19 March 2010
It Was an Ordeal
Posted by admin under: order of the arrow .
Hey, since I haven’t been blogging in a while I don’t think I mentioned that I completed my Order of the Arrow Ordeal and am now a full-fledged member of this Boy Scout honor society. There’s a whole ceremony you have to go through to become a member. First, as an adult, you have to be elected by the boys in your troop to become a member. For my troop we can only elect one adult member per year so it’s a great honor for the boys to allow me to represent the troop. Next, you have to go through a ceremony where you are recognized as a candidate by your Order of the Arrow unit (chapter). My area forgot to “call out” adults last year so I missed that part. Too bad. There’s a lot of cool pomp and circumstance during the call out ceremony.
The really big deal is going to an overnight or weekend outing at which you have to do some things to become a full-fledged member. Because candidates are supposed to come to this outing with no preconceptions or secret preparation the Order of the Arrow asks everyone not to divulge the exact nature of this outing (called an Ordeal). So, I can’t say exactly what happened, but parents who worry that this is some sort of secret organization and that they are locked out should rest assured that they are not locked out. In fact, the Order of the Arrow makes it clear that parents will be told as much of the ceremony as they wish to know in order for them to feel comfortable about having their sons participate.
After the Ordeal one is a full member of the Order of the Arrow. That’s what I did in December (I really pushed how long I took to do my Ordeal after my initial election). My chapter is pretty anemic right now so the constant topic of conversation is how to get more boys to participate in the chapter meetings that are held once per month. Last night was a dutch oven dessert cook-off. When the boys first proposed it last month a couple of adults thought it didn’t sound practical because dutch oven cooking takes a while and there’s nothing else to do while you’re waiting for the food. However, they rolled with it and offered to have the charcoal ready at the beginning of the meeting so the boys could get right to cooking. My son was a team captain tasked with getting a team together and getting them to the meeting (the real reason for having the cook-off). There were supposed to be 4 teams, but only 2 materialized. My son’s team made a peach cobbler. The other team made a lemon-vanilla cake with orange glaze.
I wasn’t able to go because I was frying up around one hundred potato skins. My son’s Eagle court of honor is tomorrow and we’re doing an appetizer buffet for the reception. I had an excuse to break out the turkey fryer and utilize it in this new way to make huge batches of potato skins. *insert proper caveman grunts here* Fun!
So, you’re looking at the newest adult member of the Alliklik Chapter of the Malibu Lodge for the Order of the Arrow (although the announcement is a few months late).
- One Pot Pack-up Pie
- ArrowCorps5 Videos
- Dutch Oven Temperature Regulation
- Volcano Cooking
- Different Dutch Ovens
4 Comments so far...
Ken Lillemo Says:
20 March 2010 at 5:02 pm.
Minor quibble. You complete your “full fedging” next year when/if you go through Brotherhood ceremony. This delay is for you to have an opportunity to understand better what the OA is about. The Ordeal weekend packs in a lot of information and experience all at once. It is acknowledged that some time might be required to take it all in.
If you find the Brotherjood of Cheerful Service is already a part of your character, or if you want to build these aspects of your character, then you would logically decide to go through Brotherhood as well.
Cheers
admin Says:
20 March 2010 at 9:35 pm.
Duly noted, thank you! Today at my son’s Eagle court the ceremonies advisor asked me if I’d consider being the Chaper Chief advisor. I had asked if I could get a year of membership in before they asked me for any advisor duties. *sigh* I mean *cheerful service*
Scott Murphy Says:
17 December 2010 at 8:33 pm.
One adult for every 50 boys in the troop may be nominated by the troop committee. An adult nomination may only be submitted if one or more boys from the troop have been elected. The one exception to this is, adults that are under the age of 21 can be included on the ballot and they vote with and are elected by the boys in the troop. This is due to the fact that the OA considers everyone under 21 as youth. The lodge reviews all adult nominations to determine whether or not the OA and the lodge will benefit from their membership. Under no circumstances adults 21 or older to be elected by the boys in the troop.
BL Says:
31 March 2011 at 5:56 pm.
As a non-Scout parent, with boy in Scouting, things that go on without parental knowledge/consent are scary enough…
To have a whole secret sub-culture lurking around turns on the warning lights for me.
