HOW TO EARN THE VENTURING SILVER AWARD

Like any high, worthwhile recognition, the Venturing Silver Award will be challenging and will take time to earn. It will take you at least 12 months, but there is no limitation on the maximum amount of time other than you will need to complete all work before your 21st birthday.

REQUIREMENTS (Overview).

These are requirements that all Venturing Silver Award candidates must complete:

1. The Venturing Gold Award requires earning one Venturing Bronze Award.

2. Earn the Venturing Gold Award, which includes knowing and living the Venturing Oath, service, personal development, and 12 months' tenure.

3. Be proficient in emergency preparedness, including earning Standard First Aid and CPR certification, and knowing and using BSA Safe Swim Defense.

4. Demonstrate leadership, including successfully completing the Venturing Leadership Skills course.

5. Participate in the Ethics in Action program, including Ethical Controversies activities and an Ethics Forum.

6. Show a crew review committee you have met the requirements for the Venturing Silver Award.

First, sit down with your Advisor to make a plan of action on how you will earn the Venturing Silver Award. On many of the requirements, you will work on your own, while some you will work on with other Venturers. Many requirements will require contacting and working with a specialty consultant, someone who has extensive knowledge and skill in a particular area.

You will learn a skill from this person, and the specialty consultant will determine your proficiency in that skill. You might find it more convenient to work with several other Venturers at the same time with this specialty consultant. Many requirements involve a time element, such as working as a volunteer for three months. Take this into consideration when you are planning. You should probably work on several requirements at the same time, such as serving as a crew leader while working on a Bronze Award requirement.

You can receive dual credit for work required in different places.

Examples:
If you get certified in Standard First Aid, you can use this credit toward Silver Award requirement No. 2, Ranger Award core requirement No. 1, and Youth Ministries requirement No. 8.

When you have complete a requirement, either have an Advisor or specialty consultant initial and date your track sheet to confirm your completion of this requirement.

When you have completed all Silver Award requirements, ask your Advisor or crew president for a Silver Award review. The review committee will be made up of Venturers and adults. They will determine if you have successfully completed all requirements, and then recommend to your BSA local council that the council, representing the National Court of Honor, present you the highest Venturing award a Venturer can earn -- the Venturing Silver Award.

REQUIREMENTS (Detail)

1. Earn at least one of the five Venturing Bronze Awards.

2. Earn the Venturing Gold Award.

3. Emergency Preparedness

Introduction

Being prepared has always been one of the key tenets of Scouting. Being prepared continues to be important for today's action-oriented, can-do-anything Venturers. Venturers must be prepared to take care of themselves as well as be ready to serve others when called. When faced with an emergency situation, people react in various ways. Some people leave, some panic, some do nothing at all, and some respond. Venturers should be prepared to respond.

Requirements.

1. Become certified in Standard First Aid or equivalent course. 
   If you choose the American Red Cross Standard First Aid version of the course, the curriculum includes how to recognize an emergency and overcome the reluctance to react; how to recognize and care for breathing and cardiac emergencies in adults (training to care for infants and children is optional; and how to identify and care for life-threatening bleeding, sudden illness, and injury. The course is approximately 6 1/2 hours. Your Standard First Aid certification will expire three years from the date of issue. Your CPR certification will expire one year from the date of issue. If you hold an unexpired certification in this or a higher course, you can receive credit for this requirement. However, you must be currently certified at the time of your Silver Award crew review. You are encouraged to get certified as soon as possible and stay certified. For this requirement, you are not required to seek a higher certification, but you are encouraged to get certifications in higher-level course such as First Aid -- Responding to Emergencies or Emergency Response. You will be even more prepared.

[Note: If you need help finding an American Red Cross instructor in your area, call your local Red Cross chapter. For literature, call toll-free 1-800-667-2968).

2. Become certified in CPR.
   You can take a stand-alone CPR course or take it as part of another course such as Standard First Aid. Please remember that CPR certification lasts for only one year, at which time you will need a refresher course. Like Standard First Aid,. it is good to always be current in your CPR certification. You most likely will get an opportunity to use your skill in saving a life.
3. Complete the BSA Safe Swim Defense training course.
   In this course, you will learn how each of the eight points of the Safe Swim program affects safe crew swimming activities. You will learn that qualified supervision and discipline are the two most important points, upon which the other points rely. You will also learn how to set up a safe swim area.  Any BSA aquatics resource person, your crew Advisors, or other council-authorized individual can provide the training course for you. Use Safe Swim Defense, No. 34370, and Safe Swim Defense Training Outline, No. 19-417.
4. Either lead or participate in a group swim using BSA Safe Swim Defense.
   Swimming can be a great way for you and your crew members to stay fit and to just have fun. To ensure that you and your friends will continue to do just that, always insist you use Safe Swim Defense.

4. Leadership

   Introduction

   Leadership is a cornerstone of the Venturing Silver Award. As you work on the Silver Award, you will experience many new things, learn many new skills, and learn to serve others. But to effectively take advantage of all those newly-learned skills and experiences, you must know how to effectively lead. It is true that some people are born with some natural leadership ability, but the best leaders develop leadership sills and continue to expand and hone these skills throughout their lives. We all get the opportunity to be followers and leaders. It takes skill to be a good follower, too, but in this section, you will concentrate on developing leadership skills and implementing those skills as a leader.

   Requirements

   1. Successfully complete the Venturing Leadership Skills Course.
   2. Successfully serve for at least six months in an elected or appointed crew, district, or council leadership position.
      Since leadership is a form of service to others, don't be afraid to ask your followers, those you serve, how you are doing. If you don't have an occasional assessment of your progress, you might not improve. Learn to value the opinion of others. This must be in addition to the leadership requirement in the Venturing Gold Award.

5. Ethics in Action

   Introduction

   Another cornerstone of the Venturing Silver Award is learning through experience. While you are working on your Venturing Silver Award requirements, you will have many experiences. You will enjoy experiences that let you interact with your peers, learn decision-making skills, evaluate and reflect so that you can learn from your successes and failures, and discuss conflicting values and form your own value system. Experience can be a powerful learning tool!

   Requirements

   1. Participate in at least two Ethical Controversies, No. 99-223, activities. These activities are scenarios with you into challenging, problem-solving situations. In a constructive way, these activities will help you develop the following personal skills:
      1. Promoting productive conflict resolution
      2. Polite disagreement
      3. Listening to new ideas
      4. Understanding other people's perspectives
      5. Working toward a solution that the group involved will support and implement
   2. Either organize and lead, or help to organize and lead, an Ethics Forum for your crew, another crew, school class, or other youth group. An Ethics Forum is simply another, more formal, way of gathering information about ethics. You will invite two or more adults to form a panel for your crew or group to ask questions about ethics in their personal or professional lives. you can even invite adults related to your crew's specialty; if you are in a sports crew, you could invite a sports doctor, a coach, and a professional athlete. You can even invite guests such as family members and friends to join you. You can even use the information gathered from the Ethics Forum to develop your own Ethical Controversies activities.

6. Silver Award Review

   After completing all requirements, the candidate should prepare evidence of completion of work. It should be submitted to your crew Advisor along with the completed and personally signed Silver Award Progress Award and Application. The crew president, in conjunction with the crew Advisor, should then appoint a review committee of four to six people including Venturers and adults. The review committee should review the candidate's written documentation and interview the candidate to determine whether the candidate complete all work and grew as a result of the pursuit of the Silver Award. The application is then approved by the crew Advisor and crew committee chairman and submitted to your council service center.

Above information from Silver Award Guidebook (25-015), 1998 printing.

Contributed by:  Craig Bond

Page updated on: September 17, 1998

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