In August of 1998, the Boy Scouts of America established the Venturing Division. Exploring which was established 40 years earlier had been the last new Division. With the establishment of Venturing, the career-path Exploring program was moved to a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of American called Learning for Life.
Youth Badges |
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Crew Office Insignia
When Venturing begin, the four youth and three adult positions carried over from Exploring. They were:
- Youth Positions (view)
- President
- Vice President
- Secretary
- Treasurer
- Adult Positions (view)
- Advisor
- Associate Advisor
- Crew Committee
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Exploring 1990-98 |
These positions had been a part of Exploring since 1959 and had been round red badges as today's Advisor badge since 1987 (an Exploring emblem change occurred in 1990). However, with the change to Venturing, the youth badges and Crew Committee badge were changed to white backgrounds with Venturing green borders. The Advisor and Associate Advisor badges stayed red.
In 2000, Venturing introduced a Crew Committee Chair badge with a white background and green border. This badge and the Crew Committee badge were changed to red in 2001 so that all adult badges would be the same; red (view).
In 2006, three additional youth positions (view) were shared by Amy DiFrancesco, 2005-06 National Venturing President (www.sageventure.com/venturing/NVYC/positions.pdf):
- Crew Guide
- Crew Historian
- Crew Quartermaster
A Unit Award of Merit was introduced in 2010 which replaced the Advisor Award of Merit. Along with this new award came special position patches, one of which was for Advisors earning the award (view).
Other Youth Office Insignia
As a carry over from Exploring, Venturing also had National officers. These were the National and Regional Venturing Presidents. Beginning in 2001, the National Sea Scout Boatswain became a member of the National Venturing Cabinet so that position badge is included here for completeness. Additional Venturing President position badges have been added in recent years. The current different position badges in Venturing introduced through 2008 are:
- National Venturing Cabinet (view)
- National Venturing President (2000)
- Regional Venturing President (2002)
- National Sea Scout Boatswain
- Other Venturing President Positions (view)
- Area Venturing President (2007)
- Council Venturing President (2007)
- Venturing District President (2007)
The National, Regional, Area and Council Venturing President badges have green metallic borders.
In 2011 with the release of the Venturing Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), BSA has begun to add additional position patches. At this time (Nov. 2011), the Area and Regional patches are available and the National Sea Scout Boatswain was no longer a member of the Cabinet. These include in addition to the President patches (view):
- Area Venturing Vice President
- Area VOA Member
- Area Advisor
- Regional Venturing Vice President
- Regional VOA Member
- Regional Advisor
In 2012, BSA issued right sleeve VOA patches. The design BSA used was what Craig Murray originally designed in 2006. The four badges (view) are:
- Council Venturing Officers Association
- Area Venturing Officers Association
- Regional Venturing Officers Association
- National Venturing Cabinet
In 2016, BSA added two new adult position patches: Area Associate Advisor and Chartered Organization Representative (COR) - (view). It appears that BSA likes the design of the Venturing COR patch the Craig Murray provide to the Venturing community from 2008 to 2013 which can be see in the Private Issues web page.
Other Adult Office Insignia
In 2008, new Council and Area position badges were introduced. In the past, Venturing leaders had to wear Boy Scout insignia for this positions. The three new positions (view) are:
- Council Venturing Committee
- Council Venturing Chairman
- Area Venturing Committee
At the same time the above badges were made, the Venturing Division also made Region positron badges and an another Area position badge. These badges were only given to adults that held these positions and were not available through National Supply. The three positions (view) are:
- Area Venturing Chairman
- Region Venturing Committee
- Region Venturing Chairman
Along with the youth position patches introduced because of the SOP, at least the Area Advisor patch is available. I expect there to be Council and Region Advisor patches and Associate Advisor patches at a later date. With all likelihood, I expect the various Venturing Chair and Committee patches will be discontinued.
Nature of Leadership
This is a three phase training program to develop Venturer's leadership skills. The first phase is the Venturing Leadership Skills Course (VLSC)
which was introduced in 1998. In 2001, a VLSC strip was introduced. The strip is similar in size to the Trained strip and is worn in the same location; below the office badge on the left sleeve.
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The second phase is Kodiak. The original name for Kodiak was Nature of Leadership which began in 2001. In 2004, the course was renamed Kodiak and
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The third phase is Kodiak X. The badge for Kodiak X and Kodiak X Staff were introduced in 2007 (view) along with a medal.
All Nature of Leadership badges are intended for Venturers only. Adults, who have taken the Kodiak/Kodiak-X Course Directors Course and are promoting Kodiak or Kodiak X course, may temporally wear the medal.
In 2011, VLSC was dropped and in its place is Introduction to Leadership Skills for Crews (ILSC). Instead of the VLSC patch, BSA choose to use the regular Trained patch. Kodiak was changed to Kodiak Challenge and Kodiak X was dropped. You can learn more by visiting www.sageventure.com/kodiak-bsa/kodiak.html. Any new emblems for Kodiak will not have the Venturing logo since Kodiak is now considered to be a scouting leadership training, not just Venturing.
Roundtable
The Roundtable positions were reintroduced when Venturing began. Exploring had been using the term Program Planning Conferences since 1969. The two new badges were (view):
- Venturing Roundtable Commissioner
- Venturing Roundtable Staff
To celebrate 100 years of scouting, special commissioner position badges were issued (view). The first issue mistakenly used the word Venture instead of Venturing. Few if any of the mistakes were issued.
In 2011, all commissioner badges were changed to the 2010 design but with out the dates (view).
Venturing Emblem
The common badge worn below the U.S. flag on the right sleeve is the Venturing Emblem badge (view). However, a Crew can select or make a badge and wear it in this position as long as it is tasteful.
Venturing Ranks
The Venturing Ranks are worn on the left pocket and can be see on the Youth Badges page.
Private Issues
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Ranger 1944-51 |
Also in 2003, a Venturing Trained strip (view) was developed. Officially, Venturing leaders wear the tan and red strip used in all of scouting. These strips are white with a green border and a simplified Venturing logo. In 2008, the strip was changed to fully embroidered with a true Venturing logo. More recently, a red Trained strip has been added. The red patch is useful because now that VLSC has been changed to ILSC, 
a Trained strip is the patch given for completion of ILSC. So the green and white Trained strip is a good color for Venturers and the red one a good color for adults.
In 2005, Craig Murray held the position of Venturing Advisor on a Wood Badge course. To recognize the youth that supported him, he was asked to develop a special patch for the youth staff. This patch was approved by Old Baldy Council. Because of a minimum ordering requirement, extra patches were available for a number of years.
Several Commissioner badges have been created using the Venturing logo instead of a Boy Scout logo (view). No other details are known at this time.
In 2004, Jim Hunter wanted to build the Venturing program so he and some others developed a plan which included the WEAR THE GREEN – JOIN VENTURING badge in both green and gold borders (view). It was a nice promotional badge because it had a button loop at the top making it convenient to wear when first received.
Although there already was a badge for Kodiak issued by National, Venturing leaders who were involved with Kodiak wanted to have a Kodiak strip analogous to the VLSC strip. At the end of 2006, the strip with the Kodiak logo followed by the word Kodiak was made. In 2007, a Kodiak X strip was added (view). The design changed slightly by putting the Kodiak logo after the word Kodiak and including an X behind the logo. This strip has a green border for participants and a gold border for staff. 10 were made with a red border for course directors. The red border strips have only been given to those very involved with Kodiak X and were not for sale. In 2008, a Kodiak strip with a gold border for staff was added.
At the end of 2006, a Venturing Officers Association patch was created with the suggestion that it would be worn in place of the Venturing Emblem badge (view). This badge uses the Venturing Silver award eagle as the central image and was originally made with a gold border. In the latter part of 2008 when the first run of the VOA patches sold out, a new issue was made with a silver border to match the shoulder loops used at the council level. BSA adopted this design in 2011 and they are now available from BSA.
In 2007, a Venturing World Jamboree badge was developed for the World Jamboree Crews. The badge was made with a white border and a purple border. Four Crews attended and three wore the white bordered badge on their right sleeve. The white border was for uniform wear and the purple border was for trading. White and purple colors were used to represent the colors of the World Crest (view).
At the beginning of 2008, a set of badges that celebrate the 10th anniversary of Venturing were created.
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10-year Veteran |
In cooperation with Regions that were developing Area Venturing Officers' Associations, an Area VOA patch was developed. At the same time, a Chartered Organization Representative (COR) badge for Venturing was made (view). BSA does not make one because it feels that the tan Boy Scout COR covers the position for Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturing. Both badges were created in 2008. The first set of Area VOA patches had metallic gold borders. The second set have gold borders but not metallic.
In 2009, a patch similar to the VOA patches for the National Venturing Cabinet was developed. They were presented as concept patches to the Cabinet but were quickly approved. They can now be worn by the National Venturing Cabinet. A few sets of VOA, Area VOA and National Venturing Cabinet patches (view) were put aside and made available to the Venturing community and are still available.
To promote both Kodiak and Powder Horn Course Director Conferences (CDC), trainers were provided with CDC patches for both courses. Since adults can only wear the Kodiak medal when promoting their course, the Kodiak CDC patches were well received. Both of these patches have only been made available to trainers who put on CDC courses. (view)
Doug Livingston is involved with LDS units. To promote support between Crews and Troops, Doug developed a Troop Guide badge using the Venturing colors (view). In 2008, Doug also had a Region Venturing Committee badge made (view).
Another LDS badge that had been available, was a badge for the position of Bishop (view). This was developed in 2005 and was available through 2008 from lashingkits.com but that site is no longer operating.
Steve Porch was an Advisor who enjoys making others feel important by providing special position patches (view). In 2009, Steve also created a Venturing Recruiter strip and is making it available to those who contact him. He did this for a number of years but no longer provides any of these patches.
Towards the end of 2008, John Green started making various Trained strips (view) which included a nice red Venturing Trained strip. The strips are available to those who contact John (email). John has since added Trained Trainer strips (view). In 2014, John added a Recruiter strip for both Venturing and Sea Scouts (view).
The 100th anniversary of BSA scouting brought out another pair of patches (view) by John Green. They is very nice looking but are no longer available..
A Venturer on National Jamboree staff, Lee Morin, had this patch made especially for Venturing jamboree staffers (view).
For the 15th anniversary of Venturing in 2013, a set of patches were created. The XV were ghosted behind the Venturing logo and the V in the logo was used in the design (view).
A popular BSA patch was the 100th anniversary ring patch that went around the World Crest. In 2015, John Green developed a nice one for Venturing which you can obtain by contacting John (email).
This is not an official site of the Boy Scouts of America. The information on this site is in part due to the support by Sharon Aycock from the National Venturing Division.