Order Of The Arrow Requirements

[christineka]

They should count from the BSA's and OA's perspective. Whether it counts differently in LDS, I don't know. Maybe your son should ask the records-keeper in the troop why the nights aren't in the "system." And besides, your son's handbook has a place to keep his own camping records.

 

Those camping records are in the book, too.  (They were required for some rank.)  We would not even have thought of that!

 

As for this election into OA, I'm not sure how it could have happened.  My dad went to camp with my son last year.  My dad was the only adult in the group (between the troop leaders and him), who was in OA, so he accompanied the only boy in the troop, who was in OA and I didn't think he went to camp this year.  I thought he went and aged out of scouts.  Or maybe it was the younger brother, who did go to camp and that boy elected all the youngest boys?

[jpstodwftexas]

By the way around here LDS Scouts at Primary Age (11) still fall under the Auspice of Boy Scout not Cub Scouts....Everything they do Counts as being a Boy Scout...Not Cub Scouts..

Around Here the LDS Troops are very Rare. Our Council in 13 Counties only has 17 Registered Troops...3 LDS in 3 Cities

Edited July 20, 2015 by jpstodwftexas

[NJCubScouter]

Around Here the LDS Troops are very Rare. Our Council in 13 Counties only has 17 Registered Troops...3 LDS in 3 Cities

That was a little confusing. But If you mean your council has 17 LDS troops, that's about 8 times as many as mine has.

[jpstodwftexas]

No It Means that 3 of our Cities are Sponsored by LDS Churches...There are only  17 Registered Troops in our Council that serves 13 Counties...Around here The Majority are Sponsored by Methodist Churches

 

 

Troop 0032 St Marks United Methodist Church
4319 McNiel Ave 
Wichita Falls,TX,76308
Show Unit...     Troop 0022 American Legion Pat Carrigan Post 120
4601 Lake Shore Dr. 
Wichita Falls,TX,76310
Show Unit...     Troop 0015 First Christian Church
3701 Taft Blvd 
Wichita Falls,TX,76308
Show Unit...     Troop 0216 Lds - Wichita Falls I Ward
4325 York St 
Wichita Falls,TX,76309
Show Unit...     Troop 0034 University United Methodist Church
PO Box 4244 
Wichita Falls,TX,76308
Show Unit...     Troop 0001 Floral Heights United Methodist Church
2214 10th St 
Wichita Falls,TX,76309
Show Unit...     Troop 0013 Knights of Columbus
1500 9th St 
Wichita Falls,TX,76301
Show Unit...     Troop 0316 Church of the Good Shepherd
1007 Burnett St 
Wichita Falls,TX,76301
Show Unit...     Troop 0011 First United Methodist Church
PO Box 2125 
Wichita Falls,TX,76307
Show Unit...     Troop 0073 First United Methodist Church - Iowa Park
201 E Bank St 
Iowa Park,TX,76367
Show Unit...     Troop 0219 Lds - Burkburnett Ward
1010 Arthur St 
Burkburnett,TX,76354
Show Unit...     Troop 0600 Knights of Columbus Burkburnett
600 Davy Dr 
Burkburnett,TX,76354
Show Unit...     Troop 0155 First United Methodist Church - Burk
301 E 4th St 
Burkburnett,TX,76354
Show Unit...     Troop 0100 American Legion Post 198
PO Box 1001 
Archer City,TX,76351
Show Unit...     Troop 0091 Kiwanis Club Of Henritta
112 Pioneer Trl 
Henrietta,TX,76365
Show Unit...           Troop 0116 First Baptist Church of Bowie
1515 Jefferson St 
Bowie,TX,76230
Show Unit...           Troop 0071 LDS Church
PO Box 846 
Seymour,TX,76380
Show Unit...

[Torchwood]

The Order of the Arrow requirements are pretty simple: For a youth member, you must be 1st Class or above, you must have camped for 15 nights, with up to 6 of them being consecutive nights at a BSA camp. Once you have met those requirements, your Scoutmaster must approve your name to be placed on a ballot. The OA will come to a Troop meeting and run the election (th boys are elected by a simple majority vote of their peers). The Order is an Honor Society- a place for those who truly live the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives. It is not a checkbox on the list of Boy scout to-dos. I personally think that most troops (and Scoutmasters) do a poor job of policing who they choose to elect to the Order, hence the term "sash and dash" for those who have no plan to ever serve their Troop or Lodge in the spirit of the Order. If your unit is electing boys to the OA that have not met those requirements, you need to inform your Scoutmaster, and probably the local Lodge leadership of this. Of course, those without proper camping experience probably will not complete the Ordeal anyway, so maybe the process is self-policing to some extent...

Edited July 21, 2015 by Torchwood

[baggss]

no comment

[PA Scoutmaster]

The Order of the Arrow requirements are pretty simple: For a youth member, you must be 1st Class or above, you must have camped for 15 nights, with up to 6 of them being consecutive nights at a BSA camp. Once you have met those requirements, your Scoutmaster must approve your name to be placed on a ballot. The OA will come to a Troop meeting and run the election (th boys are elected by a simple majority vote of their peers). The Order is an Honor Society- a place for those who truly live the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives. It is not a checkbox on the list of Boy scout to-dos. I personally think that most troops (and Scoutmasters) do a poor job of policing who they choose to elect to the Order, hence the term "sash and dash" for those who have no plan to ever serve their Troop or Lodge in the spirit of the Order. If your unit is electing boys to the OA that have not met those requirements, you need to inform your Scoutmaster, and probably the local Lodge leadership of this. Of course, those without proper camping experience probably will not complete the Ordeal anyway, so maybe the process is self-policing to some extent...

 

Torchwood, 

Very well said! I interview any scout that meets the eligibility requirements and discuss what OA is, and whether they want to be on the ballot to be elected. Many times, they choose not to do it, because they do not want to commit to the service.That's ok with me. I would rather they decline the "honor" than do the sash and dash. Our troop always has a very high brotherhood conversion rate because the youth members of the OA encourage those that are elected to become involved in the lodge. The scouts (more likely parents) that see OA as a check box, tend to look at Eagle the same way. I try to focus on the others - the scout that comes out of his ordeal and is pumped about serving others and promoting camping.

[qwazse]

Since our troop does not push 1st Class first year, most of the boys have accumulated camping nights once they meet rank requirements. It's possible that your son's friends did too. But I would find it frustrating if there were campouts that I could have attended but nobody invited me.

 

I think it's a fair for your boy to ask, "how can I go camping as much as <insert buddies name>?"

 

Your son should have been involved in electing the boys from your troop. He might have missed that meeting. It's at election time that all of the boys' eligibility requirements are reviewed.

He probably was at the ceremony where the boys were "called out" at camp. It sounds like the boys went on their ordeal that same night, did their day of service in silence the next day and were awarded their regalia. That's how they organized things when my son#1 was called out. When son#2 was called out, the ordeal was held in the fall so as not to disrupt the boys' camp program. The nice thing about a fall ordeal is that boys from different camp sessions are gathered.

[Eagle94-A1]

Torchwood, 

Very well said! I interview any scout that meets the eligibility requirements and discuss what OA is, and whether they want to be on the ballot to be elected. Many times, they choose not to do it, because they do not want to commit to the service.That's ok with me. I would rather they decline the "honor" than do the sash and dash. Our troop always has a very high brotherhood conversion rate because the youth members of the OA encourage those that are elected to become involved in the lodge. The scouts (more likely parents) that see OA as a check box, tend to look at Eagle the same way. I try to focus on the others - the scout that comes out of his ordeal and is pumped about serving others and promoting camping.

 

I wish more SMs were like you. I had an election team talk about the commitments and the service the OA does. Also asked who did not want to be on the ballot. About 2/3 of the eligible Scouts declined. SM was furious at me for allowing the election team to talk about commitments, and allow the eligible Scouts to take their name off the ballot.

[christineka]

I talked to one scout's mom to see if there were any more campouts than what I'd known about.  She said there weren't (and her son even camped one less night than my son, due to being sick.), but she also wants to know about more campouts that her son can go on.  It seems very wrong for a scout troop to go on one, non-residential campout within 6 months.  

 

I have a feeling scoutmaster has no idea what order of the arrow is all about and just nominated several boys, not telling them what they were getting into.  I will ask son how that went.