Progress log for Palmyra District Venturing enhancement proposal

Date	Progress
2004-2005	District Key Three established a Venturing Initiative to increase the number of Venturing advisors having completed Venturing Leader Specific training.  A number of leaders responded to this challenge and received training. At the same time, attendance at Venturing Round Table meetings significantly increased to average of 15-20
September 2005	Committee began to meet to make further plans to strengthen Venturing in the District
October 19, 2005	Proposal presented to District Key Three, involving 1) establishment of District Venturing committee made up largely of Stake Young Mens Presidents, 2) creation of district Venturing Teen Leaders Council, and 3) tying the latter to the creation of "Model Crews" in as many of the Stakes as possible.
November 27, 2005	After receiving approval for the proposal from the District Key Three, the plan was presented in District Executive Committee meeting (Stake Presidents Counselors with Stake Young Mens Presidents).  After discussion, a month was given to the Stakes for their review of the proposal.
December 18, 2005	Plan approved by the District Executive Committee with the one proviso that the stakes could call another person rather than the Stake Young Mens President to be their representative on the District Venturing Committee, if they felt the need.
January 12, 2006	The first meeting of the District Venturing Committee was held after Round Table, seven of the nine stakes being represented. A schedule of meetings for the committee was adopted (three times a year).  Assignments were accepted by committee members to the various Venturing roles included membership on district standing committees.  At this point, the young mens presidents will cover all of the district Venturing roles as outlined on the plan, except that volunteers will have the assignments of Venturing Committee Chair and Teen Leader Council Advisor. A strategy was agreed upon for getting responses from the stakes to begin work on staffing the TLC cabinet and identifying model crews.  Responsibility for model crew initiative was assigned to the TLC advisors and officers.
January 22, 2006	Met with District Executive (LDS Relations) Committee, and presented a request for the following form each of the nine stakes: 1) We will be selecting five young men to serve as the TLC cabinet (chairman, assistants, secretary and treasurer).  We ask each of the stakes to suggest one young man as a possibility.  Here are preferred characteristics: Good character Commitment to scouting and the Aaronic Priesthood Leadership ability Time available to serve Currently a high school junior (or a mature sophomore) We will first decide upon the TLC chairman, and then work with him to select the other four members of the Council. All of these choices will be cleared with the District Venturing Committee and their Bishop, than called (obtain their agreement to serve), and finally approved by the model crew representatives at the initial meeting of the TLC. 2) We need for the stakes to identify the Venturing units that will be participating initially in the Model Crew program. We are proposing one crew per stake, in which: Bishopric, Priests Quorum advisors, and Quorum/Crew officers and members are supportive of being a part of the model crew initiative Crew advisors, officers, and members are willing to strive for the Model Crew goals Crew advisors, officers, and members are willing to receive the special training and helps that will be made available from the district and TLC for Model Crews Crew advisors, officers, and members are willing to share their experience and successes in enhancing their Venturing program with other crews in the stake Crews are willing to send a representative to TLC meetings and to participate in TLC activities
February-March 2006	TLC cabinet development: Began to receive suggestions from some of the Stake YM Presidents regarding young men who might be possibilities to serve in the cabinet.  Reviewed these names and others with the two YM Presidents who had been assigned to serve as associate TLC advisors, and settled on a chairman.  Got OK from his Bishop and parents, and then approached him and got his agreement to serve.  Did short orientation to his duties. Developed with him a strategy for identifying the rest of the cabinet, using a combination of names submitted by the YM presidents and others he knew from high school and scouting leadership associations.  Settled on four young men.  Invited them and their parents to a meeting, explaining the purposes of TLC and that we wanted to consider using them as officers.  All attended. We got acquainted with them and gave more information about TLC. After the meeting, the proposed chairman, after discussion, gave his recommendations for which young men to serve as vice-chairs, secretary and treasurer. We cleared these with their Bishops and visited with each by phone.  The vice-chairs and secretary agreed to serve, while the treasure did not want to.  We decided, at least in the short term, to combine the secretary-treasurer duties, and have cabinet of four. On March 26, 2006, we did an Officer's Briefing going over their specific roles in depth, and then introduced the new TLC cabinet to the District and District Executive Committees.  Both groups seemed quite impressed with the demeanor of these young men, who appeared in Venturing shirts and all of whom are eagle scouts and leaders in their high school and in other ways.  The initial meeting of the district TLC was announced for the next Round Table night. Model Crew development During the time period, information gradually came from the stakes about their selection of a ward to be their Model Crew. We got nominations of 3 in early February and by March 26th, all but one of the stakes had replied. One of the stakes asked for two wards to be included in the initial group of model crews, which we agreed to. By March, we completed a guidebook, Model Crew Guidelines, to use in working with these Crews and put it out on this website. As we got names of model crew contact persons, we began to make appointments to visit these ward YM.Crew leaders and advisors to explain the model crew program, see the current status of the crew, and reach some kind of agreement about the support the district would give.  We found some of the wards to be commited to model crew program participation and excited and well-prepared for our assistance, but in a couple of cases, the ward leaders had not yet heard of the initiative. To the latter, we explained the intent of the program and got agreement to discuss it further. As of the end of March, we had been able to meet with three of the Crews and had appointments with others. In our calls we also had encouraged attendance of a representative at the coming initial TLC meeting.