First National Planning Meeting

On December 29 – 30, 1949 the National OA Committee met with a conference of Area Conference Chiefs (the predecessor name for Area Chiefs and then later Section Chiefs, that were elected to a full year term) for the first National Planning Meeting. In the early years of National Planning Meeting only about half of all Area Conference Chiefs were invited. The tradition of holding a National Planning Meeting between the end of the year holidays has since been repeated more than 40 times, becoming annual in 1987. The inclusion of youth Area Conference Chiefs was new and in keeping with the new direction the OA was taking since the 1948 merger of the BSA and OA. This meeting was held at Alpine Scout Camp, Alpine, New Jersey. Future meetings would be held at the location of the next NOAC so that facilities could be reviewed or be held at or near the national BSA headquarters.

This meeting marked the beginning of youth involvement in planning NOAC’s. Youth then meaning under age 21 at the time of their election. The Area Conference Chiefs also held the first election for national youth leadership. This too would become the standard model for national officer elections (with the exception of the 1952 Conference Chief). Elected, to be 1950 National Conference Chief was future National Secretary to the OA J. Richard Wilson, known as Dick Wilson of Chimalus Lodge, Washington, Pennsylvania. Today we consider a National Conference Chief to be the equivalent of the OA National Chief.

3, Elections, OA, Scouting

First Brotherhood Sash

The Order of the Arrow National Bulletin in the spring of 1950 announced that there was a new sash for members of the Brotherhood Honor to wear.

Accompanying the last issue of the OA Bulletin was a statement of policy on the wearing of Order of the Arrow sashes. As indicated in this letter, all arrow bands will now be worn over the right shoulder, and a new special Brotherhood band will be available for members of this honor. This policy change was made chiefly for better uniformity of dress and neatness in appearance.

The new Brotherhood Honor sash may now be ordered through Supply Service in New York. The catalog number for this band is 5004 and will sell for fifty cents.

The new sash was the Ordeal sash with a red bar placed at each end of the arrow.

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1950 DSA Recipients

The Distinguished Service Award (DSA) is presented to those Arrowmen who have rendered distinguished and outstanding service to the Order on a sectional, regional, or national basis. 1950 was the last time the award was limited to only three recipients. The following were presented the DSA at the 1950 National Order of the Arrow Conference - Herbert L. Gaskin, Robert H. Heistand and Wes H. Klusmann.

3, Awards, OA, Scouting

450th Lodge Formed

The growth of the Order was slowing as fewer councils remained that did not have OA.

Mitigwa Lodge of Des Moines, Iowa became the 450^th Lodge to Charter on February 7, 1951.

Those councils that did not have OA were divided primarily in two groups. Councils that had a local tradition of their own honor society and councils that had Scout Executives that did not want fraternities / honor societies in their councils.

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Second OA Nat'l Secretary

Effective June 1951, J. Richard Wilson, the 1950 National Conference Chief, became the second Order of the Arrow National Secretary. The position was still a low level BSA professional job and was not a glamour position by any means. It was a tremendous clerical and administrative job.

Outgoing National Secretary Norman C. Wood had taken another professional Scouting job in his hometown council in Springfield, Massachusetts after less than three years. Wood, only 26, decided that he preferred being a Field Executive and camp director.

Wilson was even younger than Wood when he was hired and would only serve until 1953 when he moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan to be a Field Executive. Wilson remains the only youth officer of the OA to later serve as National Secretary.

3, OA, Scouting

OA Patches Approved for Uniform Wear

While patches are now pervasive in the Order of the Arrow, at the beginning of 1945, Arrowmen were still prohibited from wearing any OA patch on their uniform. This was related to the independence of the Order from national BSA. The BSA Uniform Committee had not permitted WWW patches on the uniform and the National Lodge dutifully requested compliance. However as often is the case, not everyone complied.

Images from the 1938 National Meeting at Camp Irondale, Missouri confirm that there were already OA patches being worn on the uniform. In 1945 the BSA Uniform Committee finally relented and for the first time OA patches could be worn on the Scout Uniform on the right shirt pocket (not the pocket flap). Flaps were not authorized until 1954.

3, Insignia, OA, Scouting

350th Lodge Formed

Maka-Ina Lodge of Chillicothe, Ohio became the 350^th lodge to charter on August 20, 1946. Notwithstanding the fact that the Order had always grown on its own merits, the OA was meriting a new lodge at the rate of almost a new lodge a week.

3, OA, Scouting

Third Group of DSA Recipients

The Distinguished Service Award (DSA) is presented to those Arrowmen who have rendered distinguished and outstanding service to the Order on a sectional, regional, or national basis. The following were presented the DSA at the 1946 National Meeting. The number of awards was increased from three to six to compensate for not having a 1944 conference - Joseph A. Brunton, Jr., George W. Chapman, G. Kellock Hale, Jr., William E. Hoffmann, W.E. Vaughan-Lloyd and Robert L. Wolff.

3, Awards, OA, Scouting

First Official Uniform Insignia

Even though the Order had existed for over a quarter century and had always used insignia, it was not until 1942 that Arrowmen could “officially” wear any OA item on the uniform. In a sign of the growing importance of the expanding official Scout program, the BSA Uniform Committee authorized the Universal Arrow Ribbon. The first Universal Arrow Ribbon was very similar to what is still used today. It was made to fit over the right shirt pocket button and was a red and white silk ribbon with a sterling arrow. These first arrows were designed to point left instead of right. It would be three more years before the first patches were authorized for uniform wear.

3, Insignia, OA, Scouting

Second Group of DSA Recipients

The Distinguished Service Award (DSA) is presented to those Arrowmen who have rendered distinguished and outstanding service to the Order on a sectional, regional, or national basis. The following were presented the DSA - Joseph H. Brinton, Thomas J. Keane and Arthur A. Schuck. At the time the plan was to limit the award to only three recipients per National Meeting. Because of World War II, the 1942 and 1944 meetings were canceled. In 1946 there were six DSA awards and then in 1948 the rule limiting the award to three recipients per meeting was re-instated. The 1942 DSA recipients were the only DSA class not to primarily receive the award at a National Meeting or NOAC.

3, Awards, OA, Scouting

Third Vigil Honor Secretary

In 1943 George Chapman replaced Thomas Cairns and became the Order of the Arrow’s third Vigil Secretary (Horace Kern, was first). Chapman’s first office in the Order of the Arrow was as a youth when he was elected the first Wimachtendienk Chief in 1916. Chapman fulfilled the obligations of Vigil Secretary for ten years.

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National "Areas" Created

As 1938 began, the Order of the Arrow was experiencing expansion at an unprecedented rate. The Order was at almost one hundred active lodges (more than 100 had been chartered). With BSA approval and regional supply lines the pace of expansion was increasing in speed. Just as had been predicted, now that the OA was official, councils all over the country were inquiring about Wimachtendienk. National Chief Joseph Brinton announced plans crafted by the National Executive Committee for a system where the lodges in the nation would be divided into 15 areas.

The 15 areas were to allow better service to new lodges and to promote the OA. National Chief Brinton appointed a leader for each area to serve as his representative to advise Scout Executives in the local lodges and for prospective councils.

The area system was loosely based on the BSA 12 Region system, except Regions 2 and 3 were each divided into two areas and Region 7 was divided into three areas. There was no area for Region 11 because there were still no lodges in that region (the first lodge in Region 11 was Tsisqan Lodge, Eugene, Oregon, six years later in 1944). While the areas were much larger than today’s areas, because of the number of active lodges at the beginning of 1938 there were an average of about six lodges per area, very similar to today’s local areas.

3, OA, Scouting