SR540Beaver

You are in Last Frontier Council’s Kickingbird District. I am the Council Training Chair and know the Field Dire for for your Service Area. Private message me your contact info and I’ll see that someone who can help you will contact you.

You make allowances where allowances are called for just like rank advancement in a troop. We had a young man with cerebral palsy confined to a wheelchair who earned the Vigil Honor. What kind of work did he do that got noticed and got him nominated? His father pushed his chair to the beginning of the serving line at the dining hall where he held the box of hand wipes for people to clean their hands. Every meal at every event, without fail. Outstanding service depends on one's abilities. If a young man who has memory issues wants to seal his Brotherhood, by all means encourage him.

Our districts have two Eagle Board of Reviews. One is to get the project approved and the other is the final where they earn Eagle. These BOR's are held once a month and each BOR has at least 3 adults on the board. We may have 4 to 5 boards running with 3 adults each depending on how many Scouts scheduled for a BOR. The District Eagle Chair plays traffic cop in scheduling the monthly date, scheduling the Scouts and recruiting the number of boards and adults needed per month. They also check to make sure all the T's are crossed and I's dotted on signatures, reference letters, etc. The Eagle Chair doesn't actually sit on any boards.

So you're going to use the, "if a patrol wants to go play laser tag as a bunch of friends in street clothes, then it isn't Scouts going against the G2SS" defense even when the patrol planned it at a meeting? OA ceremonialists need to do the honorable thing and follow the national rules rather than go rogue.

I am a Lodge Adviser. In the past, there were four official OA ceremonies that must be conducted as written. These were the Pre-Ordeal, Ordeal, Brotherhood and Vigil. Crossovers, AOL and callout ceremonies were homegrown affairs. There is now an officially recognized crossover/AOL ceremony. It and only it is to be used for crossover/AOL ceremonies. It is done without regalia and has a backpacking journey theme to it to recognize the Cubs journey to Boy Scouting. It is done in uniform with backpacks, compasses, etc. as props. All Lodges are required to use this ceremony or don't do them at all. Those are your options. The future of regalia in the other ceremonies is an open question. My personal opinion is that with our ever increasing politically correct environment and concerns over cultural appropriation, we may end up having to give it up someday. My other observation is that with the coming of girls to the OA in 2019, how do we handle regalia? If there are Native American nations out there who question our use of regalia, how will they feel when girls put on male regalia as the mighty chief to perform a ceremony. Will that not only be cultural appropriation or a "perversion" on top of appropriation? Time will tell.

Sorry, I posted that 7 years ago. The SM is long gone as is my son and I from the troop.

Let me add, that when we have former members from our Lodge looking to join elsewhere and we don’t have records, we suggest they try this same approach and I’ve yet to have one tell me they were refused.

Once an Arrowman, always an Arrowman. I serve as a Lodge Adviser and we get folks moving into our area or their son has been elected and we get this question a lot. If your previous Lodge doesn’t have records from that far back, we work off of the point of the law that a Acout is trustworthy. If you tell us you were in the OA, we will take you at your word. We do ask that you do the best you can to provide the date of your induction and Brotherhood and/or Vigil. We will add you to our roster after you pay the current year dues. We welcome “lapsed” Arrowman back I to the Brotherhood.

The “tap out” is optional. It is not an official ceremony of the OA like Ordeal or Brotherhood. Many Lodges do different things depending on size. Some Lodges do a Lodge wide call out, others do it by chapter and yet others have no ceremony at all. If they were elected, they are eligible to complete their Ordeal. I didnt stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I am a Lodge Adviser.

I don't believe you will see Venturing girls in OA. While Venturing is a BSA program, it stands alone from Boy Scouts or future Girl Scouts. The OA is a program element of Scouting, not Venturing. Time will tell though if they change that. I will note that boys in Crews who are not dual registered in a Troop are not eligible for the OA either as they can't meet the requirements. The OA only holds elections in Troops and Teams.

I'm our current Lodge Adviser. That doesn't mean I know anything of what the future holds. But if I were a betting man, I'd guess that we will see OA elections in Girl troops in 2020. Just a feeling.

Well Fred, a lot of that starts with unit leaders actually letting a team in to tell your youth about what the OA offers. Then it helps to have adult leaders who become members, are active and provide transportation for Arrowman to OA events. It helps to have the SM be one of those people. Having a youth and adult OA Rep within the troop who attend Chapter meetings and brings back info to the unit. The troop leadership needs to view the OA as a natural extension of a great Scout program rather than an interruption or competitor. They need to understand the leadership training and opportunities provided. A Scout can be the national OA Chief. A position that represents all Scouts nationally. Below that are region, section, lodge and chapter positions. OA provides the cheapest way for a Scout to attend the high adventure bases thru the trail crew program. Spend a week building trail and then get to help design a custom week long trip. The OA is big in show production. Those great shows at things like Jamboree and NOAC, all OA. They provide service to the Jamboree, other events and conservation work to wilderness areas of the nation. But back home, they do elections and ceremonies and provide service to camps. All they ask is to be able to visit your troop and introduce a world of enhanced scouting to your boys. But many troops just say no, we don't do OA. https://oa-bsa.org/pages/content/a-day-in-the-life-on-operation-arrow-staff https://oa-bsa.org/pages/content/oa-hackathon https://oa-bsa.org/pages/content/oa-facilitates-journal-program-with-national-geographic-explorer-paul-salop https://adventure.oa-bsa.org/

Adult troop leaders, if you don't allow OA elections at the top end of the scale to not supporting or encouraging participation on the low end of the scale, why? I'm our current Lodge Adviser and this is the perennial issue across the land. I just want to hear the objections and also what might entice you to entertain this portion of the Scouting program.

I was a Cub Scout in the early to mid 60's and we did crafts, go see it's and no camping. The only difference was that we wore our uniforms to school and walked to the den mother' house immediately after school.

Scouting is like church. There is a saying amongst some Christians that a follower isn't perfect, just forgiven. We like to think a Scout has reached a level of perfection and would never do anything wrong. People are people and they will at times disappoint you. I was an ASM for the 2005 and 2010 Jambos at AP Hill. We required the youth to keep their footlockers locked and always left two adults in camp during the day for security. There were youth there who would look for empty campsites and help themselves. Sad but true. In 2010, our sub camp had very nice big rig trailers that were set up with stainless steel showers. They had even contracted with a group who cleaned them thru the day. That was until some kids decided to take bowel movements in the shower stalls and the cleaning crew said they were done. The showers were locked. Fortunately, the boys in our contingent......who valued showers.....went to the sub camp leadership and asked for cleaning supplies and suggested having shower monitors present to get the showers reopened. It worked. That's the kind of behavior you wouldn't expect from a Scout, but when you have 40,000 parents plunk down the cash to send junior to the Jamboree, the odds are you will get some bad apples in the mix. There are plenty of lessons to be learned when these types of issues come up.