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About Us
: The
Xtreme Venture Scouts
: The Xtreme Concept
: Why the Xtreme Venture Scouts
: Weekly Meetings
: Activities
: Transition
: Issues
: Are you Xtreme enough
: Who are we :
Other pages of interest
: Rogha Award Scheme
: Explorer Belt
: Expeditions
: History
New to Scouting?
If you are new to Scouting why not visit our
What is Scouting
page and find out about Scouting Worldwide and in Ireland. You can also
visit our getting
started pages for more information. (These are links to our Group web site).
Xtreme Venture Scouts
Our Venture Scout Group started in January in 2006 as
part of the 42nd Dublin Scout Group - Dolphin's Barn & Rialto. We grew out of
the 91st Dublin Scout Group. We are based at the Scout Centre, 26 Dolphin's
Barn Street, Dolphin's Barn, Dublin 8. We meet on Tuesdays nights from 8 to
10pm. However we are usually out and about on activities at least one or two
evenings every month. We are a fairly active group with an increasing
membership.
The Xtreme Concept
Well let's see, it's a bit
like Microsoft's plan for world domination, if we had our way the Outdoor
Adventure Store would be completely out of stock of Venture Scout Uniforms. Oh
hang on who am I fooling, the Outdoor Adventure Store rarely has the uniform in
stock. It is one of the
things that make us different from your run of the mill youth club, we're part
of a worldwide youth organisation with a membership of over 26 million.
ScOUTing is what makes us different too - with the emphasis on the Outdoors, ah
joy to the ears of Baden Powell. All too many Scouts
and Scout Leaders have this concept of Venture Scouts
sitting around drinking tea, well that's wrong, we don't sit around and drink
tea, how dare they - those snotty nosed Scouts. We sit around drinking Bottled
Water! Now that's Xtreme Venture Scouting - are you getting
idea? Seriously we are out and about more often than not, just have a
look at our programme. When this section started it only had six members, it
has continued to grow because we make Venture Scouting work! You've got to make
it work, Xtreme Venture Scouting is not like Scouts
and for any Scout who joins it's very different to what they are used too. We
try (and do) make it different. Venture Scouting is the smallest section in our
association and nobody asks why. It doesn't really work - you need to be
Xtreme. That's what we are - Xtreme (taa daa!). Too
many Venture Leaders have left groups because they felt it was going nowhere,
members got bored because they weren't doing anything, The Leader said you
the Venture Scouts wouldn't get up and do anything
and so on. Well let's be honest,
they do need a push or shove every now and then.
We are not saying we are
perfect, far from it, we've got lots of problems (and that's just the Leaders)
we still have a long way to go, we have a lot things we'd like to achieve.
However, what we are doing and the programme we run is Xciting
and invigorating and yes we do the Scouty things too. We try and have as many
camping expeditions during the year to build up Scouting skills which we feel
are very important. However our Scout Group isn't mixed so this is always a
problem as the girls are learning from scratch and playing catch up with the
lads who have ScOUTIng experience. We also have more
girls joining than fellas so we have a waiting list to try and keep the balance
50:50. What we are saying is that you too should be
Xtreme, and that is where "Xtreme"
comes into play. Be Xtreme
in whatever way you can, a way that will make your group unique. It need not be
that you go abseiling every week or that you go rafting in some river in
Switzerland each Easter. It's that something special that makes your group
unique. You don't need a budget of thousands, yes some things cost money but
hey there is always bag packing at your local supermarket, which also helps
to build up arm muscles. We try and be Xtreme in the wide variety of things we
do, while still catering for the interests of the group.
Needless to say you do need a large sense of humour.
Why the Xtreme Venture Scouts?
Well to answer this you've got to come and meet us. In a nutshell, most of us
are completely barmy and raving mad ... and that's just the Leaders! We try to
do everything to the Xtreme, but we are not an xtremely active hill walking
group, we just do an xtremely wide variety of different activities from hill
walking to quads, from cinema to ice skating, from community service to foreign
expeditions. We like to do a wide variety of activities. This is what makes
our group successful we participate in wide selection of activities and
programmes selected by our members. So what else is Xtreme? Our mad cap ideas,
our web site, our use of mobile phones and text messaging, the abnormal amount
of biscuits we eat, the number meals out we eay, the
amount of Jack O'Patsy cups we want to collect and Earl Grey
tea we drink, the list goes on, just ask any member and they'll tell you
we're mad! The concept behind our logo it is that if you want to be Xtreme you
need to keep us in your sights. We are not claiming to be be the best, far from
it, we are just striving to be best or for that matter Xtreme. We've a long way
to go yet and hopefully the strengths of Venture Scouting can be built on.
Weekly Meetings
The weekly meetings are an important factor from the point of view of
holding the Group together. These are in effect the bread and butter of Venture
Scouting and usually the factor which determines whether they leave or stay in
Scouting.
The meetings are run by the
Venture Scouts and Leaders together. Meetings consist of about an hour to an
hour and a half of activity on the subject matter of the meeting and the rest is
in effect the social side where we have a an informal chat and gossip or discuss
up and coming activities. We try to keep this element informal and leave any
big decisions to the formal meeting once a month.
Activities
Our Group strive on activities and although we have
problems with money we try to have as many activities as we can. As a minimum we
have at least one activity a month. Like our meetings we try to have a bit of
variety. Hiking is great but if you are doing it all the time it becomes a bit
of a pain. Over the last year our activities have included Quads, canoeing,
hill walking, Abseiling,
Climbing, Ice skating, Cinema, Bowling, Q-Zar, Venture
Scout Ball, Ventact South,
Annual Expedition,
just to mention a few.
It's
the people you are with and the friendship and 'craic'
that develops that makes an activity and what we are doing is only of secondary
importance. Certainly, we all have great memories of the activities we have
taken part in. It has got
to the stage in the Group that you would be afraid you would miss something if
you do not go on an activity. In a lot of cases we
miss the company of certain nutcases (one or two in
particular) in our Group if they are not there for some reason or other.
This is what Venturing is all about the bonding together of a Group of young
people who achieve things by themselves for themselves. In a lot of cases
friendships are forged which can last a lifetime.
It is the activities that make
a Venture Scout Group. Look, if you have a Venture Scout Group or are thinking
of starting a Venture Scout Group as a result of reading this you have got to
make sure that activities play a major part in the programme - that's where the
'craic' is, believe me.
Transition
The nature of Venture Scouting
is that you are preparing the members for their transition into adulthood. So at
one side we are bringing in new and younger members and the other end we are
sending out into the world young men and woman. Venture
Scouting is the last Section in the chain from Beavers, so ultimately the
Venture Scouts will be leaving Scouting. It's
hard for a Venture Scout Leader as close friendships and bonding can develop but
like it is for all parents eventually they must leave the nest. I think it is
important that we don't see Venture Scouts as a
training ground for Leadership. Venturing is a type of finishing school where we
get to do some of the real personal development of young people. Going to
college and preparing themselves for their future place in society is just as
important and the Venture Scouts should be left to choose but certainly
encouraged to look after their education first, then when that is taken care
off, and there is still an interest in Scouting then they might consider
Leadership.
Leaders in our Group take this
transition through Venturing very seriously and we try to encourage our lot to
build their C.V. when they are with us. How to manage a Group. How to work in
teams etc. these are the things employers are looking for and we try to get this
across to our gang. The Rogha Award, the Explorer Belt, and the President Award
are all C.V. builders we encourage each of our Venture Scouts to achieve. We
have devised a kind of timetable for their time in Venturing. Year one -
Management skills and starting on the Rogha Award, Year two - The Explorer Belt
and completion of Rogha Award, year three - the President's Award and Leadership
skills. Of course this is only a suggestion some follow it others don't, in the
end it is a personal choice.
Issues
We have tried to give
paint a picture of our Group. There are a lot of
things that happen in our Group which would take many pages to explain. The
issues that face young people and which we spend hours talking about over coffee
and on activities. The problems with relationships and who is going with whom
and also who is breaking up with whom. All of these
problems or challenges (as the positively minded person should say) will arise
in any Venture Scout Group worth its salt. That is the nature of the role of
Venture Scouts. What we
think is important, and it certainly worked for us so far, is to create a
correct framework of friendship, teamwork and craic
coupled with an active programme which is devised and managed by the Venture
Scouts themselves and equally managed and encouraged by the Leaders.
So you think you are Xtreme enough to join?
Firstly we'll say that Venture Scouting is for everybody, but not everybody is
for Venture Scouting! We suggest you come along and give us a try. You should
be aged between 14½ and 19, either male or female and from planet Earth, however
we already have a few spacers in our group, so if you are a spacer you're also
welcome - we don't discriminate. We meet on Tuesday nights from 8 to 10pm at
the Scout Centre, 26 Dolphin's Barn Street, Dolphin's Barn, Dublin 8. However,
we suggest you send us an
email (info@xtremeventurescouts.org)
first to check that we are there on the night you want to drop down. For
more information on our group visit the
42nd Scout Group web site
If you are really interested in joining read our
getting started
page and visit our
downloads area for an application form.
Other pages of interest
: Rogha Award Scheme
: Explorer Belt
: Expeditions
: History
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