Q. Greetings,
I had a quick question to ask in regards to the Vigil Honor Petition form. One of the individuals chosen for this honor is our Lodge Chief. The form requires a signature from this individual before it gets sent off to the national office. If we are honoring the lodge chief, does he need to sign his own petition? Can we make a note? Can we leave it blank?
Thanks,
David
A. David,
Thank you for your question. It is the ultimate OA Conundrum of "what comes first, the chicken or the egg?"
Let me tell you as an old lodge adviser, myself, how I always handled this when the Lodge Chief was eligible for consideration by the Vigil Committee.
I would simply ask him to sign the blank certificates in advance respecting that the Vigil Committee is the lodge entity that is responsible for making its selections known on a schedule and method of its choosing. In many years with this predicament, I never had a problem with this method. I would reinforce, in addition, that he is being asked to trust the Vigil Committee to make its proper selections, and that as a Brotherhood or Ordeal member, he has no decision-making authority in the matter. He does, by his signature, however, indicate that an approved LEC process IS going on and that he supports the outcome.
Some lodges, if needed, have asked the Scout Executive to sign the Lodge Chief's name and place his initials next to the signature.
In either case, he does have to sign NOW as the OA National Office will not process the petitions without the Lodge Chief's signature (see point #6 on page 33 of the Guide to Officers and Advisers).
Yours in WWW,
Ray