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Our troop, the oldest in the district (est. 1941) stopped attending our council camp in 1981. OA involvement and membership, apparently, stopped around that time too.

SMs since then have not been OA members so the boys were not told about or exposed to it. (This according to our COR who has had the job since the mid-1970s...I only learned last night that he's Vigil Honor.)

I'm now in my second year as SM and the district OA election team came to our meeting last night. (They did a very good job.)
All three eligible Scouts were elected (SPL, ASPL, and QM).
These guys will be called out and do their ordeal in July.

Hopefully, next year we'll have at least 4 candidates.

Great

Fantastic!! Best wishes to them

Chief J

Congrats to them.Hope they enjoy the OA as much as I do.

Glad that you are getting something straightened out that needed to be done a long time ago.

Congrats to your son!

Cirling back to this thread, I would like to add encourage them to become involved in the Lodge and/or Chapter (if your Lodge has Chapters).

I believe if they are involved, they will enjoy the friends they meet and the opportunities the OA will provide.

Chief J

It took me four years to convince my scouts that OA is worth while – predecessor was working against it the whole time. All four eligible scouts were elected, call-out at Camporee a month ago, will be attending their Ordeal in two weeks. All four have take roles in our rebuilding chapter – we have 5 active Arrowmen and 9 pre-Ordeal kids working to restore the chapter.

Looks like this was a good year for returning to the OA fold.

Scout wrote:It took me four years to convince my scouts that OA is worth while – predecessor was working against it the whole time. All four eligible scouts were elected, call-out at Camporee a month ago, will be attending their Ordeal in two weeks. All four have take roles in our rebuilding chapter – we have 5 active Arrowmen and 9 pre-Ordeal kids working to restore the chapter.

Looks like this was a good year for returning to the OA fold.

This is great! We only have 2 candidates this year who were up for election. We'll find out who made it for Ordeal in a few months.

Last summer's only candidates (1 adult and 1 youth) both finished their ordeal this past weekend. It was a blast!!

I recently took on the role of Chapter Adviser and am working with the Chapter Chief to rebuild our Chapter. It takes time, but I believe in the cause and look forward to strengthening the bonds.

Chief J

When I was chapter chief in the early 1980's, I rebuild a chapter and know the work needed for how long. Wish you the best Chief J

UPDATE:
We now have a Scouter that is an Ordeal Candidate and will performing his ordeal the same time as the 3 scouts.

That is also great.

Where has your COR been all of this time?

- Craig

milominderbinder2 wrote:Where has your COR been all of this time?

- Craig

Our charter organization has been pretty much absent since a leadership change 2003 renders us politically incorrect. The only reason the our charter organition continues is because of community outrage fears - something about the 82 year history together. Our COR's son is in another troop in town which only complicated the issues. That is slowly changing again which also bodes well for OA in the area.

Scout wrote:....since a leadership change 2003 renders us politically incorrect.

What does that mean?
Please explain.

It means that our charter organization's leadership from 2003 to 2007 bought into the media degradation of Boy Scouts resulting from the 2001 Supreme Court decision. This was coupled with turmoil from an Eagle Candidate’s declaration to the media that he was an Atheist, a movement to timber a portion of the local scout camp, and divestiture of a lodge.

Scout wrote:It means that our charter organization's leadership from 2003 to 2007 bought into the media degradation of Boy Scouts resulting from the 2001 Supreme Court decision. This was coupled with turmoil from an Eagle Candidate’s declaration to the media that he was an Atheist, a movement to timber a portion of the local scout camp, and divestiture of a lodge.

What a mess.

The camp we attend has a working tree farm attached (owned by the Buckeye Council, Canton, OH).
They use huge tree spades to move/sell trees. However, the do not harvest in the active area (900+ acres) of the camp.

I was in Seattle last week....spent time at Olympic and Mt. Ranier Natl Parks.
Timber part of a BSA camp...the council can't be that pressed for funds.

The timbering was because of Laminated Root Rot. A resident boarding the camp was claiming council was out to clear cut the entire camp – as was done during the establishment of the camp in 1918. For me, the worst part was that I was District Chair from 2002 to 2004.

My home overlooks the boarder of Olympic National Park, where this troops does nearly all of its camping, hiking, and service projects.