Longhaired_Mac Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Has anyone participated in the program as yet? I've considered doing so but feel the special sash would be some very unnecessary virtue signaling. But at the same time advertising the program to encourage others to participate is kind of the point of the Sash? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle94-A1 Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 I think OA, and national by extension, is getting desperate for money. Between this and "interesting" elections, to increase membership, I have my wories. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HashTagScouts Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 If they only want you to wear it to official OA functions where only Arrowmen would be present, it doesn't seem to really help advertise to increase participation. They could have just gone with a "years of service" type pin to attach to a sash IMO, rather than whole new sash. That would be far more subtle than this. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeptic Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 2 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said: I think OA, and national by extension, is getting desperate for money. Between this and "interesting" elections, to increase membership, I have my wories. How is this really different than the James E. West program? It is much like the concept that at one time was discouraged of local lodges issuing new patches regularly as "trade bait", especially just prior to Jamboree and OA National events. In our almost extinct Lodge, we had a period with so many patches that nobody had a clue, other than it was another variation for some obscure reason. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjohns2 Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 On 2/12/2026 at 7:50 AM, HashTagScouts said: it doesn't seem to really help advertise to increase participation. More to participate in the endowment donation program. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoutldr Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 I would be interested in where the funds go and for what purpose? How is this different from FOS or the James E. West fellowship? Do I get another square knot? Or knot? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetterWithCheddar Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 12 hours ago, scoutldr said: I would be interested in where the funds go and for what purpose? How is this different from FOS or the James E. West fellowship? Do I get another square knot? Or knot? Per the OA website: Once contributed, the funds will stay in perpetuity within the OA Endowment, whose spending policy allows for the growth of the funds to provide support to key leadership development initiatives within the OA. 1915 Society | Order of the Arrow, Scouting America 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeptic Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 But didn't the lawsuit raid the OA endowment? What is to stop that from happening still? 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle94-A1 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Yeah, the lawsuit caused a lot of Scouting endowments to be raided. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HashTagScouts Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 On 2/17/2026 at 5:46 PM, scoutldr said: I would be interested in where the funds go and for what purpose? How is this different from FOS or the James E. West fellowship? Do I get another square knot? Or knot? Well, you have to make larger donation, but yes, the OA does have knots too 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tron Posted Monday at 02:11 PM Share Posted Monday at 02:11 PM On 2/18/2026 at 9:20 PM, HashTagScouts said: Well, you have to make larger donation, but yes, the OA does have knots too This is basically an advertisement to not become a legacy fellow unless/until a person is in the OA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longhaired_Mac Posted 20 hours ago Author Share Posted 20 hours ago On 2/18/2026 at 8:45 AM, skeptic said: But didn't the lawsuit raid the OA endowment? What is to stop that from happening still? As I understand it, the National OA is a separate organization/company from the BSA/Scouting America. They voted to contribute funds after the lawsuit in the "Spirit of Scouting". And had they decided not to, there would have had to be legal action internally before the endowments could be touched. Technically. What the truth ended up being is probably only clear to the accountants and lawyers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjohns2 Posted 19 hours ago Share Posted 19 hours ago (edited) 57 minutes ago, Longhaired_Mac said: As I understand it, the National OA is a separate organization/company from the BSA/Scouting America. They voted to contribute funds after the lawsuit in the "Spirit of Scouting". Your understanding is incorrect. They did not “vote to contribute”, the corporation told the court the OA and NESA endowments were protected. They they were not subject to the bankruptcy contributions to the trust. The other side said show us how you did proper record keeping for the funds inputs and outputs. They had no records and had just comingled the funds in the general funds. Thus, they were ordered to contribute the funds. Thus they need to “recapitalize”. Edited 19 hours ago by mrjohns2 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred8033 Posted 1 hour ago Share Posted 1 hour ago 17 hours ago, mrjohns2 said: ... They had no records and had just comingled the funds in the general funds. ... Argh. This is where my judgement of BSA is harshest. Originally, my judgement was harsh on poor legal review. As times changed over the decades, better-than-average youth protection practices needed to be updated to protect both youth and BSA legally. So many things failed there. Now reading the last comment makes me question BSA respect for those donating money. If OA and NESA donations were solicited as endowments, BSA had a responsibility to the donor to respect the donation and handle the endowment properly. What I'm reading instead is that OA / NESA endowment donations were really just another way to solicit general fund revenue. It's either poor accounting, poor legal judgement or outright misrepresentation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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