Dear Lodge Key 3 & NOAC Contingent Advisers,
In mid-August, the national office will send out NOAC 2020 registration information to the Lodge Key 3 on record (make sure your information is up to date) and mail a hard copy to the Council Service Center. Starting on October 1, lodges will be able to sign up Arrowmen to attend.
Now is the time to plan how you will launch your recruiting effort. While your lodge may not know the final cost for your contingent, most lodges use a nominal deposit to guarantee a NOAC slot—usually about $100, which is normally refundable. Lodges can gauge interest based on the number of deposits received and determine how many slots to reserve. There is no need to transmit funds to the national office after your receipt of the deposits, as the national office will bill the council office directly for all money due for each attendee slot reserved at a later date. As a reminder, there are no quotas or limitations for attendance, provided the lodge brings as many youth (up to age 21) as adults (21 and older). Most lodges bring many more youth than adults and have used the fundraising ideas communicated in Callout #2 to do just that!
The contingent leader and lodge chief should prepare and do a presentation on NOAC 2020 at their next lodge event. Some of what they will want to share was included in NOAC 2020 - Callout #3. In addition to the details of dates, location and costs, it is recommended that the presentation include details of what to expect at NOAC. Comments from Arrowmen from your lodge who have attended NOAC before can be very helpful in this regard. Typical NOAC activities to highlight may include nightly shows, ceremonial competition, athletic events, excellent dining hall food, the OA museum attractions, patch trading, trading post, Very Important Arrowmen (VIA) luncheons, and Founders’ Day activities. At your next lodge function, each contingent leader and lodge chief should be sure to talk about the different aspects of NOAC that would appeal to your Arrowmen!
As additional resources for what Arrowmen can expect at NOAC, please see oa-bsa.org/noac2020 and noac2018.org. A new website, www.noac2020.org, will be live by late August with the most up to date information available. Future callout emails like this one will feature a number of these topics beginning in February 2020 once the section chiefs meet in late December 2019 to finalize specifics on program elements.
It is important to communicate to the members of your lodge in the next several days the details on how and when to register for NOAC through your lodge. It is never too early to provide your lodge membership everything they need to know now about NOAC 2020.