On this week’s #TrekonTuesday: Meet this year’s national Venturing officers

As Venturing crews across the country are rappelling off cliffs, designing robots and kayaking into the sunset, the National Venturing Officers’ Association (VOA) is working behind the scenes to provide support for membership, resource sharing and events to make it all happen.

VOAs are groups of youth Venturing leaders at local and national levels that provide the leadership necessary to keep the Venturing program running smoothly

The national VOA supports the overall program, whereas the territory VOAs support local councils. A council VOA can host events for Venturing crews, provide training, help crews’ social media presence and support networking opportunities.

Click here for information on starting a VOA in your council.

Click here for information on joining or starting a crew.

Stream tomorrow’s #TrekonTuesday below to meet several key members of the National Venturing Officers’ Association, and read on learn more about the entire 2023-2024 team.

Jamey Schnasse, national VOA president

Jamey is a proud member of Crew 73 out of California’s Marin Council. He has served at the crew, council, area, territory and national levels of Venturing. He recently served as national Venturing vice president of administration.

Jamey is an Eagle Scout from Troop 73 and a Vigil honor member from Talako Lodge, where he also served as lodge chief. Jamey has attended camps at Philmont, Northern Tier and Atikokan, and has earned the 50- and 100-Miler awards.

Jamey plans to strengthen Venturing by continuing to develop the role that VOAs play in bringing more adventure to crews. Increasing membership is at the center of Jamey’s vision for the year. He will accomplish this with effective VOA support of programming and promotion at all levels of Venturing.

Ryanne Fisher, national VOA vice president of administration

Ryanne is a proud member of Crew and Ship 4385 from New Jersey’s Garden State Council as well as Crew and Ship 007 in Kansas. She most recently served as the Territory 13 Venturing president and has previously served at the crew, council, area, region and territory levels of Venturing. Ryanne is a graduating senior in the business school of the University of Kansas, where she studies management and leadership.

Ryanne is an Eagle Scout and has achieved the Venturing Summit rank. She’s also earned her Venturing Ranger Award and is a Vigil honor member from Order of the Arrow Ajapeu Lodge 2. Additionally, she’s been recognized with Venturing Leadership Award at the council, area, region and territory levels.

Ryanne wants to strengthen Venturing by developing the role that many Venturers play in bringing training to Venturers and Scouts across the BSA’s older youth programs. Increasing the number of Venturers proudly attending and staffing programs such as NYLT, NAYLE, NYLT Leadership Academy, Trainers Edge and even Wood Badge will promote Venturing and strengthen Scouting in all areas.

Additionally, Ryanne is looking to show how the ALPS model continues to add great opportunities to the world’s future leaders. Ryanne will promote Venturing, leadership and mentoring across the BSA during the coming year.

Hannah Todd, national VOA vice president of program

Hannah Todd is from Crew 1465 in North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County Council. She has been an avid Venturer since she was 14 and has enjoyed serving her crew, troop, ship, council and lodge.

Hannah has completed her Summit Rank, Quartermaster Rank (from Ship 19) and Ranger Award and is a part of the inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts (from Troop 233). She is currently a sophomore at Mars Hill University studying recreation management and nonprofit leadership. When she isn’t Scouting, you can find her spending time with her family, fishing, kayaking and caring for her aquatic frogs.

Over the past few months, Hannah’s vision of success as the national venturing vice president of program has included strengthening programs nationwide by sharing and connecting resources to help other Venturers continue to lead the adventure with a stronger program. She hopes to connect the entire Venturing population with her passion for sharing new and creative program aspects with others.

She enjoyed attending the 2023 National Jamboree and meeting a lot of Venturers in person. In the next few weeks, she looks forward to seeing more resources become available to everyone to enhance their experience in 2024.

Jacob Schmidt, national VOA vice president of communication

Jacob is a proud member of Crew 3943 in the Northern Star Council. He has served at the crew, council and territory levels of Venturing, most recently as the national service Territory 4 Venturing officers’ association president.

Jacob is an Eagle Scout from Troop 3439 and has served on multiple council-level committees, including the University of Scouting committee and the Northern Star Council President’s Cabinet. Outside of Scouting, Jacob spends time swing dancing, participating in instrumental music programs, tutoring middle school band students, and working in the darkroom developing and printing film photographs.

Jacob wants to strengthen Venturing by increasing the outreach and impact of Venturing promotions and communications. He will work to accomplish this with effective and consistent communication, regular content delivery and working to provide additional promotional materials to crews.

Nickolas Giovan, national VOA vice president of territory support for the western territories

Nickolas “The Captain” Giovan is honored to be a member of Crew 39 in Wisconsin’s Potawatomi Area Council. He has previously served at the crew and territory levels of Venturing, most recently serving as the Territory 6 VOA president.

Nickolas is an Eagle Scout from Troop 175 and has earned the Four Pillars of Faith Scouting award through the Arch Diocese of Milwaukee. He also serves as the current lodge chief of Wag-O-Shag Lodge. Nickolas has been on NYLT staff, a participant at the Order of the Arrow’s National Leadership Seminar, and has been to Philmont. He also works on camp staff at Camp Long Lake and is an Eagle Scout mentor and active Sea Scout.

Nickolas’ goal is to develop the western territories by promoting the use of ad hoc committees and accentuating the boosting of youth Council VOA officers’ participation in territory roundtables.

Andrea Marron, national VOA vice president of territory support for the eastern territories

Andrea is a proud member of Crew 711 in the South Florida Council. She is an Eagle Scout and Vigil Honor member of the O-Shot-Caw Lodge 265, where she is a part of the lodge’s exemplar ceremonies team. She is also a recipient of the council and territory Venturing Leadership Awards. Andrea has served at the crew, council and territory levels of Venturing, most recently as national service Territory 16 Venturing officers’ association president.

Outside of Scouting, Andrea is a public health studies freshman at Johns Hopkins University and enjoys spending time with her friends and family outdoors.

Andrea is looking forward to assisting in the development of a wide scope of resources to strengthen each territory and council VOA and give every Venturer the resources necessary to succeed. She is hoping to foster an increasingly visible and supportive program that will encourage a supportive environment among territory VOA leadership that will then trickle down to all crews and Venturers.