Pow Wow! Are You Ready?!

PowWow2024 patchGreetings, Fellow wearers of the Arrow!

We hope this finds you well and getting excited about our Pow Wow event next weekend. If you haven’t registered yet, please do so and join us in fellowship as we prepare for 2025 by choosing our youth leadership for next year. If you have already registered for Pow Wow, thank you and we look forward to sharing fellowship together! By attending Pow Wow, your lodge dues for next year are part of the registration for the event.

For those who are our newest members that joined us this year, Pow Wow is our time to share training in Order of the Arrow operations as well as other important aspects of Scouting as we continue to prepare for new members and celebrate the achievements of our youth. It is also a time for fellowship as our Chapters compete in the Quest for the Black Bear in games and competitions during Saturday afternoon. As a new highlight, our Lodge Chief has arranged for a Lodge Chief reunion inviting our former leaders to share their experiences, how their time in Mowogo Lodge impacted their lives, and to share some fellowship with us! In addition, leadership from our fellow lodges in Section E6 as well as Section leaders have been invited to join us in fellowship as well.

Because our youth leadership continue to reach inward to make our lodge and our council better, they have also taken the strength and talent that we have enjoyed to a broader reach beyond our borders. We will also enjoy having another Lodge Adviser from our section (in addition to being a Mowogo alum!) join us and other Scouts and Scouters from our neighboring borders as well. It is an honor to have them join with us and share in our fellowship as honored Scouts. We also want to let them see and experience what the largest youth-led program in the Northeast Georgia Council has to offer. Please take a chance to welcome them and thank them for joining with us in fellowship unique to the Order of the Arrow and Scouting in Northeast Georgia.

Thank you also to those of you who have already submitted your letter of intent to run for a lodge office. The quality of Mowogo Lodge is centered on the foundation of the outstanding quality of our youth leadership which continues to reach new heights in service and leadership in our council and in our section and region. We encourage all our youth to stretch yourselves and serve in a leadership role in Mowogo Lodge for 2025 and become a part of this legacy of exceptional leadership. The Letter of Intent (to run for a lodge office) and the Lodge Officer Expectations forms were sent by email earlier. If you have questions about being a lodge officer, we encourage you to reach out to our youth leadership, our lodge advisers, and your Chapter leadership to learn more.

Mowogo Lodge is the honor society for the Northeast Georgia Council. Thank you for continuing to show why this is true and for being role models for our Scouts and Scouters. Your presence and example will help Mowogo Lodge continue to grow as well as provide service and leadership unparalleled to our units and communities.

See you at Pow Wow!

Yours in Cheerfulness,

Rusty Royston
Lodge Adviser, Mowogo Lodge
Northeast Georgia Council, Scouting America



2024 Founder's Award

Good evening.FoundersAward Ribon Medal

The Founder’s Award is among the most prestigious recognitions in Scouting, not to mention the Order of the Arrow. Below is a description of the award, and in a small yet poignant way, the qualities sought in an individual for consideration as a candidate:

“Introduced at the 1981 National Order of the Arrow Conference, the Founder's Award recognizes Arrowmen who have given outstanding service to their lodge. The award is reserved for an Arrowman who demonstrates that he or she personifies the spirit of selfless service, as advocated by founder E. Urner Goodman and cofounder Carroll A. Edson.

The award is a handsome bronze medallion bearing the likenesses of E. Urner Goodman and Carroll A. Edson, with a wooden base and a brass plate suitable for engraving. Available for uniform wear is a gold-colored arrow suspended from a red ribbon.

Lodges may petition the national Order of the Arrow committee to present between two and four awards annually, depending on the number of members in the lodge. If the lodge presents more than one award, at least one must be awarded to a youth under the age of 21.”

(The Order of the Arrow website: https://oa-bsa.org/program/awards/founders-award)

Nominations for the Founder’s Award are open to all lodge members. The members of the committee to consider nominations will hear presentations of candidates during Pow Wow. The final decision will be made later. The work of this committee is an important and serious task, to think of someone that “demonstrates that he or she personifies the spirit of selfless service”. If you plan to nominate someone, please take some time, gather some information on your candidate, and be ready to communicate your purpose behind your nomination

Please find the attached Founder’s Award nomination form.

Yours in Brotherhood,

Rusty Royston
Lodge Adviser, Mowogo Lodge
Northeast Georgia Council, BSA

pdf Founders Award Nomination Form 2024
Download

Lodge Officer Expectations & Letter of Intent to Run for 2025

Greetings, Fellow Wearers of the Arrow!

I hope this finds you looking forward to seeing each other in fellowship and in our shared sense of purpose soon. Pow Wow is not far off and your Lodge Executive Committee (LEC) is planning a full event for you to come and join in the fellowship with training, games, and ceremony. As an added bonus, our current Lodge Chief is working to organize a Mowogo Lodge Chief reunion! Speaking of which, Pow Wow is the traditional event where our youth choose our Lodge Officers and leadership for the upcoming year. The importance of this process cannot be overstated. Our youth leadership continue to demonstrate the wisdom and foresight of the founders of the Order of the Arrow in providing youth opportunities for leadership as an important crucible of experience and potential for service.

Attached to this email is the 2024 Letter of Intent to Run for a Lodge Office. The Order of the Arrow is Scouting’s National Honor Society. Leadership in the Order of the Arrow is truly unique and special. Those that have served as youth leaders in the Order continue to serve as leaders in their communities around our nation and have for more than a century. Those that have served as leaders of Mowogo Lodge continue to serve as leaders in our communities and beyond including past Presidents of the Northeast Georgia Council, BSA.

Being a Lodge Officer is not an easy role. Nor is becoming an Eagle Scout. But the reward of both and all other endeavors in Scouting provide unique prospects to gain understanding and perspective that can serve you well…by serving others through leadership. Being a Lodge Officer in the Order of the Arrow provides experience and opportunities to learn organizational dynamics, to work with peers and people of shared passion and purpose, and to create opportunities for others to learn and grow. And that experience offers those that serve through leadership a lifetime of benefits. I still draw on my experience as a youth leader in Mowogo in my involvements in and out of Scouting.

If you are a person of commitment and have a vision that might improve our lodge, our members, our council and, most importantly, the Ordeal Candidates sent to us from their home units then please consider this opportunity to serve in the most unique way that only the Order of the Arrow offers. Please review the attached Letter of Intent to Run for a Lodge Office and the Lodge Officer Expectations document. If you have any questions, please let any of our current Lodge Officers, our Lodge Advisers, and I know and we will be glad to speak with you. A completely signed 2025 Letter of Intent and 2025 Lodge Officer Expectations document must be submitted to me by Monday, September 11 (the Monday before Pow Wow). You must submit the Letter of Intent to me by email: lodge.adviser@mowogo,org.

Thank you for all you do as honored Scouts!

Yours in Service,

Rusty Royston
Lodge Adviser, Mowogo Lodge
Northeast Georgia Council, BSA

pdf Letter of Intent to Run for 2025 Lodge Officer Position
Download

pdf Lodge Officer Expectations 2025
Download

Council Recognition Event

Greetings, Fellow Wearers of the Arrow!

We hope this finds you well.

Our contingent to the 2024 National Order of the Arrow Conference has returned home safely after spending a great week of fellowship with fellow members of the order as well as Scouts and Scouters from the country and from other corners of the world. Many thanks to Brothers Sankalp Y. and Jason Preves for leading our contingent through a successful experience. I feel confident that the energy and spirit our sister and brothers enjoyed will benefit Mowogo and the Northeast Georgia Council!

This Saturday, August 10, the council will hold its annual recognition event at the First Baptist Church in Gainesville, Georgia beginning at 1:00PM. Scouts and Scouters who have distinguished themselves through service and leadership to all the various Scouting programs and properties this council continues to excel in providing. As the lodge is a council-level program our 2024 Vigil Honor Candidates will also be recognized. Please join us in this celebration of the council's finest Scouts and Scouters! It has been requested that all OA members wear their OA sash to the event.

Thank you for all you do for the youth we all serve. I look forward to seeing you there!

Yours in Cheerfulness,

Rusty Royston
Lodge Adviser, Mowogo Lodge
Northeast Georgia Council, BSA

NOAC Memorabilia Pre-Order

Greetings, Fellow Wearers of the Arrow!

Noac2024 MowogoDelegatePatch

We wanted to remind you that pre-orders for Lodge NOAC memorabilia: patch sets, hats, and T-shirts ends this Friday, May 31. If you haven't placed your order and are planning to, please do so ASAP! Mowogo Lodge is sending 21 members to represent you and the Northeast Georgia Council to Boulder, Colorado at the 2024 National Order of the Arrow Conference that will be held at the University of Colorado. Our NOAC Contingent leadership has been working very hard to make this a great experience for our members that are going in the hopes they will be inspired to return and work to make Mowogo Lodge even better.

Please make your pre-orders as soon as you can at Mowogo Lodge - NOAC 2024 - Mowogo Bling Pre-Order-Trading Post.

Yours in Cheerfulness,

Rusty Royston
Lodge Adviser, Mowogo Lodge
Northeast Georgia Council, BSA

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