Background: To celebrate a special occasion (lodge, council, camp, Scouting anniversary) , host a reception for your chapter.

Meeting Resources: Use your council speakers bureau, Scout Executive, past lodge chiefs, or distinguished chapter members as keynote speakers at your celebration. Depending on available resources, consider making this either an indoor or an outdoor event.

Meeting Content: Turn your normal chapter meeting into a banquet to celebrate a special occasion. To better prepare yourself and your officers consider the following:

• Secure the correct venue. Would a large outdoor pavilion or indoor meeting room work well? Or will the council service center work better?
• Invite a guest speaker and provide them with a specific subject matter. For example, you could focus the keynote address on the role the Order of the Arrow has played in Scouting, the council’s history.
• Advertise, advertise, advertise! Use all means to get the word out. Have you tried a story on the lodge website? An article in the council newsletter? A Facebook message?
• Develop and sell a patch with profits directed to the council’s campership fund or Friends of Scouting campaign.
• Create committees within your chapter to manage other aspects of your event. Many hands make light work! Delegate food preparation, registration, public relations, program content, setting up, and cleaning up. Invite other chapters to participate.