Quorum for OA elections

[Trevorum]

 

 

Our OA election is scheduled in 2 weeks. Next week we have two patrols of brand new AoL fellows just starting with the troop.

 

As I understand the rules, a troop must have a quorum of at least 50% of its registered scouts present in order to hold a valid OA election. Does this include the newly crossed over fellows? And if we count them in the quorum, do they get to vote, even though they don't yet know any of the fellows on the ballot?

[LongHaul]

The requirement, as Calico Penn wrote "in another thread" as they say, is that you must have at least half of the active youth members present. If the SM considers the new scouts as active then they count. Yes they have a vote just as a newly turned 18 year old. They can abstain but a candidate must get "more than half" of the votes cast to be elected. Don't know what others might say but I would address the troop before the election and elplain the purpose of the OA and the importance of it's members being elected by non members as well a fellow OA. I would tell them that if they felt they were not in a position to judge whether a candidate exemplified scouting and promoted camping then they might consider waiting until they did to cast a vote. Most of all I would stress that it was not a popularity contest but a statement to all the other units in the area that the ones we chose for membership exemplify what we see as scouting ideals and campership.

LongHaul

[Aquila calva]

Our troop has OA elections during the meeting that occurs the first or second week in February. Then we have a welcome New Scouts meeting during the third or fourth week in February. This avoids the situation you describe.

 

Also, as Calico pointed out in the other thread, eligible voters in OA elections need to be registered ACTIVE members of the troop. The scoutmaster has the authority to determine what ACTIVE means in this situation. It is reasonable to determine that a 10 or 11 year-old scout who has never camped with the troop (or perhaps camped once as part of the recruiting process) does not meet the definition of active. There is also another situation to consider which can be commonThat is, if the scoutmaster allows all the new scouts (attending their first or second Boy Scout meeting) to vote in an OA election, and the new scouts include brothers of older scouts, you can end up with a case of the younger brothers only voting for their older brothers because those are the only older scouts they know. This is quite unfair.

 

Since OA is a scouting national honor society and one of the main purposes is "To recognize those Scout campers who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives", the scouts voting for new members should have a good idea of the scouts who are worthy of membership in the OA. In most cases brand new scouts have little or no knowledge of what OA is and they have had little camping experience with the troop. Allowing them to vote in the OA election can be counterproductive and unfair to the older scouts.

 

When I first became CC of our troop we had the situation where about 10 new scouts came to the meeting that included the OA election. The troop had about 20 older members present. The new scouts, along with their parents, saw the video about the OA along with the rest of the troop, then they went to another room to talk about the troop and do a scouting related activity with the troop guide. Meanwhile the rest of the troop cast their ballots for the new OA members. This worked well, but now we separate the events between two different meetings. The new scouts learn something about OA at summer camp when they see the call-out ceremony. Very impressive!

 

By the way, the only place I have seen printed the election process for new youth OA members is on a sheet of paper that comes with the election forms from the lodge. I've looked on the internet at various sites to see if they are printed somewhere else, but I haven't found them yet. (The OA book is somewhere in my son's room.) Can someone else point out where these "election rules" can be found?

[mikeb]

If you're looking for youth election requirements they are on page 20 of the book "Guide for Officers and Advisers" which can be downloaded here if you know the admonition:

http://www.main.oa-bsa.org/resources/pubs/

The book has a wealth of other useful info, as do some of the other books available on that page.

 

[emb021]

"Don't know what others might say but I would address the troop before the election and elplain the purpose of the OA and the importance of it's members being elected by non members as well a fellow OA. I would tell them that if they felt they were not in a position to judge whether a candidate exemplified scouting and promoted camping then they might consider waiting until they did to cast a vote. Most of all I would stress that it was not a popularity contest but a statement to all the other units in the area that the ones we chose for membership exemplify what we see as scouting ideals and campership."

 

All good point, and ones that any good election team should be covering before the election itself. the OA has a video they can show, etc. Might be good to verify that your election teams do this, otherwise the repetition of info might put some off.

 

 

 

[LodgeChief]

As it has been previously mentioned, a unit must have at least 50% of the registered active youth present. As long as they are registered they get a vote but may abstain. From working with and knowing members of the National Committee, the official definition of registered active youth are those youth who are on the troop's charter and dues paid. Hope this helps.

 

Lodge Chief