Posts Tagged ‘Order Of The Arrow’


Some people involved with Scouting may collect handbooks. Others may collect coffee mugs. A lot of Scouts and adult leaders collect patches. How many do you know that collect bolo ties?

I have accumulated a couple dozen bolo ties over the years. I could have a lot more in the collection, but I have stuck to bolo ties from events or places that I have attended. That self imposed rule has kept the cost of this collection down a bit.

There are four bolo ties from Philmont Scout Ranch but only one from the Summit high adventure base. I think you can get an idea how many times I have attended each base. I was a little surprised that I only have 5 different bolo ties from Many Point Scout Camp since the troop has been going there for nearly 30 years. I wish I had bought a few more of the Order of the Arrow bolo ties.

Do you collect Scouting related bolo ties? Do the Scout of your troop? How many have you collected over the years?

I was never a member of the Order of the Arrow as a youth member of the Boy Scouts. I did become one after I became a scoutmaster. I became an Ordeal member after attending a conclave with two Boy Scouts of Troop 68 in (I think) 1986. A few years later I became a Brotherhood member.

I have only been active with the Naguonabe Lodge of the Order of the Arrow when the Scouts of Troop 68 have been active. After all, this is a youth organization where adults act as advisors so I seldom went to any OA functions on my own. I served as the transpiration guy many times over the decades. I have also tried to attend as many Ordeal call-out ceremonies as I was able when Troop 68 Scouts were elected.

In recent years I have tried to attend at least one lodge activity during the year even if there are no Scouts from Troop 68 who decide to attend. I do urge them to go to conclaves and activities but I have not been very successful is that endeavor. It might be due to the fact that Troop 68 has not held many Order of the Arrow elections in the last several years which in turn means we do not have many OA members at the moment. In fact, the troop currently only has one Scout who is an OA member.

During the past month I have had two OA adult advisors asking me questions about my tenure in the Order of the Arrow. I told them I have not been that active due to the reasons listed above. They seem to think it is time for me to be nominated to become a Vigil member, the highest level in the Order of the Arrow. Becoming a Vigil member is not something I have given much thought to since I am usually only as active as the Scouts in the troop, but they seem to think that my tenure in Scouting and service work in the community make me qualified for the honor.

Will it happen someday? Maybe, I guess. The troop is planning to hold an Order of the Arrow election this winter so maybe it will become time to become active to the organization once again. Time will tell.

Nearly two weeks ago I posted an article about giving away a few Order of the Arrow patches to three lucky people who commented on the post. The time has come to give award the patches.

Only three people commented so all three of you will receive a Tonkawampus Lodge flap, if you want one. Drop me an email with your address and I will get them in the mail sometime in the next few days.

Congratulations to Dustin, Todd, and Brian!

I think it is time to have a little fun. I have a few patches that I am going to give away to three lucky people.

The patches are Tonkawampus Lodge #16 Order of the Arrow patches, #S19. This lodge was chartered in 1924 in the Viking Council, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2006, during the merger of the Viking Council and the Indianhead Council of St. Paul, Tonkawampus Lodge #16 and Agaming Lodge #257 merged to form Totanhan Nakaha Lodge #16.

This was the 80th anniversary patch for the lodge.  This may have been one of the last patches made for the lodge before the merger. Hidden in the design of the patch is the year 2003. The first two feathers, following by pictures in the two zeros, followed by three feathers, gives up the year 2003. 

I will choose 3 winners by random from the people who leave a comment to this post. Tell me why you would like to add this patch to your collection. I will have the drawing on Wednesday, January 23, 2018, so leave your comments by 6:00 pm that evening.

I enjoy being a member of the Order of the Arrow but I do not attend all the functions during the year. I have always had the opinion that the Order of the Arrow is a youth organization, so I only attend an outing when the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 attend. There has been one exception to myself applied rule, the winter banquet.

I went to my first Naguonabe Lodge winter banquet a few years ago, without any Boy Scouts from Troop 68. I wanted to see what this event was all about. I had a good time so I attended last year’s banquet. They went with a Hawaiian luau theme so I dug out my old Hawaiian shirt.

The lodge’s 2019 winter banquet will be held at the council office on Saturday, January 5. This time it will be a pirate themed event, which sounds like fun. I have sent a message to the troop’s two youth members to see if they plan to attend. If they do not, I may go on my own. It will be an interesting to see a lot of Order of the Arrow members acting like pirates.

I wonder if Captain Jack will appear.

I was never a member of the Order of the Arrow as a youth. I became a member in the mid-1980’s when I was a scoutmaster, along with two Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68. I enjoyed being a member and saw the value of it for the youth so I promoted it during the next 25 years. Since it is a youth based program, I only was as active in the Order of the Arrow as the Scouts in the troop were active. Some were busy years, others were not, but we always had a couple members of the O.A. in the troop.

I stepped down as the scoutmaster at the end of 2011 and although I still tried to get the boys to participate I was not very successful. It has been a few years since the troop has held an Order of the Arrow election so I was pleased this year when the patrol leader council decided to have one this spring. I talked with the new scoutmaster and the youth membership trying to drum up interest again. The election was held on February 6th during our troop meeting.

The former lodge advisor and his son, who is a former lodge chief, live in Melrose so it was easy to have a lodge representative stop by for a visit. Chris and Chuck gave a short talk about the Order and had the troop watch a short video. Scoutmaster Dave and I found that four Scouts qualified for the election. I was surprised when it was announced that all four Scouts had been elected. I should actually say nominated since a Scout does not become a member until he has attended a conclave.

I did not realize that our small troop could have all four Scouts be nominated for membership. I though that only a couple would be allowed since we only had ten members. I guess the rule has changed about how many Scouts of a troop can now be nominated.

Following the election we looked up the dates of the Naguonabe Lodge conclaves for the spring and fall. I was a little surprised to discover the date of the spring outing. I remember it was usually held early in the month of May. We discovered it would be held later in the month, the same weekend as our scheduled troop camping trip. This was not an ideal situation.

As the weekend approached, only two of the four nominees decided to attend the conclave. A third is still deciding if he wants to be a member, while the fourth has decided he does not really want to be. He says he is busy enough with other things, like a job. I was going to attend the conclave with the boys, but the scoutmaster had something else come up that weekend so I decided to help with the troop outing.

Our two new Arrowmen enjoyed the conclave and seem to be proud to be members of the Order of the Arrow. They are already talking about earning their Brotherhood at next year’s spring conclave. I am happy to hear that. And hopefully, we will have a few more nominees ready to at that time.

This poem from circa 1964 was posted in our Naguonabe Lodge newsletter this spring. It is a good fit to remind us to take an active part as members in the Order of the Arrow and not “just belong.”

What Are You?
(Author unknown)

Are you an active brother, the kind that would be missed?
Or are you just contented that your name is on the list?
Do you attend the meetings and mingle with the flock?
Or do you stay at home and criticize and knock?
Do you take an active part to help the work along,
Or are you satisfied to be the kind that “Just belong?”
Do you ever go visit a member that is sick?
Or leave the work for just a few and talk about the clique?
There’s quite a program planned that I’m sure you’ve heard about
And we’ll appreciate if you, too, will come and help us out,
So come to the convention and help with hand and heart,
Don’t just me a member, but take an active part.
Think this over, member, you know right from wrong,
Are you an active member? Or do you just belong?
We all have something we can contribute and when we work together amazing things can happen. I believe even more could be accomplished at conclaves and other events if we take this to heart. Just remember W W W “The Brotherhood of Cheerful Service.”

Nuguonabe2015RedNOACTo tell the truth, when I wrote about this year’s Naguonabe Lodge’s National Order of the Arrow patch sets last June and July I thought the three part article would be all there would be to write. Surprise! This last month the lodge came out with its fourth patch set option. I did not see this coming, but then I am not very involved with the lodge these days since Troop 68 currently does not have any OA members other than for myself.

This new two patch set is an all red “ghost” set that features the same design as the previous wold head design that also includes the 100th anniversary logo. Our lodge has not created many ghost patches in the past so it kind of makes this a little more special. I am not sure why the red color was chosen, but if I find out I will post an update to this article.

The patch set costs $25.00, and I understand that only one set per person is allowed since only a small quanity was printed. The lodge is using this as a fundraiser. I am not quite sure if the funds raised will help to pay off current bills or if the lodge is preparing for a future activity or project. I guess I really do not care what they use the money for. I just want the set for my collection! I usually will not pay that much for a patch set, but I do want to support my lodge.

What do you think of the patch set? Did your lodge create a ghost set for this year’s National Conference?