#oa100

Otographic Arts 100

Between ArrowTour, #DareToDo, the National Order of the Arrow Conference and more, there are numerous national programs and initiatives aimed at celebrating our Order’s 100th anniversary. However, many sections across the country are taking it upon themselves to craft an amazing centennial experience. A few sections have come up with a centennial award of their own. While they can’t be worn on the sash like the Arrowman Service Award, they can be worn with pride and recognition—both Section NE-3A and NE-2B have provided us with shining examples of section level 100th anniversary awards. Each award has different requirements, as each has a slightly different focus; however, they both share the same purpose of recognizing exemplary Arrowmen during the Order of the Arrow’s centennial.

In Section NE-3A, the Section Centennial Award is comprised of different segments for personal growth and lodge service. Examples of requirements from the personal growth segment include applying for the section’s OA High Adventure scholarship, entering a section patch design contest and even earning the Arrowman Service Award. Under the lodge service segment, Arrowmen are required to do things such as contributing to a lodge or chapter committee, serving as an elangomat, and participating in 20 hours of BSA organized service. The Section Centennial Award is designed to “encourage Arrowmen to get more involved at the lodge and section level during the 100th anniversary” says Forrest Gertin, chief of Section NE-3A.  Award recipients were recognized at the section training event in November, and got a special prize for their achievement.

Similarly, Section NE-2B designed its award—named the Centennial Involvement Award, or CIA for short—to better help lodges and Arrowmen at the chapter level. NE-2B Section Chief Chris Boyle reminds us, “chapters are the beating hearts of this organization.” Based on this belief, Chris and his fellow section officers took it upon themselves to design a 100th anniversary program that helped chapters. As a result, members of Section NE-2B have an award intended to be simple to earn, yet has a large emphasis on participating in our Order’s centennial. Arrowmen had until this fall to complete bronze, silver, and gold level requirements to earn the total of 100 points required to complete the award. Each Arrowman who earned the award got a commemorative patch. Chris estimates that over 300 members of Section NE-2B have already earned the award!

Photo credit: Dan Mitchell

In the 100 days since the 2015 National Order of the Arrow Conference, you have embraced my #DareToDo in some absolutely incredible ways. Your posts have encouraged me. Your service has inspired me. And I’m not the only one.

In fact, over the last three months, people ­– from every corner of the globe – accepted the dare. And millions more witnessed the goodwill that your service created. The impact you helped make cannot be understated:

48,710 people participated in the dare through Facebook.

1,343,577 people saw posts created by #DareToDo. This says nothing of the millions more who saw the posts made by each of you.

25,551 dares were completed via Twitter, which were seen by 12,664,098 people.

Together, we’ve started a movement to make service a daily habit, and in doing so, have made the world a better place. Continue to look for posts tagged with #DareToDo on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to be inspired toward service.

Although 100 days have come and gone, our work does not end here. We must continue to share willingly, to serve readily, and to lead humbly if we are to fulfill our admonition.

I know the virtues behind the dare will guide my actions for many days to come. I sincerely hope they will guide yours, too.

Not everyone gets excited when they hear the word training, but for 10 other Arrowmen and myself, we were ecstatic to hear that word this summer. Why were we so happy? Well, we had the incredible opportunity to spend a week learning at the Philmont Training Center—the national volunteer training center of the Boy Scouts of America. We would be traveling there from all across the country to learn about and improve upon the skills we use to create content for the Order’s national publications. More specifically, this training—the Visual Storytelling Workshop—was all about using photography and videography to capture the best of Scouting and share it with the world.

Our week at Philmont was a perfect combination of classroom learning, hands-on practice, fun and adventure. By the time we all arrived home, we each had a deeper knowledge of how to tell stories through photos and videos. It helped that we had the best instructors in the business! Among our trainers were the top photographers in the BSA as well as Scouters who work with Canon. Our workshop even had a partnership with Canon that allowed us to use professional camera equipment to learn and practice with! When you mix those elements in with the fact that our conference was supported by the top of the line Training Center staff, we were in for an amazing week.

A typical day for us involved waking up late, grabbing a quick breakfast and heading over to our classroom to start learning. Most mornings, we would spend inside learning about anything from composing, editing pictures or interviewing people. Often times, we would put these skills to the test in the afternoon by exploring the training center and base camp for stories to tell! At base camp, new hikers were arriving every day, so there were always new stories to capture. However, some of our best pictures and videos came from our time in the back country. We were able to grab our cameras and head to different back country camps such as Rayado, Ponil, and Metcalf to capture everything happening there. By the time we returned to the center to edit our work, we had pictures and videos telling the stories of the different Scouts hiking through these camps, the staff living there, and the memories being made.

Regardless of whether we were in the classroom, in base camp, or on top of the Tooth of Time, the eleven of us had an amazing time and learned a lot through the Visual Storytelling Workshop!

For more information on the accomplishments from the 2015 program, as well as updates for next year’s workshops, please visit https://www.facebook.com/bsavisualstorytelling. 

Have you ever thanked a flight attendant? And I mean really thanked them—with a nice gesture, a warm smile or even some sort of gift?

On one of the many flights I’ve taken this year during my Scouting travels, I decided to use my time in the air to craft a number of post-NOAC thank you messages to express my appreciation to a number of people who made the conference happen. I even used this as my #DareToDo that day, hoping that my small act would bring a little bit of positivity to my recipients’ day.

As we landed, I suddenly realized that I was missing an opportunity to really express my appreciation to someone most deserving. The flight attendants that day had been incredible, giving service with a smile wherever they could. So, as we landed, I quickly scribbled one more note—probably the most important of the day. I handed it to one of the attendants as I deplaned. The smile I received from her was the best part of my flight.

Unveiled at the 2015 National Order of the Arrow Conference by a great friend and our national chief, Alex Call, the #DareToDo campaign is all about making others matter, as I attempted to do through these notes. The premise of the campaign is simple; the goal, profound. Seek out one small act of service to do for someone each day for the one hundred days following the conference, then post about it on your social media accounts using the hashtag #DareToDo. In doing so, we can flood the world with our message of positivity, selflessness and service to others.

In a world where negativity rules the headlines and self-interest dictates peoples’ motivation, a commitment to cheerful service is so important. Together, each of us possess the power to change the world for the better, and it doesn’t even take a huge, earth-shattering event! Your act of kindness to another, together with that of thousands of brothers across the country and millions of others across the world, can improve the way we live and treat others.

This is no easy task. It takes the time, dedication and commitment of Arrowmen and non-Arrowmen alike. Now, I ask for your help. Like Alex and his @OANationalChief Twitter, I’m going to continue posting my daily #DareToDo from my @OANationalVC account, and I need you—I dare you—to join me. Seek out one small act of service that you can do for someone each day, post about it and join this worldwide movement of love for one another.

Are you with me?

I look forward to seeing how you will #DareToDo. Holding the door for a friend, helping your mom with the chores, even thanking your flight attendant, can count. In fact, I will look to favorite and retweet the many dares that you will do in the remainder of the campaign!

Until then, I remain yours in service.