OA elections

Now that we have run out of things to say about hazing and the
new requirements, what about those OA election horror stories.
I personally hate the OA election process as it stands. Not the
whole thing, but the actual vote taken at your troop meeting.
We hold our election in March. About 1/4 of the scouts are
brand new and we ask them to vote for scouts that our worthy of
being members of the OA. They don't even know what an OA is
and here comes the election team to "explain" it to them. Is this
asking a little too much from a new scout with maybe one camp
out under their belts?
Our last election had about 50 on the ballot (we have over 100
members and only three were elected last year) and yet only 8
were elected and of those 8, only two were senior scouts. The
other 6 won by some kind of freak popularity thing. Several
scouts were passed over that are great scouters and good
campers because most of the voters did not understand the
process.
We penalize some scouts because of miss-comunication at the
election time. One local troop had to hold a second election
following the first to try and explain to the boys how the vote
worked as no body was elected after the first vote. Of the 8 boys
our troop elected. I would guess that 3 might go to the Ordeal.
Is there an answer to this age old problem? Is there a fix and
how did you fix the problem? Will this be discussed at NOAC?
Maybe there is no problem and I just am seeing things again. I
get this way, you know, when I don't get my scouting shot. We
set requirements for Eagle and for membership in the OA, we let
a bunch of brand new scouts vote. Go figure....
OK... Hit me with your best shot.
YIS The Mad Texan

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