduct travel expenses if there’s a “significant element of personal pleasure, recreation or vacation.” But enjoying your volunteer time doesn’t rule out a deduction.
For example, if you’re an on-duty troop leader who takes Scouts on a BSA camping trip, you may deduct those travel expenses even if you had a good time.
Important caveats
Next, there’s the tricky part of “gifts from which you receive benefit.” Let’s say, for example, that you attend your council’s annual dinner. Can you deduct that expense? Sort of.
Here’s what the IRS says: “If you made a gift and received a benefit in return, such as food, entertainment, or merchandise, you can generally only deduct the amount that is more than the value of the benefit.”
So if tickets for the council dinner were $75 and the value of the dinner was $35, you can only deduct $40.
Or if you paid $110 for a $100 gift card at a silent auction, you can only deduct $10.
Make sense?
Also, you’ll want to consult a tax professional or the IRS site for individual gifts of $250 or more. There are special rules that apply to those larger gifts.
How to deduct gifts of more than $250
Here’s what Carr says:
If the leader is deducting more than $250 in a single charitable contribution, he or she should maintain a record of these expenses (credit card receipts for travel, copy of a cancelled check for cash donations), as well a letter from the charitable organization showing:
Donee’s name
Contribution date
Contribution amount
Indication the donee received no goods or services were in return for the gift.
How tax law changes will affect Scouters
Carr says:
The threshold for itemizing (filling out the Schedule A) will increase from $12,700 for a married-filing-jointly (MFJ) return in tax year 2017 to $24,000 for an MFJ return in tax year 2018.
As a result, a lot of the detailed tracking Scout leaders may have done in the past for charitable givings will no longer be necessary in 2018.
Unless charitable givings, mortgage interest, and state and local tax deductions are greater than $24,000 (MFJ) or $12,000 (Single), a Scout leader won’t be itemizing, and as a result the charitable donation won’t be deductible.
Ten tips for keeping track of it all
Here are 10 tips your fellow Scouters offered:
Theresa W. keeps a “notebook in the car for tracking mileage! Man, it adds up faster than you think!”
“I update an Excel Spreadsheet with costs, and a folder for receipts,” says Jeff B. “I print out the Excel table when I do my taxes.”
Jamie D. also has a high-tech approach: “I use Mint.com to track all our expenses. I set up a category just for Scouts.”
So does Tom H.: “I have a program called NeatReceipts that comes with a scanner. I use it for my expense reports for work. Just drop the receipts in the scanner then catagorize them. Set up a group for Scouting and everything is there at tax time.”
But Michelle H. prefers the low-tech method: “We have a calendar and a folder (calendar stays in the folder) to keep track of everything!”
Patricia L. makes it easy on her accountant: “I keep a file and drop my charitable receipts in it all year. Our accountant appreciated copies of online maps that we used for driving directions. Date, purpose, and mileage all in one place.”
Julus P. doesn’t itemize, but he might start some day. “Scouting is not for profit, and not a hobby. Granted, it feels like a hobby sometimes! I don’t keep track of all these things but really should!”
For Mark F., it’s not worth the trouble. “I don’t keep up with it. I enjoy being a Cubmaster and camp promotions chair, and so far, it’s cheaper than going to NASCAR races and cheaper than maintaining my boat and related gear I use for fishing!”
Shawna R. keeps track of mileage, but not for every trip: “I don’t keep track of mileage for going to the store to pick up Scout items, even if it’s the only thing I’m going to the store for.” That’s probably a good call.
And finally, please remember to heed the advice of Ann O.: “Check with your tax person on what you can deduct. It wasn’t as straightforward as I thought, and the rules seem to change.”
Want even more tips? Find them in the comments section below, and please share your own.
For their Camp Emerson 100th Anniversary Service Project, the Temescal District plans to renovate the Dan Beard Lodge near Camp Emerson’s Bear Trap Bowl. Originally built by Temescal District Scouters in 1953, the Dan Beard lodge will sport new steel doors, windows, a deck and more! Temescal’s CE100th Project Coordinator, Sarah Franklin created a display to showcase the plans as they come together. (Since this time, however, we have SOLD OUT of our initial CE100th Patch!)
The Camp Emerson 100th Anniversary committee appreciates Sarah’s leadership, looks forward to watching the project’s process - and we can’t wait to enjoy the updated Dan Beard Lodge! For more information about the Camp Emerson 100th Anniversary Committee and Service Project opportunities, contact us at info@CE100th.org
The Mission of the Camp Emerson 100th Anniversary Committee is to honor and celebrate the land, the history and the people, past and present, and to establish an endowment association to carry its benefits into the future.Camp Emerson's 100th Anniversary: Our legacy. Their future. If you haven’t already, we invite you to “like” our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CE100th/
New
After Roaring Success, Lions will move from Pilot to Full-Time part of Cub Scouting
On the heels of a successful pilot that introduced new families to Scouting and raised retention rates, Lions, the BSA’s Cub Scout program for kindergarten-age youth, will become an official part of Cub Scouting this year.
The decision was made official after a vote this week by the BSA’s volunteer-led National Executive Board.
The Lions uniform won’t change. Lions will continue wearing the blue Lion T-shirt. There’s also an optional cap and new neckerchief and slide. All are suitable for wearing with the T-shirt.
But many exciting changes are on the way based on feedback from families participating in the pilot. These include the introduction of a rectangular rank patch, rank cards, advancement chart and Lion adventure loops.
Keep reading for details about these new items, which will be available in late summer — in time for the start of the fall program.
Can all packs offer Lions?
Absolutely! Lions are official nationwide, meaning that, beginning this fall, any unit in any council has the green light to begin recruiting new Lions and their families. (Previously, the BSA needed to approve individual councils and units to offer Lions.)
The rank is an official part of Cub Scouting — just like Tiger, Wolf, Bear and Webelos.
Lions offers a great opportunity for your pack to serve more families. Packs that participated in the Lions pilot program saw an 87 percent retention rate, steady growth and excellent parental involvement.
When can my pack begin welcoming Lions?
This fall — as part of the 2018-2019 program year.
What are these new Lion adventure loops?
Lions, like their older packmates, will get to earn adventure loops.
Over the course of a year, Lions will complete all five of the required adventures (compared to at least seven for Tiger and above). They also may complete one or more of the nine elective adventures.
Adventure loops are immediate recognition items, meaning packs should present them to Lions right away — not wait until a big event like a blue and gold. Adventure loops should be worn with pride on the Cub Scout belt.
Lion adventure loops, as well as a Lion advancement chart, will be available in your council’s Scout Shop by late summer.
Do Lions come to every pack meeting?
Lions should participate in at least two or three pack meetings a year. Ultimately, it’s up to the family. If they’d like to attend more pack meetings, they are welcome.
Lions can also have lots of fun doing elective adventures and earning additional adventure loops beyond what’s required.
Can Lions camp?
Yes. Lions can participate in family camping with their pack.
Lion dens shouldn’t participate in overnight den-specific camping, but pack and family camping are encouraged. Day camp and activities such as shooting sports are reserved for older Cub Scouts. Lion dens should focus on exciting (and age-appropriate) adventures and fun family outings.
Can Lions participate in the Pinewood Derby?
Yep! You can include Lions in your pack’s regular Pinewood Derby routine or encourage Lions to use the wedge car available at Scout Shops — no cutting required.
Will Lions wear the blue Cub Scout uniform shirt?
No. They’ll wear the blue Lion T-shirt and blue Cub Scout belt. The hat, neckerchief and neckerchief slide are optional and can be worn after the completion of the “Gizmos and Gadgets” adventure.
What is the Lion rank strip?
Once Lions complete their rank, they can wear the rectangular Lion patch on the upper left of their T-shirt. (That’s the Lion’s left, or over his or her heart.)
When Lions move into Tigers, they can sew the patch under the left pocket — below where the Tiger rank patch will go.
The previously introduced diamond-shaped Lion patch is going away.
Do Lions now earn Bobcat first before working on the Lion rank?
No, Lions work on their Lion rank first. When they become a Tiger, they’ll begin to work on Bobcat.
Are Lion Guides now called den leaders?
Yes. The BSA has changed the name to better align with the rest of Cub Scouting. The position’s responsibilities have not changed. Lion den leaders still facilitate and engage families so that each family takes a turn leading one den meeting and outing.
Where can I get more info?
The BSA will update its Lions website with more details over the coming days. I’ll add that link here when it’s ready.
If you ever get stuck, contact the BSA’s Member Care line at 972-580-2489 or MyScouting@Scouting.org.
Positive Quote and Prayer --------------------------------
"Badges mean nothing in themselves, but they mark a certain achievement and they are a link between the rich and the poor. For when one girl sees a badge on a sister Scouter's arm, if that girl has won the same badge, it at once awakens an interest and sympathy between them."
~Juliette Gordon Low
Thank you for the fun we have had tonight,
For the new things that we have learned
And for the friends we have made.
Amen.
Monday Memo is from the Council and contains our reflection on what is happening within the Council. The purpose of the Monday Memo is to communicate information about the week ahead, to acknowledge the good things happening around the Council and to address specific issues that we want to bring to your attention. We welcome any comments, suggestions or recommendations on how to make this memo as helpful as possible. If you have something you want publicized in the Monday Memo, please send it to Daniela attention c/o Monday Memo: Monday Memo Archives Click Here
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