JosephMD

When we do elections, the youth arrowmen on the elections team count the votes. If there is only 1 youth, the adult adviser does a second count. It gets a little crazy. We usually have pre-printed ballots with a place to mark y/n. It is like Florida in the 2000 election some times. Our standard is, if there is any mark that is not clearly an N or the word No in the box, that is not clearly an unintentional extension of the vote above or below, it counts as a yes. The unit doesn't know the vote counts. If I'm the adult adviser for an election, if a scout gets a really low number of votes compared to his peers, I might mention it to the unit leader because it could be a sign of other issues. But I don't tell them, Johnny got 10 votes and Billy got 11, just the names of the scouts who were elected.

Just happened to have a unit commissioner at our meeting before the camp out to remind us of the rules. I guess it was mentioned in YPT2, but working in both the Venturing and Scout program, I didn't make the connection. We were able to save it because it was a camporee which made it easier to join with another troop to make for enough adults.

We send a letter too, and some of them will bounce, and I won't find out for a week, then it'll cost us an extra stamp and envelope. These days, you have to use every communications method available. Letters, e-mails, e-mails to scoutmasters, direct communications to TOARs, fliers in unit roundtable mailboxes, even telephone calls. I still have people tell me that they didn't know.

I'll be there on the IST. My son is going with Crew 141, they've designed some great patches, a neckerchief, and a t-shirt. Neckerchief is really awesome, but at $21 ea, he won't have many to trade.

There were many in our lodge that wanted to do this, a February 1st election / ordeal, and our council VOA was on board as well, but not quite enough support within the lodge leadership to actually make it happen.

Last week I learned that a troop can no longer camp with one adult over 21 and one over 18, but not yet 21. When did that change? I now that is how its been for venturing as long as I could remember, but for troops. This is just another nail in the coffin for small troops like mine, with parents that work for a living. It was kind of weird telling a 19 year old Eagle Scout and Vigil Honor arrowman that the BSA didn't think he was good enough to be an adult on a troop camp out (but uncle Sam would send him off to die halfway around the world).

I probably wouldn't be here today but for my tap out in 1990. I don't remember the words, other than that they were powerful and moving, I remember being called, I had no idea, and two Indian runners racing up the isle to get me, I ran / was dragged with them to the chief, and got my firm taps. I had no idea what this OA thing was all about, but that experience told me what I needed to know, that this was something special, a big deal, extraordinary, and I wanted to do it, whatever it was. Young kids aren't listening to the words, like me, they won't know much about what all of this means. Then you'll ask them to come out to an ordeal, why should they, they won the popularity contest, right? Is it me, or are they trying to accelerate the program's decline?

Wrapping up elections season and preparing for the ordeal. I shouldn't be shocked anymore, but every year I am. Elections paperwork that lacks the information we need, has misspelling, or is just plain illegible. The level of effort that the advisor has to put in to make all of this right is considerably more than it would be for the unit leader just to do it right in the first place. I'm several hours into correcting BSA IDs, scouts' names, and had a 20% e-mail address failure rate. I dream of a day when they can click a button in scoutbook.com that says "unit leader approved for OA election" and it gets us the information electronically, but until then, I guess I'm stuck pushing paper. Finally remembered my password for this site.

I never really found out how the process worked, but he was selected to attend!

It was never really a troop thing, but my older son used to keep track of it, but he soon ran out of room in the camping log. When he got his new book, he didn't really update it. The troop now keeps track of it in Scoutbook.com - attached is part of my son's log.

Actively participate in a communications-related club or organization for at least three months. Participate in at least three activities of the organization where you practice or improve your communications skills. Examples include Toastmasters, debate clubs, or drama clubs. Would you consider a good OA ceremonies team a drama club that would satisfy this requirement for an active member of the team? Active meaning, the do 4-5 Arrow of Light ceremonies per year, call out, ordeal, brotherhood, the occasional lodge competition.

Being in the National Capital Area Council - there is no shortage of historic sites & government offices! I think our scouts have an unfair advantage on that one.

I have a couple of uniforms. 1. My standard troop uniform. Has the standard CSP & Lodge Flap 2. My OA Adviser Uniform. Has the OA Centennial CSP & Lodge Flap set 3. My new Jamboree uniform - that one has the 2017 Jamboree CSP & Lodge Flap 4. My Venturing uniform - also has the 2017 Jamboree CSP & Lodge Flap Obviously, I had the last two put together for the Jamboree (I was staff), but now, they are just in the rotation. #1 is getting a little worn and will probably be replaced next year. I will probably maintain the standard look. Maybe, if I go to NOAC in 2020, I'll replace #2

You would be surprised how many people will think along the lines of "This is Scouts, what does the church have to do with it?"