Another aspect of Venturing that I perceive as a real strength is the challenge for the youth to excel at whatever they do. When I first looked at the requirements, for example, of the Venturing program, I saw that the requirements were aimed at the youth obtaining more than just a casual experience with a topic, but that they were to become "young masters." Although many requirements of the Venturing Ranger program parallel a variety of merit badges in the Boy Scouting program, the intent seems to be that the Venturers are expected to raise the bar and really become proficient in the skills rather than simply being familiar with them.
In fact, the purpose of the Venturing Ranger program was specifically to help establish a core of young people who are prepared to act as trainers and guides for a variety of outdoor high adventure activities. This can only be accomplished as the youth learn the intricacies of the sports, recognize the risks and methods of preparing to deal with these, and become capable of teaching, communicating and training.
But this idea of excellence (coming from the root excel) does not exist only in the outdoors high adventure aspect of Venturing. It should permeate the whole program. In fact, for crews that do not focus on outdoors skills, this is the sense in which I consider a crew to have high adventure. For example, when a Venturing crew thinks about service projects, they should not consider only the standard, tried-and-true projects. They should use their growing maturity, experience, and skills in order to tackle more serious projects-projects that will lead to serious impact in their lives and in the lives of others. Or when they undertake to learn a skill, they can try to polish it as much as possible or find unique ways to express it. In Venturing circles, I think the term "Think Outside the Box" is a good expression of this idea.
As an aside, as I've monitored the discussions on the Venturing e-mail lists, I think that this appeal to Venturing is not universal. Some crews seem to be intent on living up to this concept in the sense of achieving a mastery of a concept. Other crews seem to view Venturing as more a vehicle for having activities together. The beauty of the program is that both seem to exist quite well within Venturing. However, in terms of the goals the Church has for Scouting and hence Venturing, I think that Venturing crews for priests quorums must serve as more than a formalism for activities. The ideal of pushing the envelope, particularly in terms of fulfilling the purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood, helps provide the an anchor for the crew's direction.