Order of the Arrow Member Elections (held in troops, crews, and ships)

As of February 1, 2019, unit elections are permitted in Scouts BSA, Venturing, and Sea Scout units. The Order of the Arrow membership requirements are as follows:

• Be a registered member of the Boy Scouts of America.
• Have experienced 15 nights of Scout camping while registered with a troop, crew, or ship within the two years immediately prior to the election. The 15 nights must include one, but no more than one, long-term camp consisting of at least five consecutive nights of overnight camping, approved and under the auspices and standards of the Boy Scouts of America. Only five nights of the long-term camp may be credited toward the 15-night camping requirement; the balance of the camping (10 nights) must be overnight, weekend, or other short-term camps of, at most, three nights each. Ship nights may be counted as camping for Sea Scouts.
• At the time of their election, youth must be under the age of 21, and hold one of the following ranks corresponding to the type unit in which they are being considered for election: Scouts BSA First Class rank, the Venturing Discovery Award, or the Sea Scout Ordinary rank or higher, and following approval by the Scoutmaster, Crew Advisor or Sea Scout Skipper, be elected by the youth members of their unit.
• Adults (age 21 or older) who meet the camping requirements may be selected following nomination to and approval by the lodge adult selection committee.

New members aren’t elected only by the OA members in your unit - everyone in the unit votes (thereby insuring that Scouts are elected mostly by people who are not OA members). If your unit has no active OA members, that’s fine. A unit election team, trained in the latest OA election policies, will visit a regular unit meeting at your invitation to conduct the election for you.

Youth elections normally held at a normal unit meeting, and take about 20 minutes to complete. In order for an election to be held, at least 50% of your youth members must be present (based on your current chartered youth membership) – if less than 50% are present, the election must be rescheduled. Only elections conducted by an official OA election team trained by Orca Lodge will be considered valid. Members of your own unit cannot conduct an election for your unit.

OA Member Election Forms (provided by Orca Lodge)

Youth Election Form

Adult Nomination Form