During the weekend of April 15-17, representatives from Crew 42 attended the BSA Western Region's Venturing Youth Conference.  Hosted by the Orange County Council, the event was held at the new Outdoor Education Center in the Irvine Ranch complex.  The BSA owns a 250 acre parcel of land where they've built southwestern-style lodges, a modern dining hall, dorms with kitchens and lounges, and for outdoor fun, a huge pool, mountain biking, small arms ranges, and a monster zip line.  Of course, the weather's always gorgeous.

Over 120 Venturing officers from all over the West attended, including reps from all 6 of the official "areas" of the Western Region.  Alaska, Washington, Oregon, the Idaho Panhandle, and the mountainous area of California above Mt Shasta are all considered Area One of the Western Region.  There are 11 local Councils within Area 1.

The Conference was 50% meetings and 50% fun activities, but it was all about networking and building relationships between Venturing officers and making new friends.  The newly elected Regional and Area officers also appointed and announced their selections for Vice Presidents and various Committee Chairs.  Jeff Z managed to pick up two new jobs: he's now the Vice President of Comms for Area 1 and was assigned to the Regional VOA as the Webmaster.  It will be his role to overhaul the Region's website and add sites, content, and features for all 6 Areas as well.  Some of the requested features include capability for IM (instant messaging, like Facebook Chat), SMS (cell phone texting), and VTC (video teleconferencing).  Look for some of that to be tested here on our own Crew website.