Section NE-4B News

This summer, Order of the Arrow members from around the country have the unique opportunity to get together at the National Order of the Arrow Conference ("NOAC"). Over 7,000 Arrowmen will come together for have fun, learn new things, and celebrate the best the OA has to offer. This six-day adventure is unlike any other event in Scouting, and only OA members can participate.

A typical NOAC day covers all aspects of the OA. In the morning, you can pick your choice of world-class training sessions ranging from Leadership, to Indian Crafts, to Ceremonies, to High Adventure Skills, and more. The afternoon brings sports, competitions, special events, and more. After dinner, you get to see an outstanding Evening Show, a new show each night. After the show, there are open activities, patch trading, and just hanging out with your friends. Finally, you head to bed, to get some sleep so you are ready to do it all again the next day!

NOAC is a great opportunity for you to learn more about the OA and Scouting (and maybe a little bit more about yourself), to get to know the rest of the members of your lodge, and to make new friends from around the country. Join the Order of the Arrow's best and brightest for a six day adventure of fun, excitement, and memories.

Take advantage of this great opportunity. Register for NOAC ’06 at Michigan State University and get ready for a great Scouting experience. More information on NOAC can be gained at http://event.oa-bsa.org/.

Posted by admin at 11:41 AM | Permalink

(by John Michael Welsh III, Enda Lechauhanne Vice-Chief of Chapter Operations)

Enda Lechauhanne did a lot this year. Aside from the normal, we were successful in the achieving of Quality Lodge for the Lodge year of 2005. We as a lodge also on took a service project of large proportion. This was the assembling of over 21,000 promotional packets for Heritage Reservation. This took a total for three days and was including over 175 different volunteers. Winterfest went a bit different than it has in the past. It included a brotherhood ceremony with brotherhood conversion. This was a new idea to see if it could help with our aim for Quality Lodge. We also moved the lodge elections to Winterfest so that more members would be able to vote. This resulted with Bill Turkovich as Chief, Shane Glass as Vice-Chef of Communications, Craig Conaway as Vice-Chief of Program, and John Welsh III as Vice-Chief of Chapter Operations. The new lodge officer’s will be inducted at the Lodge Family Banquet on 11 March 2006.

Posted by admin at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(by Ken Hager, Section Chief)

This past December, I had the opportunity and responsibility to represent our section at the annual National Order of the Arrow Planning Meeting in Texas. At this meeting, several events where held including making plans for NOAC, unveiling new programs, and electing the new National Chief.

The first events held at the conference were the elections of our national officers. As your representative, I participated in the election process for National Chief, in which Sean Murray of the Northeast Region was elected. This same process took place in the election of the Northeast Region Chief were Jon Fuller, my roommate at the conference, was elected. This election process was exhilarating and heart pounding.

Of the several new programs unveiled, the most exciting was the plans for the 2008 National Service Project. At first, I was pretty skeptical of this event, but now I am looking forward to it more than anything else. The title of this event is Arrow Corps, in which five thousand Arrowmen at five different sites across the US will cheerfully serve our national for five days. The closest site to our section’s area will be in Virginia during the middle weeks of summer, but I encourage you not to just look at the closest venue. Service projects will be held at Yellowstone, the Cascades, and many other premier National Parks around the county. This is an excellent opportunity to tour the national, and provide cheerful service! It is never too early to plan ahead, so plan for something exciting.

Of course we are all looking forward towards NOAC this summer at Michigan State University. A lot of information was put out at the Planning Meeting, of which most can be accessed on-line. I will be serving on staff as a member of the Shows committee where I will help direct the technical work for the shows at NOAC. I promise you that the shows this year will be extraordinary! Even though the theme show is currently Top Secret, I can assure you that you won’t fall asleep even if you could!

I would like to thank you, my brothers in the Order, for giving me the opportunity to represent you at this important OA event. With us working together in NE-4B, we can bring the new National Programs to life and assure a better program in our section and in our home lodges.

Posted by admin at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Brothers,

Things are going well as we begin to fill our slots for conclave. We are currently looking in to ways to obtain a higher amount of newly inducted ordeal members on our conclave contingent. We have also used a fund-raiser patch to bring our total cost of conclave per person from $41 to $27. In January we held our annual planning weekend at Seven Mountains where many goals were set. We are also proud to say that Monaken Lodge achieved Quality Lodge, and our council and all three districts achieved quality status as well.

This was a first for our council in many years. In our lodge this year, we are starting or restarting a few programs. First off, we are holding a ceremonies competition between our chapters in February. Also we have started a committee to co-ordinate our OA Troop Rep. Program. We are looking forward to the conclave, as we know that it will be the best one yet.

Yours in Service,
Christian Horn
Monaken Lodge Chief

Posted by admin at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)