OA Completion

[croushorn 10]

Emb: Let me try it this way:

1.) You are voted in and called out by your home (well call) Council A and Lodge A.

2.) Dad gets transferred before you can go to Lodge As Ordeal and now you are residing within the boundaries of (well call) Council B.

3.) Dad submits paperwork transferring you to the new Council B. Council B and Lodge B are now your new home council & lodge.

4.) Get a letter from Lodge As Membership Chair documenting that you were voted in and tapped out by Lodge A. Present this letter to the Membership Chair of Lodge B and you should have no problem attending Ordeal with your new home lodge. There is no out of council event occurring here.

We do this regularly with Scouts transferring in and out of our Council, it is not a big deal. That said, I havent seen an issue with Jewish Scouts either, that would be an interesting experience for us here in WASP country (as I assume it could also be for faiths with other specific needs). I really doubt anyone would pose any objections to reasonable accommodations such as that.

Something interesting I learned from reading that document is that we arent following the rule of having visiting out-of-council troops provide a letter from their Chief listing candidates to be called out. In our tap out, we have the leaders call out their own Scouts; regardless of their lodge affiliation. So we could have leaders doing what they want to anyhow. When there are issues they are caught afterward when we are rectifying the voting results with the tapped candidates names. At that point we confront the SM to explain. Yes, it is after the fact, but in the very rare instance there is a problem, typically its a mix up on the election result. Rarely is it an issue with someone screwing up and calling a Scout that shouldnt have been.

 

[scoutldr 726]

I get it, emb. It's more like a punishment for not supporting your Council camp.

[emb021 16]

"I get it, emb. It's more like a punishment for not supporting your Council camp."

 

I'm not sure I'd put it down to that.

 

However, it's important to keep this in mind. The OA started out as pretty much a 'camp society', heavily tied to camps. OA elections where done at summer camp. Tap outs were done at summer camp. Ordeals were either done at the end of the troop's week at summer camp, or when summer camp was over. [this was my experience back in the early 80s]

 

The idea also is you pretty much went to your council camp. If you didn't, it was no big deal to be inducted into the camp society at the camp you were visiting (which is one of the ways that such societies got spread from council to council or maybe I should say from camp to camp), at least back in the 30s, 40s, and 50s.

 

Now, its more of a problem.

 

Lodges are heavily tied to the councils. You can only be a member of the lodge in your council. No more being member of another council's lodge (or of being a member of more then one lodge). But then you have the break down were the lodge isn't as highly tied into the summer camp. At least in my area, elections are done at troop meetings. Tap outs are more often done at camporees. Ordeals may not be tied in any way to summer camp. And many troops aren't going to their home council's summer camps. (heck, in my area there are 2 councils who no longer run their own summer camp programs!)

 

So I guess the response has been to emphasis that you need to do everyone with your home lodge. One would think that exceptions can and should be made, and policy in place to handle it, but I guess the PTB don't agree.

 

[scoutldr 726]

My comment was tongue-in-cheek, I hope you know that. However, it wouldn't surprise me. I was elected in 1970, and things were as they were in the 80's. Elections at troop mtg, TAP-out at camporee, Ordeal in Spring or Fall (NEVER at summer camp).

 

The reality is now that NONE of the troops in my council go to the same camp EVERY year. Most rotate among 3 or 4 (there are about 10 within a 5 hour radius), and most like the mountain climate better than our council climate (coastal humidity, ticks and mosquitoes). This is one of the reasons I resigned from the District Camping Chair job, after a particularly rude public dressing down by the SE for "not supporting YOUR camp". My goal was to get butts in cots, I didn't care what CSP they were wearing.

 

I don't have a problem with the policy, as long as reasonable exceptions can be made (illness, transfers, etc).

 

I'm sorry we didn't have a more favorable answer for erniepyle. I read his biography as a kid...one of my favorite books.