On September 29, the National Council of Chiefs (NCOC), consisting of every lodge chief from across the nation, met virtually to discuss the 2028 National Program of Emphasis. The National Program of Emphasis is the Order of the Arrow’s primary national level event held each year. Every two to three years, that event is the National Order of the Arrow Conference, held at a prominent university such as the University of Colorado, Boulder or the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Between these conferences, programs such as Operation Arrow at the National Jamboree, the National Council of Chiefs at Philmont, training conferences such as NEXT 2016, and more!
This direction of the annual national program had been decided through the year 2027 with the in-person NCOC at Philmont in 2025, Operation Arrow in 2026, and NOAC in 2027. For 2028, unlike previous years, the NCOC had the opportunity to decide the program, which they voted on last month. On the NCOC call, lodge chiefs were presented with four options. The two most defined were a national level service project and a national level leadership event such as another in-person NCOC. The third was slightly more abstract with the option for an open event, whose program would be largely guided by the NCOC. Finally, they were presented with the ability to not conduct an in-person national level event in 2028 in favor of focusing on lodge programming, potential region level events, or a virtual event. After deliberating over these options, the NCOC settled on having a national service project for the 2028 National Program of Emphasis. Notably, this is the first time in the organization’s history that the youth of the OA have been able to determine the overall direction for a national level event.
In the past, national level service projects have been conducted, but not with the frequency of some other programs. For example, in 2008, the OA conducted a program called ArrowCorps5, where five service projects were conducted across the United States over the course of June and July. These projects garnered significant national attention with the then sitting president, George W. Bush, visiting the site in Shasta-Trinity National Forest, California along with the state’s governor and prominent actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2011, SummitCorps aimed to create new hiking and mountain biking trails spanning 12.8 miles throughout the New River Gorge. This event brought a total of 78,544 hours of service by 1,404 Arrowmen. In addition, the OA has conducted programs such as PhilBreak in 2020 and SeaBreak in 2018 which aimed to rebuild following the Ute Park Fire at Philmont and hurricanes Irma and Maria at the Florida Sea Base.
While no specific plans for the 2028 Program of Emphasis have been made yet, the Virtual NCOC Lead and 2023 National Chief, Zach Grinvalsky, believes that this event will look similar to ArrowCorps5 in 2008, with several different projects in different geographic regions of the country. Following the vote, the event leadership solicited feedback on the direction that lodge chiefs might want to take this event, and an ArrowCorps5 style event was one of the most prominent suggestions.
When asked about the impact that this event could have on the Order of the Arrow, Zach said,
“I think the main highlight from it all is that we are really restoring that connection… [between] the national level and the local level…I don’t think I’ve ever seen a time in the Order of the Arrow where we’ve solicited…and involved our local leadership in such a major decision like this, and I think [we’re] connecting the two of them and showing that we are here to serve the lodge leaders and all the Arrowmen they represent.”
Over the course of the next few years, the National Order of the Arrow Committee, as well as the NCOC, will provide more context on the specifics of this event, particularly coming out of the in-person NCOC next summer.