Run the program
Everything a lodge leader needs to deliver the Order of the Arrow program — organised by what you are actually trying to do, with the current policy attached to each of them.
Order of the Arrow, Scouting America · 2024 Section Officer SeminarIf you only do three things this year
New lodge officer or adviser? Start here.Program areas
7 areas · policy attached to eachUnit elections
How elections are scheduled, run, and recorded — including the eligibility rules and what to do when a unit declines a visit.
Induction weekends
Planning and running an Ordeal from staffing and service projects through ceremonies, safety, and the candidate experience.
Training
NLS, DYLC, and NLATS — who each course is for, when they run, and how to get your officers and advisers to one.
LEC & lodge operations
Running a lodge executive committee that decides things: agendas, officer roles, elections, budgets, and the annual calendar.
Membership retention
Why members go inactive after their Ordeal and what actually brings them back — including Brotherhood conversion.
Safety & youth protection
The standards every lodge event runs under: supervision, medical, and the Scouting America youth protection policies.
Camp promotion & service
The lodge’s obligation to its council camps — service weekends, promotion, and working with the camp ranger.
Thrive
Thrive is not an audit, and asking for it is not an admission that something has gone wrong. It is a few Arrowmen from other lodges — youth and advisers who have run elections, inductions, and budgets themselves — sitting down with your officers to work on whatever you are actually stuck on.
Everyone involved is a volunteer. Nobody is paid, nothing is scored, and no report goes anywhere except back to your lodge. Most lodges that ask are doing perfectly well and want to do better.
Policy updates
One running record of what changed, when it took effect, and whether it is still in force — so nobody has to guess whether a temporary change was ever rolled back.