ACT Conference

Scenarios SCENARIO #1

Scouts BSA unit #1915 has not hosted an Order of the Arrow unit election in 10 years. 11 years ago, the Scoutmaster became frustrated with the fact that his youth members would frequently choose to attend lodge events instead of troop campouts. He doesn’t believe the OA does anything except for interfere with his ability to run an effective program. Your lodge is working hard to reach high performing status; but in order to hit 90%, you need to get your foot in the door to host a unit election (or at least a unit visitation) in Troop #1915. What do you do?

SCENARIO #2

Venturing Crew #158 Adviser Paula is not a supporter of the Order of the Arrow, largely because when her daughter was involved in Venturing five years ago, she was disappointed that the option for membership didn’t exist at that point in time. So when your lodge reaches out to her to schedule an election, she says the OA has no value to her unit and expresses frustration that the membership policy change wasn’t done when her daughter was involved. What do you do?

SCENARIO #3

Two years ago, your lodge scheduled a unit visitation with Scouts BSA Troop #451. Your unit elections chairman personally confirmed the date, time, and location. You have had trouble recruiting a large, reliable, unit elections team this year; but Jonny Lee (a first year, enthusiastic Arrowman) who has never been to a unit visitation, other than the one where he was elected, offers to attend. Jonny is 14 and hasn’t been doing particularly well in school. He fails an exam and his parents take away his cell phone for a few days. Jonny does not notify you that he is going to be out of touch, and he skips the unit visitation. The unit leader is furious that he scheduled 30 minutes of time during the unit meeting for the unit election, and the OA didn’t even care to show up. Last year, the unit leader discouraged other unit leaders at the roundtable meeting from hosting a unit election and this narrative is starting to give the lodge a really negative look. What do you do?

SCENARIO #4

Matt is the boatswain of Sea Scout Ship #123 is also a member of Troop #227. He was elected and inducted into the Order of the Arrow a few years ago. During Matt’s induction that your lodge hosted at camp, there was a shortage of trained Elangomats. On Friday evening of the induction weekend, you had to recruit a few Arrowmen extremely last minute to serve in this role. Matt’s Elangomat was one of those people. The Elangomat was not knowledgeable about his ability to effectively perform his role and the result was a poor experience for everyone in his clan. After the induction weekend, Matt pledged to never return to the OA and discouraged everyone in his troop and crew from participating also, effectively shutting the door to the possibility of a unit election or visitation. What do you do?