OA Chapter is almost gone

[shortridge]

D'oh! You're right. Sorry, those details bite ya in the butt every time.

 

But regardless, a 21-year-old couldn't have been an advisor for the two years immediately preceeding his 21st birthday.

 

The transition *is* a difficult one. But I've witnessed quite a few 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds who've remained active in Scouting precisely because the OA gave them an outlet to do so in a senior leadership level not available to them otherwise. I think it's a good thing, generally.

[kahits]

I believe there is a possibilty that he was under 21 when he was put in the chapter adviser position, mostly because his father was the district commissioner, and the chapter had been dominated by his troop for the 10 previous years. Since he was more comfortable with the youth, still being classified as one, himself, he didn't care to see any adults at chapter meetings. The chapter had been in decline before he took the position, and continued to slide in the almost 2 years he was adviser. I agree that OA provides wonderful leadership opportunities for youth up to their 21st birthday, but once they reach that milestone, things are much more difficult, at least in his situation, particularly with the older advisers at the lodge, and all the opinions that tend to come when you are barely an adult in their eyes. I had enough confidence in him to make him my successor in the venture crew that I started, but they are having similar difficulties, which I had hoped his association with the troop of the same number would be encouraging their older scouts to step up and join. The irony was that I asked him to be the crew adviser, about a month before I went thru my ordeal, with my son, and some 4 months later, they asked me to be the next adviser for the chapter.

[Eagle92]

Rebuilding and starting new chapters is tough and I wish the best of luck inthis endevour. In my experience, it takes about 3 years to rebuild. I am in the same situation, and just when I get things going, I lost my very active CC and three active members to out of state schools. Almost back to square one, but we are surviving.

 

Advice so far has been very good. Now my $.02 worth.

Now some additional ideas.

 

1) Try to get some activity that the OA is traditionally known for

and use it to build interest in the chapter. My chapter is now

known as the singers because we have a powwow drum and several

individuals intersting in singing. Don't go overboard as activity

you select may not be for everyone, i.e. sining in my chapter's

case. BUT we had one meeting dedicated to teaching songs, and have an open drum for our members. That has picked up a few new faces.

 

2) Go after the adults. If you got their support you can get the youth. I've been fortunate to get some CS leaders who were active as youth back involved and their expertise is great. Also get the new adult members involved. This has helped tremendously.

 

3) Get the distrit committee involved and supporting the chapter. There was a major conflict with one district activity and the annual Conclave. Took me years of begging and pleading ot get the date changed, and it only happened becasue the new activity chair, a CS leader, was an Arrowman as a youth. This may not seem like a big deal, but when the biggest OA event outside of a NOAC occurs and you can't go because the chapter needs to work an event, it's not fun.

 

4) Get youth members active ASAP. My lodge has one incentive for new members to get active, a very attractice, sought after First Year Arrowman Award Lodge Flap. That's helped alot. But on the chapter level get them doing ceremonies, camp promos, unit elections, distict events, etc. as soon as they get in. Busy hands are happy hands.

 

5) Get involved in district events. Yeah we do the trading post and Call Out Ceremony at the district camporee. But we are now branching out to other events. It increases visibilty and promotes the Order.

 

6) This last one is a long term membership promotion: GET INVOLVED WITH THE CUB SCOUTS! Get an AOL ceremony team established and do them. We do ceremonies for the district CS campouts, and the Cubs eat it up and want to be apart of the order when they Cross Over. I have never yet either done a ceremony as a youth, or supervised a ceremony that the CS did not want to take pictures of the "Indians." Won't see results for a little while, but that will give a boost down the road.

 

 

(This message has been edited by Eagle92)

[FireKat]

Overheard: father to son, "you WILL go to ordeal and get the patch, after that,  whatever"

OA all over is dying.

Maybe there needs to be something else done so the boys stay. Maybe the wrong types of boys are being elected in. Maybe there should be a different way of selecting who gets in then an election (popularity rules).

Just a few thoughts to mull over.

[gwd-scouter]

FireKat - that comment you overheard doesn't surprise me a bit. Every year I watch a bunch of Scouts and Scouters from my district get called out for OA and go through the ordeal at summer camp. They get their flap and sash and only a very few of them ever do anything more with the OA after that. Very disappointing.

 

Our District's fall camporee is coming up and the organizers have asked our OA Chapter to help with activities, campfire, etc. Last night older son (Chapter Advisor) spoke at roundtable to the SMs present about getting their OA guys to chapter meetings. OA Representatives? Yeah, I've seen some of those POR patches but those guys never go to any meetings.

 

Sigh...

[croushorn]

"OA all over is dying."

Wow; sorry to read that, what is it based upon? Are there published membership number anywhere? Our lodge is flourishing and numbers are up annually, ceremonies are more common, better, repeat quality lodge, all indicators I can think of are pointing to success. But I do know that's not the case for the rest of our section, our conclaves are a joke. Not because of lacking fancy new camps, just poorly planned and NO FUN!

Eagle92 just hit a homer with his ideas, many of the same things we had to do a few years back to bring our lodge back to life. It's like any other part of Scouting, make it fun and the numbers grow.

[John-in-KC]

IMNSHO, after 38 years as an Arrowman and living by the ethic of Cheerful Service,...

 

1) The Lodge Leadership, youth and adult, have to make Cheerful Service the thing the Lodge does in life. Be it camp staff, be it off-season service days, be it induction weekends ... a healthy Lodge lives the ethic espoused in our 3 Ws.

 

2) The Lodge Leadership, youth and adult, also have to actively offer fun and adventure, both locally and away. Winter Banquet (which isn't quite an all-day affair in our Lodge), trips to conclaves and conferences, participation in OA trail crew for the HS aged members, Chapter or Lodge lock-ins for fun, special cracker-barrels at Camp, all contribute that membership in the Order is worthwhile.

 

3) The Lodge Leadership has to ensure that members remember that their Troops are the first place of service and growth. When leadership encourages members to be better Scouts, this becomes a win-win.

 

My thoughts.

[Eagle92]

My current lodge has had some membership problems in the past. Heck even last year we met everything for quality lodge EXCEPT growth, missed out by 40+ new members. BUT our attendence at functions is increasing. Our lodge leadership two years ago came up with some interesting changes that some people just went crazy over. The poor lodge chief was getting calls at his house with people screaming at him and it took three to four months for things to finally settle down. I think things settled down because we saw the changes work after the first Ordeal it was applied to.

 

Some of the changes included

1) Creating a First Year Arrowman Award and promoting it heavily.

 

2) Changing our Ordeal schedule, which was the most radical and

controversial change. While it took 2 or three Ordeals to

finalize the schedule, it had immediate results. We moved up

times of the work and ceremonies, pushed dinner back so the new

members could eat with their chapters, and after new member

orientation we had a camp wide game with chapters as the teams.

Did we tick off some of the old timers, yes. Did the new members

love it. Yes and to prove it we had approximately 50 new members

attend conclave a month later, that was almost half of the

contingent.

 

3)Changing our lodge calander of events. We moved up our fall events by one month so that activities won't conflict with the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. While it will be implemented this year for the first time, alot of our adults and older Arrowmen in college say that this change will help out.

 

As the lodge Chief and his adviser said, while we must preserve the traditions and spirit of the Order, we must adapt.

 

[croushorn]

E92: please tell us about your First Year Arrowman Award. Thanks!

[Eagle92]

When I get home I'll post the exact requirements, but here are the requirements as I recall. At the last ECM they added 1 more requirement, which may be must attend a chapter workday and /or chapter fellowship. I was absent that meeting because of a newborn, and don't think the new requirement cards are out yet.

 

From the top of my head here are some of the basic requirements.

 

1) Attend 4 chapter meetings.

2) Attend 1 Ordeal besides the one you became a member.

3) Attend a Section Conclave OR Lodge Fellowship (NOAC may also be an

option, but it's one fun activity).

4) Conduct a unit camp promotion OR serve on the lodge's camp

promotion both at the council camporee

5) Maintain active membership with your unit.

 

Again they added a sixth requirement that I don't the exact details of. All requirements are signed off by the CC or CA except 5, the SM or other approved leader must sign, and must be completed within 12 months of joing the OA. The award is available to both Youth and adults, it comes with a nice certificate, and is limited to 1 per recipient.

 

here is a link to a picture:

http://www.oaimages.com/cgi-bin/buildpage.cgi?pp=117&dd=1&ii=3739