Positive and negative

[wagionvigil]

Northeast Region Venturing is down 13%
One council Dropped 4500 from their Venturing program
Baltimore ARea had a 28% Growth last month
I believe the following is correct that 8 councils are responsible for 61% of the drop in membership.

In these big drop cases it is no doubt they were whole high schools or classes within the high schools that should have been in LFL not Venturing.
I am discussin e's Mentor Idea with some people.

[Eamonn]

Boy how I hate it when people tell me "I told you so!"
As I said I haven't as yet looked at the October numbers. I did notice the 10% drop earlier in the year.
Sad thing is that I think that most Councils are doing rechartering early in the year, so over the next few months the numbers will continue to drop. A true picture of where we are at will be in the reports next spring.

[wagionvigil]

Most Venture Crews are rechartering when school starts from what I was told today.

[Eamonn]

I'm not going to disagree, because I don't know.
But that would seem a little daffy!!
Recruit in the fall so the end of year numbers look good.
Then take the hit early in the year and have the rest of the year to make it up.
Of course I know one Sea Scout Ship that went for the 18 month charter. Just to save a buck or two.

[Eamonn]

I just looked at membership reports for November for the NE-Region.
They now list the change as a loss of 16.9% from last November.
It seems that we lost 115 Crews in the year.
Looking at the entire report there is very little good news in fact the only area that shows growth is in LFL Special needs.
In traditional programs we show a loss of 29,712.
In LFL we show a loss of 73,931.
Check my math but I seem to think that we lost 103,643 youth members.
I think that's a lot.
Even if the Venturers that should have been in LFL had /have been put back we ought to have seen a gain in LFL - It's not there.
To lose over 5% of our Traditional membership?? Wow!!
It must mean that something isn't working.
We could I suppose play the finger pointing game. The one where we the volunteers blame the pros and they in turn blame the volunteers.
But while we are playing that things will only get worse.
Of course it could be that after all that went on last year in some areas of the country that the numbers we are now seeing are real numbers?
While I admit to not being a lover of the LFL program, I just don't see how we can drop 14.7%.
I'm OK with leaving the LFL in the hands of those who are in that program. But I sure as heck am going to do my bit to see what can be done to ensure that I bring as many real and active Scouts back into Scouting.
This isn't rocket science !! A good dose of fun, adventure with a few challenges thrown in will do the trick.
Please don't bother telling me that todays kids don't want it. Because I know that they do and if you disagree not only are you very wrong, but you need to go join a knitting club or some club where they will listen.

[wagionvigil]

2006 venturing Numbers are not near as bad as last year the NER is only down 1.6% I can live with that.Many councils are finally getting rid of ghost units and members and are using real numbers. I was recently informed o0f a coucil that shows over 3000 Ventures in the couincil and it is estimated that only about 200 of them are really in a crew outside of their troop.Making a crew within the troop is not what I see as Venturing I see this is we have to do something for the older boy but we want them to stay and run the troop.
Maybe we need to start the major change that at 16 you must join a crew and leave the troop ." Radical" you bet, but we need to make changes and change is always a hard pill to swallow. For those Boys that have not finished Eagle they could still finish as part of a Crew by their 18th BD. We need Venturing Camps separate from our Scout camps the same as Cub Camps should be separate from Boy Scout Camps. I'll start building my security wall now!

[ThunderingWind]

Your are right, change is hard.

However, I can not find anything outrightly wrong with your suggestion regarding the age of the boys joining a Crew at 16.

It leaves a few quality girls out and I thinks there would need to be some discussion on that.

Since you are part of the "National" level, feel free to move it forward. I'll support from the parent/adult leader role if asked.

[wagionvigil]

Crews would still use the age 14 grade 9 but mandatory move at 16 for Boy Scouts.