Lakota Lodge #175 - Adviser's Blogs

December 2008 Edition
Sunday December 21, 2008 2:38 pm
Seasons Greetings!

The Order of the Arrow is the Honor Society of the BSA! We all know that! Every Arrowman should take pride in the fact that someone felt YOU were deserving of that honor and selected you for membership. Remember though, they selected you because they felt you exemplified the Scout Oath and Laws in your everyday lives and that you were a person who would commit yourself to serving the needs of others. Because you accepted the honor and became a member, you thus accepted a responsibility to serve your Unit, your Community, your Camp, and Scouting in general.

Our membership is actually broken down into two categories…Youth and Adults. It is the
Youth membership’s responsibility to plan and carry out how the service is provided. It is every Adult’s responsibility to act as an Adviser for the youth when they are planning and carrying out that service. There is something for everyone to do if we are to accomplish our goal of providing service. This doesn’t mean that each and every person will be given a title or a position where they make all the decisions, but it does mean that everyone must be involved…whether that includes sitting on one of the many committees involved in planning; attending the Chapter meetings; making sure the youth members have the opportunity to participate in Lodge and Chapter events by providing transportation; acting as a project manager for one of the projects at our camps; or by just helping to carry out the decisions made by the Youth members of the Lodge.

The Lodge depends on your talents, your willingness to participate, and your desire to serve.
The Order of the Arrow isn’t all about being labor force for the Council either. Yes, we do a lot of work at Camps Lakota and Napowan each year, but we also have fun when we gather for our Fellowship activities at the Summer Fellowship. We get to see the enjoyment in the eyes of a bridging Cub Scout when our Chapter Ceremonies Teams participate in an Arrow of Light Ceremony. It is exciting when we watch a Boy Scout patrol complete the fire starter event at the Council Klondike. It is also a lot of fun to attend a National or a Section event where we experience a sense of Brotherhood with scouts not only from our Council, but from across our Nation. Yeah…it can be a lot of fun too.

But to make it work…we need you. Not just to pay your dues each year and wear the Lodge
flap on your right pocket…we need you to participate and be a part of something larger than ourselves as individuals. You can do it…that is why you were selected…someone believed in you.

Yours in service and brotherhood,
Mike Tangen
Lakota lodge #175 Lodge Adviser

“He alone is worthy to wear the Arrow who will continue to serve his fellow man”
-Allowat Sakima