There’s been a lot of changes this year for unit elections so even though they’re still several months away, check out the new eligibility requirements. These were updated on May 23, 2018 and take effect beginning February 1, 2019.
- Be a registered member of the Boy Scouts of America.
- Have experienced 15 nights of camping while registered with a troop, crew, or ship within the two years immediately prior to the election. The 15 nights must include one, but no more than one, long-term camp consisting of at least five consecutive nights of overnight camping, approved and under the auspices and standards of the Boy Scouts of America. Only five nights of the long-term camp may be credited toward the 15-night camping requirement; the balance of the camping (10 nights) must be overnight, weekend, or other short-term camps of, at most, three nights each. Ship nights may be counted as camping for Sea Scouts.
- At the time of their election, youth must be under the age of 21, hold the Scouts BSA First Class rank, the Venturing Discovery Award, or the Sea Scout Ordinary rank or higher, and following approval by the Scoutmaster, Crew Advisor or Sea Scout Skipper, be elected by the youth members of their unit.
- Adults (age 21 or older) who meet the camping requirements may be selected following nomination to and approval by the lodge adult selection committee.
Why #ChooseOA
The Order of the Arrow is all about cheerful service to others. We strive to make the community a better place by doing our part and we have fun doing it! You can see a lot pictures about what we’ve done so far on our Scrapbook page. Also, be sure to check our the rest our site to learn about exclusive High Adventure opportunities open only to members of the OA as well as other info about the great programs the OA has to offer. You can also watch the below video about some of the fun we’ve been having just this past year!
What does this mean for the scout?
What all this means is, if you are registered in a Venture Crew, meet the requirements, and your crew chooses to hold an election this year, you can be on that ballot! If you are also registered ad meet the requirements for another BSA Unit, example, a Troop, you could potentially be on that ballot as well!
What does this mean for the unit leader?
For the unit leader, this does add a layer of complication. Until now, elections only took place in BSA Troops. Many troops track ranks and more importantly nights camping via ScoutBook or Troopmaster meaning they can run a “OA Eligibility” report to find out who in their unit meets the requirements to be on the ballot. However many Crews and Ships don’t currently track nights camping. Because nights camping will now count across ALL BSA units for a scout, we need to take that into account when reviewing these reports or when manually reviewing nights camping if the participant is in a Crew or Ship. Potential solutions to make the problem easier:
- For Troops, the solution is quite easily remedied. Scouts who are registered in a Troop and a Crew can request that there Crew nights camping be entered into ScoutBook/Troopmaster by their Troop Advancement Coordinator. This would need to be done going back 2 years as well as going forwards.
- For Crews, if your Crew currently uses the Venture Crew Module of Scoutbook, nights camping can be added there. Similarly to Troops, scouts in Crews can request that their Troop nights camping be added. If your Crew is manually tabulating nights camping, be sure to request scouts to turn in a printout of total nights camping with their Troops
Here is a very useful presentation that helps to clarify and expand on this change.
You can see the full timeline for the 2019 OA Election year HERE, but the most important dates to know are:
- Jan 1, 2019 – Unit Elections start in BSA Troops ONLY
- Feb 1, 2019 – Unit Elections start for BSA Crews & Ships
- March 31, 2019 – Absolutely last day to hold Unit Elections
We will continue making announcements during District Roundtable Meetings. This is the best time to ask questions as the OA Kennesaw Chapter holds our monthly meeting during the breakouts. Our next meeting is Oct 4, 2018. We will also be sending emails to Troop and Crew contacts per last year’s recharter information.
In the meantime, if you have questions about the OA or elections, feel free to contact the Chapter Advisor using the below form.