Troop 98 held their very first Order of the Arrow election
on June 7th 2006 and 4 of the boys along with their Scoutmaster
were elected.
They went up to Camp Raymond for the weekend of September 8th
and experienced their Ordeal and we are proud to announce that
all of them are now full fledged members of the Order of the Arrow.
CONGRATULATIONS !!!





Monthly meetings are held on the 4th Wednesday of the month starting at 7pm.
Click HERE for a map.


W4C CONCLAVE 2006!

Come join hundreds of Arrowmen at the biggest OA party ever! Enjoy a weekend full of crazy fun, fellowship, and entertainment at the Section Conclave! Do you like video games, loud music, late nights, insane shows, training, dodgeball, fesating, movies, and lots of crazy stuff like that? If you said yes, then Conclave is for you!

Click Here for the Conclave Registration Form!



For the Grand Canyon Council Wipalawiki Website,
Click Here


What is the Order of the Arrow?

The Order of the Arrow (OA) is a program of the Boy Scout division of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). It is the BSA's national honor society for experienced campers, based on Native American traditions, and dedicated to the ideal of cheerful service. Members of the Order of the Arrow are called Arrowmen.



Purposes
The stated purposes of the Order of the Arrow are:

To recognize those Scout campers who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives,
To develop and maintain camping traditions and spirit,
To promote Scout camping, and
To crystallize the Scout habit of helpfulness into a life purpose of leadership in cheerful service to others




Symbols
Arrowmen are identified by a white sash bearing a red arrow that is worn over their right shoulder.

An Ordeal member is recognized by a sash with just the arrow


The Brotherhood sash consists of an arrow with two red bars


The Vigil sash adds with a triangle going through the arrow shaft, the triangle bearing three small arrows going in a counterclockwise direction


The sash is worn only at official Order of the Arrow functions and when specifically representing the Order of the Arrow– such as when conducting an election of Order of the Arrow members.

Arrowmen indicate lodge affiliation by wearing a patch on the right pocket flap of the uniform, known as a Lodge Flap. Membership is also shown by a special handshake, signs and passwords. The official song "Firm Bound in Brotherhood" was written in 1921 by the founder and is based on the tune of God Save the Tsar by Alexei Fyodorovich Lvov.



History
The Order of the Arrow was founded in 1915 at a Scout summer camp on Treasure Island, on the Delaware River near Philadelphia. The two men principally responsible for its creation were camp director Dr. E. Urner Goodman, and his assistant Carroll A. Edson.

Goodman and Edson were looking for ways to improve the camp and to keep the older boys coming back. They looked at several sources in creating their new 'camp fraternity',including:

Edward Cave's Boy's Camp Book for the concept of a camp society that would perpetuate camp traditions.
College fraternities for the concepts of Brotherhood and rituals, and the idea of new members pledging themselves to the new organization.
Ernest Thompson Seton's Woodcraft Indians for the use of American Indian Lore to make the organization interesting and appealing to youth, which lead them to incorporating traditions and legends of the local Lenni Lenape (Delaware) Indians in the OA's ceremonies. In fact, the true name of the Order means Brotherhood of Cheerful Service in the Lenape language.
Brotherhood of Andrew and Phillip, a church youth group that Goodman had been involved in.

Freemasonry and its traditions and rituals probably contributed more to the basic structure of the rituals than any other organization. Goodman himself was a Freemason and a member of a Masonic lodge in Philadelphia. In an interview with Carroll Edson during his later years, he recalled that the task of writing the first rituals of the Order of the Arrow was assigned to an early member who was "a 32nd degree Mason." Familiar terms such as "lodge" and "obligation," were borrowed from Masonic practice, as were some ceremonial practices. Even the early national meeting was called a "Grand Lodge," thought to be a Masonic reference.

Despite what some believe, the several honor/camp societies being created at many Scout camps around this time had no influence, due to the fact that almost all were established after the OA came into existence. Furthermore, all the works on the history and establishment of the OA point to the above sources.

The Order earned official recognition as a BSA program experiment in 1922, along with several other honor societies. It acquired its present name at the same time. A meeting of the National Lodge at the Owasippe Scout Reservation in 1933 voted to recommend that the BSA adopt it as part of its official program, which the National Council did in 1934. Full integration was completed in 1948.

Numerous other camp honor societies existed at some point during the BSA's history. Some faded into history. A few are still active today. Others eventually became Order of the Arrow lodges. Among the more widespread of these societies are the Tribe of Mic-O-Say, Firecrafter, Nani-Ba-Zhu, Tribe of Quivira, Ku-Ni-Eh, PGT, The Buckskin Sons of Wauwepex, The Clan of the Mystic Oak and The Knights of Yawgoog



Organization
The basic unit of the order is the lodge, which is chartered to a local council. In technical terms, the highest ranking official of the lodge is the local Council Executive and his lodge position is called "Netami Gegeyjumhet," which translates literally as "First Chief." He is called "The Supreme Chief of the Fire," and has the final word on any and all operations of the lodge. He is assisted by a Lodge Adviser, whose official position is called "Witawematpanni Gegeyjumhet," which translates literally as "wife of the Chief." He (or she) is "The Deputy Chief of the Fire." However, in most councils and lodges, the day-to-day operations are left to the elected youth leadership and their adult advisers.

The youth members of the lodge are usually elect officers to the Lodge Executive Committee. The Lodge Chief is a youth (under the age of 21) and is responsible for the program and general operation of the lodge. The Lodge Adviser is tasked with advising the Lodge Chief and the lodge in general. Many lodges use other positions such as Vice Chief of Service, Inductions, or others to lead certain aspects and divisions of each lodge. Many lodges are further divided into chapters, which generally correspond to a district within the council. OA activities, primarily meetings and service projects, are usually organized by the chapters.

Lodges are grouped into Sections, the primary purpose of which is to organize an annual weekend campout known as a Conclave which combines training performed for the membership of the lodges and inter-lodge competition, including ceremony competitions. The sections are subdivisions of BSA areas, which in turn are subdivisons of four BSA regions. Each section annually elects a Section Chief, Vice-Chief(s), and Secretary. The Section Chiefs come together and from their number elect the Region Chiefs and Vice-Chiefs, and the National Chief and National Vice-Chief. During National Order of the Arrow Conference years, those not elected to those positions are elected to a position of Conference Vice-Chief in charge of one of the program areas at the conference or other national events. The order is headed by the National Order of the Arrow Committee— a subcommittee of the BSA's National Boy Scout Committee —of which the National Chief, National Vice-Chief, and the four Region Chiefs are voting members. The current Chairman of the National Committee is Bradley Haddock.

Two councils today do not have associated OA lodges: the Long Beach Area Council in California instead has the Tribe of Tahquitz, and the Pony Express Council in Missouri has the Tribe of Mic-O-Say.



Membership
Membership in the Order of the Arrow totals over 180,000 youth and adult members, roughly one eighth the number of those involved in the Boy Scout program. Since youth members are elected by their local unit, and since most of the members of their unit are generally not members of the Order of the Arrow, the order is said to be the largest membership organization whose members are elected primarily by non-members.

Youth under 21 (including any adults under 21) are elected by members of their unit. The Order of the Arrow is a program of the Boy Scout division, thus elections are open to only members of troops and teams. Youth candidates to the order must first be elected by a majority vote of their fellow Scouts (including non-OA members) in their troop or team. Any Scout who has reached the rank of First Class, has fulfilled camping requirements , and has been approved by his Scoutmaster or Coach is eligible for election.

Adults (over 21) who had not previously joined the Order as a youth member can become members by being nominated by the unit, district or council committee and then approved by the lodge Adult Selection Committee. Adults must meet the same criteria as youth.

After being elected or nominated, all candidates participate in a call-out ceremony, typically performed by OA members dressed in ceremonial Native American regalia. This usually occurs sometime prior to the next induction, and may be done at summer camp, a camporee, a call-out weekend or at a troop or team meeting. The candidates then participate in the induction that leads to becoming an Ordeal member.

Like the BSA, the Order is a youth-led organization. Youth are voting members and serve at lodge, section, region, and national levels as elected officers, while adults are non-voting members and serve in advisory capacities. Select adults are appointed to specific adviser positions such as lodge adviser, chapter adviser and section advisers and co-advisers. Advisers may also be appointed to specific youth officers and committees.

With the exception of a national list of Vigil members, membership records have not been maintained by the Order of the Arrow National Office. The lack of accurate records has caused problems when lodges merged or records are lost due to poor internal controls at the local lodge. Beginning in 2006 the National Office of the Order of the Arrow will operate a nationwide database and will provide software to each of the 300+ lodges with which they can maintain their records in a permanent format.



Induction
The induction ceremony, called the Ordeal, is the first step toward full membership. During the experience, candidates maintain silence, receive small amounts of food, work on camp improvement projects, and are required to sleep alone, apart from other campers. The entire experience is designed to teach significant values.

Brotherhood Membership
After 10 months of service and fulfilling certain requirements, a member may take part in the Brotherhood ceremony, which places further emphasis on the ideals of Scouting and the Order. Completion of this ceremony signifies full membership in the OA.

Vigil Honor
After two years of service as a Brotherhood member, and with the approval of the national Order of the Arrow Committee, a Scout may be recognized with the Vigil Honor for outstanding service to Scouting, his lodge, and the community. This honor is bestowed by special selection and is limited to one person for every 50 members registered with the lodge each year.