Winter 2019 Issue Volume 26Issue 1  

Upcoming Events

Spring Fellowship - 2019

Set aside Saturday May, 18 2019 in your calendars so you can join your fellow Arrowmen for some time on the shooting range. Orca Lodge will be holding its first shooting sports fellowship in five years, and we want as many of our Arrowmen to attend as possible. All attendees will have the chance to practice their shotgun, archery, and rifle skills under the tutelage of the Redwood Empire Council field sports staff.

To our youth members: take your last fresh (or at least sulphurous) breath of air before heading into the end of the school year. Improve your grades by reducing your stress with an afternoon of vaporizing clay pigeons. And, if you are a Venture scout, you may also qualify to shoot some of the more interesting pieces in the council’s arsenal.

Astute calendar keepers may notice that the Fellowship is just two weeks after the 2019 Spring Induction, which is by design. A big part of this weekend will be welcoming our new members to the lodge with an exciting activity that will cement their membership in the order and encourage long lasting participation.

Keep your ear to the ground for the final event details in the coming weeks. With those will come the event sign-up so you can confirm your attendance. We look forward to seeing all of you there.

Brendan S. | Lodge Chief

Centennial Schedule

As many of you may know, 2019 is the 100th anniversary of scouting here in wine country and the Redwood Empire Council has many exciting events planned for the year. Our scout executive has requested the help of Orca lodge in many of these:

The Council Recognition Dinner celebrates Scouting achievements during the past year, and honors our newest Eagle Scouts and many other Scouters who have dedicated years of service to Scouting. The presentation will include the Silver Beaver Award, Veteran Award, Dick Hacke Award, and Lifetime Achievement Award, plus a special Centennial patch for our 2018 Eagle Scouts. We will need volunteers to help with set up, serving food, and clean up moreover, members of the lodge will be recognized so please come to show your support. Email chief@orca194.org to get on the volunteer list.

The Gathering in the Park will be held in Petaluma to commemorate the first day our council was chartered. Here’s some history: The Redwood Empire Council was first chartered July 26, 1919 as the Petaluma Council, and from that date, we have grown to include thousands of Scouts and Scouters in cities, towns, and communities across a multi-county area of coastal Northern California. We return to Walnut Park on this 2019 date for a simple celebration of our heritage, and recommitment to sharing Scouting with the current and future generations.

The Council Camporee, which will include the entire council, the Redwood Empire Council invites all troops and crews for a special 3-day camporee to celebrate our 100 years as a BSA Council. We are also contemplating Saturday-only activities for Cub Scouts. The lodge will be a huge part in supporting and running this event, so please leave your calendars open so you can join us.

The REC Centennial Order of the Arrow Dinner will include our usual program, but will encourage attendance from a broader council audience. We will be hosting the final event of the centennial celebrations, so expect it to be the best one you’ve been to yet.

Centennial Events Calendar

• Centennial Council Recognition Dinner 2/9/19
• Friends of Scouting Breakfast 2/15/19
• Centennial Eagle Scout Alumni Dinner 5/18/19
• Centennial Gathering in the Park 7/10/19
• Distinguished Citizen Dinner 8/23/19
• Centennial Council Camporee 10/4-10/6/2019
• Centennial Gala and Auction 11/9/19
• Centennial Order of the Arrow Dinner 12/7/19

Recent Events

National Leadership Seminar & Developing Youth Leadership Seminar

In November, 6 youth and 7 advisers from Orca Lodge attended National Leadership Seminar in Lake Tahoe (NLS).  Granlibakken Lodge is a great facility that provided great food and lodging for us. There, the participants were split into crews consisting of Arrowmen from across the Western Region. In these crews, we developed skills as leaders to bring back to our troops, Lodge, and general community. What was neat about NLS is how it allowed us to reflect upon and improve our own personalized leadership styles, and applying personal values to how we as leaders operate. In tandem with NLS, some of our advisers attended Developing Youth Leadership Conference (DYLC). The emphasis of DYLC is, as the name suggests, to help adult leaders support and mentor the OA youth. At the conclusion of the weekend, both youth and adults went away with new skills to utilize in leading and advising as we enter the next year of Scouting and Service.

2018 NOAC History Project

At the 2018 NOAC, Orca Lodge worked on our Lodge History section of the website & was awarded 2 awards for our work.

The first is for the history section of the website.  For this we have have been recognized as a 2018 GEO Lodge History Initiative Website Honor Lodge.

We also participated in the Digital Archives activity.  This section is to help create a good digital archive of various aspects of the Lodge History (Patches, Pictures, etc).  While we had a lot of this up on the website, much of this is in a low-resolution & needs to be done on a different platform to achieve good archival information.  For this we have been recognized as a 2018 GEO Lodge History Initiative Archive Merit Lodge.

Other News

Due-tiful Arrowmen

Fellow Orcas, it’s that time of the year again. That right, dues for the 2019 year are now being collected. If you did not attend the Lodge dinner last November, you’ll need to get up to date if you’d like to attend any OA events.

Please note, you do not have to pay back dues if you haven't paid in several years. Your dues entitle you to participate in all lodge activities this year. If you have not paid your dues, pay online. Arrowmen who have not paid their dues by March 1, 2019 will be dropped from the list of active members.

Because of the costs involved with creating the newsletter, coupled with the costs that the lodge pays to recharter inactive members, Orca Lodge can no longer afford to keep inactive members on the mailing list. If you wish to continue receiving the newsletter, and retain your membership, it is imperative that your dues be current ASAP.

Please pay online if at all possible. If this is not possible, you may submit a 2019 dues form to the council offices. Checks are payable to "REC-BSA" If mailing, send to:

Orca Lodge
c/o Redwood Empire Council, Inc.
Boy Scouts of America
1000 Apollo Way - Ste 106
Santa Rosa, CA 95407

Lodge Officer Introductions

My name is Colin Farr, I am 18 and the current Lodge Treasurer and Allohak Chapter Chief. I have been in scouting since I was seven as a Cub Scout and I am an Eagle Scout. I live in Ukiah and enjoy spending time with my friends, photography, hikes, sailing, and reading. Seven years ago, I was elected and inducted into the Order of the Arrow and have served as a chapter officer in Allohak Chapter and have been active in the Lodge. I look forward serving the lodge this year as treasurer and continuing to lead and grow my chapter as Chapter Chief.

My name is Erik Carver and I am an Eagle Scout from the Miwok Chapter. I was elected and went into the Order of the Arrow in 2015. Now I am a Vigil Honor member and continue to serve our lodge. I have attended many trainings in Scouting and in the OA. I enjoy going on camping trips, hanging out with friends, and hiking. I have served as many other positions in our lodge and chapter and hope to bring you great success as your Lodge Secretary.

Hi! I'm Landon Reese and I'm your Lodge Vice Chief, Membership Committee head, and Ceremonies Conclave Vice Chief for 2019. I'm a Life Scout in Troop 134 and I've been in Boy Scouts for 5 years and in the OA for 2. I like dogs, pizza, and long walks on the beach. I'm looking forward to a fun and successful year in the Orca Lodge!

From the Chief

Hi everyone,

My name is Brendan and I have the pleasure of serving as your 2019 Lodge Chief. A little about myself: I’m currently studying for a degree in political science and another in economics at UC Davis. In my free time I like to read sci-fi and fantasy novels, also I read books about my studies (I should probably find a non-work related hobby…). Additionally, I like to play video games with my friends from high school. If you want to get to know me I’d start by harassing me about one of the above.

I received my Eagle in 2016, am a proud member of Troop 55 in Santa Rosa. I served as Lodge Chief from 2014-2016, and served as our section’s Vice Chief for 2016-17. As we develop a robust youth leadership for 2019, I will bring my experiences in OA leadership to bear, and more importantly lay the groundwork for future direction.

I’ve got a lot I want to do, but put simply I have 3 key goals: 1) increase membership; 2) make events more fun; 3) make it easier for new arrowmen to become new leaders. If that last one has you wondering how to get involved, then I am but an email away: chief@orca194.org

My fellow Arrowmen let’s begin the work (better yet, the fun).

Brendan S. | Lodge Chief

Chapter Notes

Allohak

Allohak chapter is coming off of a bad year of membership growth. We only had one candidate inducted who was moving away. Many of the troops in our chapter had no eligible members or were not interested in an election. This year however, we have already been in contact with several units and are planning elections. I am optimistic that we will be able to hold unit elections in almost all of the units in our chapter and will have several candidates attend an induction. As always, we will continue to serve the Yokayo Logger district. We will be serving and doing the flag ceremony at the district awards dinner and running the campfire at the district camporee as we have done in the past, as well as look for new ways we can serve.

Miwok

Hello, my name is Erik Carver and I am this year’s Miwok Chapter Chief. I have served as the Miwok Vice-Chief in previous years and helped reboot the Miwok Chapter from the ground up. I am looking forward to a great year in growth for the chapter and expanding our leadership team for our chapter. We have branched out and continue to have some youth from Sonoma to come into our meeting and hope to gain more.  I look forward to serving you all well.

Wonkatonk

My name is Scott Garcia.  I am this year’s Wonkatonk Chapter Chief. I earned the rank of Eagle last year in Troop 55. I was inducted into the Order of the Arrow at the spring ordeal last year and soon after went to the National Order of the Arrow Conference. In December’s meeting we had our annual white elephant gift exchange and voted for the new officers. In the coming months, we will be attempting an escape room as well as begin going around to troops to hold OA elections. We have maintained a stable growth and hope to grow our chapter. We will be helping at the Pomo Camporee with a booth and hope to see you all there.

Staff Adviser Challenge

Dear Orca brothers:

We are approaching the Centennial Year of the Redwood Empire Council BSA, which will be calendar year 2019.  Orca Lodge and its predecessor OA lodges have contributed mightily to the success of Scouting in our area.  We will be looking to all Arrowmen to help with this year of celebration and engagement with all our Scouting families, alumni, and members of the community.

We will be looking for youth and adult Arrowmen to assist with a number of Centennial activities, including a Gathering of Eagles, a Centennial day in the park in Petaluma, and several regular council events enhanced for the REC-BSA Centennial year.  But most especially, we will be looking to Orca Lodge and our three chapters to give leadership to the Centennial Camporee on October 4-6, 2019.

Please think about how each of you would like to help with any of these activities, especially the Camporee.  You may send a note with your thoughts to our Lodge Key 3, and we will make sure that you have an opportunity to help.

Thank you for all you do as a cheerful servant in Scouting.

Yours in WWW,
Charlie Howard-Gibbon

Adviser's Minute

A quick minute.  This coming year Orca Lodge has been called to help with the Redwood Empire Council centennial celebrations.  At first this may look like a lot of work, which it is, but it is also a great chance for us to shine and grow.  If we all take on a small part it will make light work of our tasks and even a little fun. When called, take a chance to help - have fun - and make a friend.

Thank you,

Brian Wills
Orca Lodge Adviser

Orca 2018 Leadership

For the latest Orca Lodge calendar, please visit:

www.redwoodbsa.org/oa/calendar

Official Publication of the Orca Lodge #194, Order of the Arrow,
Redwood Empire Council, Boy Scouts of America

Publications Adviser ~ Bruce Mayfield
Orca Spouts is a quarterly publication.
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