Question	What is the Venture Program?
Answer	Objectives The primary objective of the Venture program is to keep the older Scouts interested and active in the troop. It also provides an opportunity for older scouts to safely test their physical capabilities and utilize the skills learned in Boy Scouts in a more challenging environment. Venture Group The Venture Group will form based on the number of eligible Scouts that sign up for a given event. That group will gather during regular troop meetings for planning needs and outside of regular troop meetings as necessary to accomplish event specific goals. When not working on Venture Group activities the Scouts will be part of their patrols formed through the normal Troop process. Eligible Scouts that choose not to participate in a particular event would be part of the normal Troop activities. Participation A Scout must be at least 13-1/2 years of age and have the minimum rank of 1st Class to participate in the Venture program. Enrollment will be open twice each year in September and March when the planning sessions for the following six month period will occur. All eligible Scouts can participate in the planning session. There will be approximately two events in each period. Each Venture activity will have preparation and training activities designed to educate the Scout in proper technique, equipment and safety. All Scouts that sign up for a Venture activity must participate in all of the associated training. Planning Sessions Event planning sessions will occur twice a year. At each session all of the eligible scouts can participate in the event list generation and final selection. The expectation is that the final choices will be made by the third meeting in September for the Sept-Feb period and the third meeting in March for the March-August period. Scout Performance Expectations Troop – Venture Scouts are always expected to be a good example to the younger Scouts through their behavior. Venture Scouts are part of the Troop first. They are expected to participate in the Troop activities associated with development of younger Scouts and community service. Patrol – When back with their individual patrols the Venture Scouts should demonstrate the enthusiasm and skills learned through the Venture program. Venture group – Each of the Venture Scouts is expected to participate in each aspect of the venture program and support a positive and challenging atmosphere. The adult coordinators allow the Venture Scouts more responsibility in the planning and execution of the Venture activities. The success of the group and the program rests as much with the Scouts attitude and performance as with the adult leaders. Adult Leadership In general the Venture Group will maintain the standard “two deep” approach but will aim at achieving a ratio of one adult to four Scouts. There will be at least one adult leader present at each Scoutmaster meeting to provide progress reports and other program feedback to the Scoutmaster. Also, the adult leader will be prepared to provide a list for each Venture outing of the eligible Scouts that do not plan on participating.