Chapter says no election

[C2102]

Our troop is down two only a couple youth OA members they are very active high schoolers. Our chapter has decided that if a troop is not represented at >50% of OA monthly meetings then they cannot hold an election that year. We have some very upset folks. Is this a rule that any other chapters have?

[Oak Tree]

I'm not in OA, but I feel quite confident in saying that this is not an acceptable position. Pretty good way to extinguish your chapter over time, actually. Highly discriminatory against small troops, new troops, any troop with low numbers of arrowmen.

 

I looked up some OA election procedures on the web. They don't specifically say that the OA has to let a unit have an election, but it sure seemed to strongly imply that. They want units to hold elections!

 

While I understand the desire to get OA members to participate, this is just the wrong way to go about it. Good grief!

 

Oak Tree

[nldscout]

Call the Lodge advisor, he will nip this in the bud right away if he is smart. Does this mean that a troop that had no members never gets to have an election??

[epalmer84]

That sounds like a self-destructive plan. No elections = fewer members = lower attendance.

 

Ed

[scoutldr]

This is wrong on so many levels...what are these people thinking? If the Lodge Advisor doesn't straighten this out, have a chat with your Scout Executive, who also wears the hat of "Supreme Chief of the Fire" in the OA Lodge.

 

If this is the only way that the Chapter can get attendance at meetings, then there is something seriously wrong with the youth leadership and program.

 

 

[gwd-scouter]

A related question - have always been told that we can't have elections in our troop unless we have more than 50% of our scouts present. Is this true?

[emb021]

"A related question - have always been told that we can't have elections in our troop unless we have more than 50% of our scouts present. Is this true?"

 

I believe it is. You must have a quorum to hold official elections, for any organization. I am not sure what the quorum for OA elections (this would be documented in the GOA), but I believe its 50% of the troop.

[John-in-KC]

Contact the Staff Advisor to the Lodge, a member of the Professional Service, or the SE, who is the Supreme Chief of the Fire.

 

This sounds home-made, but they are the folks on the ground who can give you insight. They also can build a fire under the Lodge Chief to get off his fourth point of contact.

[CalicoPenn]

On the first question - regarding participation by OA members in order for a unit to hold elections - the Chapter is DEAD WRONG. Fight it - and fight it hard. Go immediately to the Lodge Chief (everyone seems to want to go to the Lodge Adviser first - but the first person to talk to is the Lodge Chief - the OA is a Youth Led, Youth Run organization - give the Lodge Chief the opportunity to get the situation corrected - and a good Lodge Chief will do so immediately). Only if you don't get full agreement from the Lodge Chief that what the Chapter is doing is wrong, then go to the Lodge Adviser, and the Lodge Staff Adviser. The last resort is the Chief Scout Executive - let the chain of command work first.

 

Chapters are an optional component of the Lodge - they are there to perform the Lodge's business on a more local level - this Chapter is making up a rule without the authority to do so. But before bringing out the big guns, let the right people (the Lodge Chief and his staff) persuade the Chapter that what it is doing is wrong. By the way, the Guide for Officers and Advisers has a statement that applies to this situation - it clearly states "Arrowmen are expected first to give service to and be active in their own units. Then as time permits, they can assist the lodge in (activities)". There is no requirement that an Arrowman be active in his Lodge (or Chapter) - as long as they continue to pay their annual dues, they are a member.

 

On the second question: From the OA Guide for Officers and Advisers: "Before the election, the OA team must secure from the unit leader verification that at least 50 percent of the registered active unit membership is present. If at least 50 percent is not present, an election cannot be held" So the answer is True - in order for an election to be held, 50% of the registered active members must be present.

 

If 50% aren't present at one meeting, that shouldn't be a barrier to elections that year - most Lodges and Chapters will try to do another election at another time - within reason, of course - if you can't get it together for 4 or more meetings in a row, then I for one wouldn't blame the election team for giving up on the unit for the year. But - note carefully the wording - it doesn't state 50 percent of the registered members - it states 50 percent of the registered ACTIVE members. Then it states that it is the Unit Leader that verifies that 50 percent of the registered active members are present. What does this do? It gives the Unit Leader wide latitude to determine just what is meant by active - and I can tell you from personal experience that there have been, and probably are now, and likely always will be, Unit Leaders who play a liiiiittle loose with the definition of Active. For instance, if you have 20 registered members, only 9 lads at the meeting, you have less than 50% - unless of course the unit leader makes a determination that Joe Scout and Bill Scout attend maybe 1 meeting every month, and maybe do a campout every couple of months so they aren't really active, so they don't count - now it's down to 18 and viola - you've hit 50%. I will also admit here and now that when I was an OA election team member and a Scoutmaster told me he was 1 or 2 boys short of 50%, I would do a "guided discovery" with him before he verified that to see if there maybe were a couple lads that weren't really that active (and the reason for this "out" is, I believe, so that units with a good portion of older scouts who are often active in school activities or working, aren't penalized just because members of the Leadership Corp, who might only make a meeting every other month, aren't in attendance) and if the Scoutmaster agreed, then he could verify that the number of members needed for the election were present. A fairly active OA team who attends district events generally have an idea of how large the units they are going to is anyway - I knew from going to camporees, first aid meets, klondikes, etc., which units were pretty large and which were pretty small - if I walked into a meeting of one of the units that always had a large contingent of lads at a camporee and only saw 8 or 10 boys, I might just be questioning if we shouldn't be doing the election another time.

 

Hope this helps - contact the Lodge Chief and get yourself an election.

 

CalicoPenn

[mikeb]

So was it the youth in the chapter that decided this? Was it the adult advisors? I find it very interesting that any chapter could believe they hold the ultimate power to create such a rule. It seems very "Lord of the Flies." What's next? Staking candidates to ant piles? Call in the Marines. Really.

[epalmer84]

CalicoPenn- Unless you really meant them to contact Roy Williams, I think you meant Scout executive. :-)

 

Ed

[CalicoPenn]

Though technically, the Chief Scout Executive would be the LAST resort, I did indeed mean the Scout Executive, or the "Chief of the Fire"

 

Calico

[VigilEagle]

In response to mikeb; The crack about "LOTF" seems interesting, how does your troop run? Aren't the boys in control? OA functions the same way, adult leaders who advise the youth. However in response to the topic, as a former Vice Chief of Elections within OA I believe this idea is quite dumb. Clearly there are already ideas on what OA is and isn't and this doesn't help anything. Your Chapter Chief would be a good one to talk to first, but Vice-Chief of Elections wouldn't be a bad place to look either. I understand where everyone is coming from, but make sure you at least have youth qualified to be elected. The camping requirements, along with rank requirements all need to be met before anyone is even electable. It seems silly to go to all this work if no one is eligible. If they still give you flack, I'd start asking questions as to why this "rule" was put into effect. If no one wants to do elections tell them you have a good idea why...

[gwd-scouter]

That's interesting about 50% "active" members present. We did not have elections last year because we didn't have any eligible Scouts. But the year before, we had two Scouts eligible. I remember being asked by the Scout in charge of the elections how many boys we had on our roster - not how many were active. At that time, we had quite a few registered only Scouts and our Troop was still in a transition stage with very sporadic attendance. It was really just a stroke of luck that we had enough Scouts show up on election night to make 50% of our registered Scouts.

 

We will have at least two Scouts eligible of election this Spring. Fortunately for us, we are now consistently having meetings with well over 50% of our Scouts in attendance.