Venturer Scouts (Australia)

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Venturer Scouts, formerly Senior Scouts, is the fourth section of Scouts Australia, and was first formed in 1946. Venturers are aged between 14.5 and 18 years of age and are organised into Units, which can be a part of a single Scout Group or a stand alone group. both types of Unit take Scouts from any Scout Group.

A Venturer Unit is run by its Unit Council, usually consisting of a Unit Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and some General Members. Some larger units also include a Assistant Unit Chair, Social Secretary, Fundraising Co-ordinator, Quartermaster or assistant secretaries and treasurers.

While the younger sections are represented by their leaders at the district level, Venturers are encouraged to attend their monthly District, Zone, or Branch Venturer Council (DVC). A zone is where for whatever reason a district venturer council would be inappropriate due to lack of members or some other reason.

Branch level activities are becoming more and more popular because of the difficulty in running unit level activities. Unit management is a problem for many units because of small number of attendances and difficulty in running successful activities for small groups, as well as motivation. Most Branches have a themed competitive hike run at Easter, plus many smaller activities, normally put on by dedicated leaders. These often are courses required for badgework as well.

1 Badgework
2 District Venturer Council
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Badgework

Interest in badgework has been dwindling more and more recently because of the general business of people's lives but continues to be present to mold the direction of the section. Many Venturers find that they can incorporate parts of their life for use in their badgework.

The highest award is the Queen's Scout. Queen's Scout is about members extending their commitment and achievement in a variety of areas, to strive for better than they do all ready. One of the key points is that the levels are peer reviewed, so larger parts of the award have to be approved by the DVC while most can be approved by the Unit Council. The award is split into four activity areas which are then split again as follows:^[1]

Leadership Development
- Leadership
- Unit Management
- Vocations
Adventurous Activities
- Outdoor
- Expeditions
- Initiative
- Elective of either Outdoor 2 or Expeditions 2
Personal Growth
- Pursuits
- Ideals
- Lifestyles
- Expression
- Elective of a Second level of any of these
Community Involvement
- Service
- First Aid
- Citizenship
- Environment

Each subsection earns a stripe and the completion of one activity area earns one corner to complete a full badge. This would go on the uniform of the Venturer (though most venturers nearly never wear their uniform.) The Queen Scout is commonly coupled with Duke of Edinburgh gold level.

Other badges are the Venturing Skills award, a basic outdoor skills earned during introduction to the unit, and the Endeavour award, a half way point to Queen Scout.

[edit] District Venturer Council

In Scouts Australia, the District Venturer Council, Zone Venturer Council and in some cases Region Venturer Council is a monthly meeting of the Venturer Scouts and Leaders in the District which serves both as a check on the quality of the potential Queen's Scouts in the District and for sharing information between the Units in the District. It is also a social meeting for both the Leaders and Venturers to catch up with each other.