Pow Wow

Greetings and Salutations, Brothers and Sisters!

We hope all of you are well and made through the record heat we ‘enjoyed’ this summer.

This time next week we have a new slate of Lodge Officers for 2024! Many thanks to all of those that have submitted their letters of intent to run and their signed Lodge Officer expectations form! If you are planning to run for election to a lodge office, please email these documents (attached to this email) with signatures by tomorrow, Monday, September 11. It means a great deal that we have leaders that step up and serve our lodge and council and it is much appreciated!

Pow Wow is special for Mowogo Lodge for many reasons. It is the function we can gather, share learning and training, and share fellowship with each other. We elect new leadership and celebrate the meaning of servant leadership and what it means to all of us. This provides us with the opportunity to renew our ties of brotherhood and helps to provide meaning for our work in the lodge, in our districts and council, and to our daily world.

With that spirit, we will have some special people that will be joining us next weekend. Our current Section E6 Vice Chief will be there as well as Mowogo Alum and our only 3-term serving Lodge Chief and current Ini-to Lodge Adviser, Frank Harper. Our Council Commissioner, Carter Wood, has also accepted my personal invitation to join us. The key three leadership for all of our districts have been invited to Pow Wow so that we can share this fellowship and build relationships that can help our council grow as well as Mowogo Lodge. Also, of special note, this Pow Wow we will honor a fallen Brother, Doug Rustay. A Broken Arrow ceremony for him will conclude our Saturday night campfire. His family and others that served and worked with Doug in all of programs in Scouting he served have also been invited.

Please make a point to do your best to make all of our guests feel welcome. Let’s show them what we learn from trying to be servant leaders: to serve first. Scouting is a family this will be an opportunity to demonstrate that.

We look forward to seeing all of you there!

Yours in Service,

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

Mowogo Making the News!

Greetings, Brothers & Sisters!

Mowogo has made the news at the national level in the Order of the Arrow! The article our Vice Chief of Communication, Ms. Elizabeth B., wrote about the Ordeal experience of Brother Duncan Lawrence has been posted to the national OA website!

https://oa-bsa.org/article/helping-all-arrowmen-reach-new-heights

Many thanks to Elizabeth and to all of our Lodge leadership for making our program accessible for all of the Scouts and Scouters honored by their units from around the Northeast Georgia Council!

Outstanding! Good work!

Yours in Brotherhood,

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

Conclave & NOAC 2024 Updates

Good evening, Fellow Wearers of the Arrow.

We hope this message finds you well.

We wanted to let you know some news learned this weekend at the Section Leadership Conference.

Our new Section Adviser, Ken Barton, informed all of the Lodge Advisers in the Section of news he learned in Regional conference call regarding the upcoming 2024 National Order of the Arrow Conference (NOAC) at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The Region Chair shared with all of the Section Advisers that there will be no American Indian Activities (AIA) events at NOAC next year. No reason was given for this change.

The Regional Chair did share that this decision will not eliminate AIA events and competitions at Section events and Conclaves next year. Therefore, all ceremonies, DANCE, and DRUM competitions normally held at our Conclave will still be held. No further information about this decision or what may happen in the future was shared.

No doubt, this will come as a disappointment to many. However, it would be even more disappointing to not take every advantage to enjoy these activities at our upcoming Conclave that Ini-to Lodge will be hosting in 2024. This Conclave is important for many reasons. First, one of our own will be serving as the Section Chief and he needs and deserves both our support and our gratitude for leading this event and our Section. Another reason is that we still need to share our pride for our program and what we try to honor in our traditions and execution of this program.

None to say, this changes nothing for our Lodge for the foreseeable future except in our preparations for the 2024 NOAC event. Mowogo Lodge has a proud tradition of service, youth development, and leadership in the Northeast Georgia Council. That remains the same and our shared goal. Our work recognizing honored campers from around our council remains the forefront of our purpose and our work moving forward. And, most importantly, the opportunity to share the experience we uniquely offer to learn what it means to be a servant leader in recognition of living the values of the Scout Oath, Law, Motto, and Slogan are still both relevant and, honestly, even more important today in our current times than they ever have been.

If more information is shared regarding this change, we will let you know. Thank you for your example to all of the Scouts and Scouters of the Northeast Georgia Council as well as all of the members of your communities, schools, churches, and places of work as we are not just Scouts when we gather or wear our uniforms. We are Scouts and Scouters 24/7 and we impact others through our conduct and example!

We are looking forward to seeing all of you at Pow Wow!

Yours in Cheerfulness,

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

Founder's Award

Good evening.

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

Letter of Intent

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. 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 2024 Letter of Intent and 2024 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

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