Your Crew’s Annual Program Plan = Satisfied Venturers and families = A lifelong love of Scouting!

Dear Committee Chair, Advisor, and President:

Let’s talk about one of the keyelements of all successful crews and an indicator of a potentially successful year. Of course that would be the crew’s Annual Program Plan and Planning Conference.

A research project done by Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, Indiana, showed that a common element of strong units is they all have a good annualprogram planned a year in advance that is then shared with all families in the form of a calendar. The important result of a shared annual program calendar is that your crew will attract more families, Venturers will stay for a long time, and great program!

Just as an aside the other twokey elements of successful units identified in that research study was training and just having the right leader to start with.

Here’s how a crew program planning process works.

Pre-conference Steps

Step one, the crew Advisor holds a Crew Officer Briefing immediately after the crew’s annual election to start the program planning process. The advisor will explain the process, its goal, and what each officer needs to do to prepare for the next step.

Step twois to gather the following key information.

1. Key school dates like holidays and exams.

2. Community event dates like proms, homecoming, graduations..

3. Your chartered organization’s dates.

4. Personal dates that may affect your crew’s activities such as the Advisor’s anniversary cruise.

5. District and council dates.

6. Completed Program Inventory Information sheets (PCI) from all parents and others who might offer resources.

7. Activity Interest Surveys from each member.

8. Last year’s crew annual plan if you have one.

9. Crew’s priorities and goals.

10. Venturers’ advancement records.

Step three is the Annual Crew Officers Seminarwhere the officers, after having surveyed the membership, will actually plan the coming year’s program. It is recommended that this process be done in a retreat setting over a weekend so you have plenty of uninterrupted time for the process. This could be the most important meeting of the year-don’t under do it!

For Support, you can use a electronic program planning conference guide titled Crew Officer Orientation found at

This electronic guide will help a crew add some color to the process. Basically it is a narrated, to-the-point presentation that takes the crew step by step thru the planning process. The result is an annual calendar and plan that all parties agree upon and a very satisfying process.

The Crew Annual Program Planning Conference Steps

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that what causes Venturers to stay in the program. They like to have fun, do really cool challenging stuff, go places, and learn things even though they might not want to admit that. That is what we call program and it just doesn’t happen by chance. It takes planning and preparations.

Suggestions for ground rules for your conference and you can add your own too.

  • It is important to respect the views of each other. Listen and don’t interrupt.
  • Keep focused on your task which is to plan your annual program. Don’t get side tracked.
  • Write your ideas on a flip chart so everyone can see.
  • Be in agreement.

Step one. Have your President and/or Advisor lead a discussion on your crew’s goals for the coming year. Write them on a flip chart and then agree to a final list of goals.

Step two. Brainstorm ideas of what the crew might do based on your Activity Interest Surveys. Write them on a flip chart. Remember, don’t critique the ideas while brainstorming.

Step three.Evaluate the ideas you have developed to see if they match your Program Capability Inventory (do you have the resources?). Vote on your chosen programs.

Step four. Expand your basic program adding in support programs and activities leading toward you big activities or activity.

Step five. Draft your plan and calendar including big activities, meetings, support activities, and other dates. Approve you final calendar. Assign activity managers.

Step six. Distribute your plan and calendar to your members and their parents.

Take good notes! After each activity, do a critique/debriefing on what went well, what didn’t go well, and what you could do differently next time and put that in your crew history file. That will help during the next planning cycle.

Your plan should be a living, breathing document. For it to have real value, you must follow it, share it with everyone, and review it regularly to see if modifications have to be made. Good luck on another great year and don’t forget, share your plan and calendar with every family!!!

RESOURCES

These tools should make it easier to have up-to-date newsletters and calendars ready when you need them.

Crew calendar templates (Excel). Fill in dates and events in the spaces provided. Save and print or email. It's that easy! When you first know about an addition or change to crew activities, add that to the calendar so it will always be up-to-date and ready to print or send. (Angela to create)

Crew Officer Seminar (Program Planning Conference Guide):

Program Capability Inventory:

Activity Interest Survey:

Activity Planner Sheet: (Angela, we need to add a link to a fillable PDF for this form please)

Boys’ Life Planning Calendar

Boys’ Life Resources Page

Venturing Program Planning Chart:

Crew Budget Planning Template

(Angela to build)