OA Troop or Team Representative

Does your troop or team have an OA Representative? This position helps build the relationship between the OA Lodge or Chapter and the Unit. It also counts as a leadership position for Scout advancement requirements. If your unit doesn't have an OA representative, or isn't using him effectively, read on to find out more about what this program can do for you.

The Troop or Team OA Representative should be doing several things, chief among them: encouraging year-round camping and resident camping at summer camp, encourage unit service to the community, and providing leadership/mentoring/example to the other scouts in the unit. Remember that arrowmen are elected not just for what they've done but for what they will do — unit OA representatives help all the arrowmen in the unit give back to those that elected them.

During 2009 the Lakota chapter is hoping to provide more information and support to both OA representatives and to unit Leaders. Part of this is finding adult members in each unit to act as advisors. Another part is providing communications channels from the unit reps to the chapter leadership. We'd also like to provide hand-outs and other information for the representatives to take back to their units at each of our chapter activities.

If you're a unit OA representative, make sure you come out to our chapter activities so you can find out what the chapter can do for your unit and the arrowmen in it. If you're an adult leader and don't have a Troop or Team OA Representative yet, this is the time to get one — help us help you and your unit by bringing the spirit of the OA to all of your scouts.

Election Season, a first report

To earn the quality chapter award, one of the things we must do is hold elections for 75% of the units in our district. We have 130 units (Boy Scout Troops and Varsity Scout Teams) in our district, so we would need to visit 98 of them each year. That's a little bit beyond our reach this year, so we're reaching for a goal that helps get us closer — we want to hold at least 4 unit elections in February, March, and April to lead into our May Fellowship. We'll set another (higher) goal in July, August, and September to support out October Fellowship.

It's not really enough to set a goal without reporting on it, so consider this a first report.

In January, we held an election for a Scout Troop at Klondike and elected 5 youth and nominated an adult leader. While it doesn't impact our goal, getting this election done was a good start for us in 2009.

So far in February, we've held three elections (two Scout Troops and one Varsity Team), and nominated three adults. There's also a unit election scheduled for tonight. All of this means that we met our February goal, and are set to move forward into March.

Three of our youth arrowmen and three adults have pitched in to help us meet our goals so far. We'd love to have more youth and adults involved. If you'd like to help out with elections, please send an email to lakota.secretary@gmail.com and we'll get you connected with our election team.

Upcoming Chapter Activity

The big interchapter event has been pushed out until March, so we'll be holding a chapter event on our own this month. Come join us on Saturday, February 28th at the South Chapel (1038 N 1200 E). The Chapter Executive Board will meet from 6-7PM (anyone in the chapter is welcome to attend), and the activity will start at 7PM.

At the CEB, we'll be reviewing on this year's calendar, planning some service activities, and working on a Den Chief Training course we're going to start running for the district.

The activity will include preparing for our May Fellowship, working on ceremonies and elections, and playing some games. We'll also have ice cream and cookies, because everything goes better with ice cream and cookies.

If you're planning on coming, please RSVP to lakotasecretary@gmail.com so we know how much ice cream to bring.

Deals on Camping Equipment

One of the cool things about the Order of the Arrow is that we promote camping. Not only do we have to camp to become a member of the OA, we should be encouraging other scouts and scouters to camp as well.

A tent, sleeping bag, or a pair of hiking boots can be a substantial purchase. You may want to consider following options:

1. ScoutDirect. Subscribe to their newsletter and every few months you will receive an email message explaining discounts you can receive on ALPS Mountaineering products just because you are a scout or scouter. The email will have price lists attached that show prices retail stores cannot match. In fact prices may even beat the wholesale prices that retail stores get for products. If you want to check out an item at a local retail store—which I do recommend—before you buy an item, make sure not to brag about the price you can get with ScoutDirect.
2. Emergency Essentials. Scout units that register with them can get 10% off on any camping/hiking gear. It's certainly worth going in and checking them out.
   
3. Sierra Trading Post. When many name brand retail stores or manufacturers want to get rid of products because there are newer products they want to promote, Sierra Trading Post purchases them at reduced prices. You can get name brand products at substantially reduced prices. Realize that name brand doesn't necessarily mean quality. So you will still have to do your homework. So if you know what you want to buy and have saved up for it, it would be worth your while to look here before you buy.
   

Feel free to post a comment if you know of any other camping equipment deals.