Venturing Information

Venturing is an inclusive program through the Boy Scouts of America for males and females aged 14-21 (or 13 and completed the 8th grade). It's operated through Venturing Crews, units of youth and advisors that meet on set schedules and plan activities and events for youth like you! Venturing was officially created by the Boy Scouts of America's executive board on February 9, 1998. However, if you were to ask Bill Evans, the former Venturing associate director, who was there that day and who helped create Venturing, he would expand a little. In 1995, the Outdoor Exploring Committee chaired by Dr. Dick Miller of Waynesboro, Virginia, met in Long Key, Florida. The primary purpose of the meeting was to address the issue of how to support and sustain the amazing growth that outdoor Exploring was enjoying. During a five-year period in the early 1990s, outdoor Exploring had grown 94 percent to almost 100,000 members. When the committee would come up with an idea, it would sound familiar. Then they would refer to a 1950 edition of the Exploring Handbook and find their idea had already been applied years ago. So, if you are a history buff and have an early edition of the Exploring Handbook, you can see the many similarities between the early days of Exploring and today's Venturing. If you really want to trace the roots of Venturing, you have to go way back. The need for a senior Boy Scout program probably surfaced the second day after Scouting started in the United States in 1910. Actually, in the very first National Executive Board meeting report, there is a discussion about losing older boys. It was no surprise to our founders that older boys needed an age-specific program with challenges appropriate for them. Older boy programs cropped up across the country during those early years, causing the need for national action.