Q: Ray,
Why are some of the gold-level requirements for the Journey to Excellence (JTE) program so unfair? I’m a member of my lodge executive committee, and we look at some of the things you need to do for gold-level JTE and don’t see how that’s even possible.
Justin
A: Justin,
Thanks for your question! You’re absolutely right that the requirements for JTE can be very difficult to complete. Your lodge should be very proud that it’s only the gold-level items giving you trouble.
The process for designing the JTE requirements is based on the information submitted by lodges each year. In February, a team of key volunteers from the unit, chapter and lodge subcommittee of the National OA Committee gathers to review all of the previous year’s JTE petitions. Using this information, they adjust the levels of each requirement based on the criteria that the top 10% of lodges should achieve gold in any given standard, the top 50% silver, and the top 80% bronze. This creates a distribution that aligns with the guidelines for JTE in units, districts and councils.
One way to think of the gold requirements is this: only 28 lodges the previous year scored that high! When you look at it that way, it is great for your lodge to score gold on any item: you’re in an elite group.
The objective of our JTE program is not to have a nation of exclusively gold lodges. We’re trying to keep the benchmarks for each requirement dynamic to encourage every lodge, even the ones who previously scored gold, to improve.
Don’t be discouraged! Keep up the good work!
Ray