Talk:Order of the Arrow honors and awards

Vigil honor
Vigil Userbox Template Please see Discussion of Vigil Honor Template for possible change Scoutersig 18:56, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

The Vigil Honor section needs updating... some important information is missing (Like the fact that it is technically a national honor), some is misleading (ie. "although not all slots are always filled" implies that it is uncommon not to fill all slots... some lodges never do), and some is just gossip ("although this practice is frowned upon by the National Committee of the OA"... they haven't ever issued a statement saying that they frown upon it specifically)

It should also be noted that there are only two membership "levels" in the order of the arrow. An ordeal candidate becomes a full member when he attains brotherhood. the vigil is an award for those who go above and beyond. this should be corrected. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.168.169.201 (talk) 04:07, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Brotherhood Requirements
First, this list should be bulleted, not numbered. To number it implies that its is like a rank, not dissimilar from Scouting Ranks. This is certainly not so. The Brotherhood is a deepening of understand and commitment to the Order and its principles.

By that same token, the requirement of 10 months of active membership in the Brother's unit should be the first listed as it is by far the most important of the requirements. It is the most important because it is during this period that the Arrowman experiences the test of the Ordeal in his life, preparing him to make that choice to pursue his understanding of the Order.--Rcshowman 14:24, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Actually, the requirements should not be listed in toto as part of an encylopedia article. See the requirements section in Eagle Scout (a featured article) for a good example of how this should be done. There are a number of other issues with this article that I will address. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 15:28, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Improvements
--Gadget850 ( Ed) 15:37, 15 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Overall work on prose.
 * Brotherhood: Simplify the requirements. See the requirements section of Eagle Scout for a good example.
 * Vigil selection reads like a how-to- this needs to be cut down.
 * Vigil name has a lot of cruft and needs trimming.
 * Awards: Again, simplify the requirements.


 * Membership: there is a lot of redundancy with the Membership section in Order of the Arrow --Gadget850 ( Ed) 12:42, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Lifetime Achievement Award
This article states in the Lifetime Achievement Award section that someone from Anicus Lodge received the lifetime achievement award. Anicus Lodge has not existed for about 34 years. The current lodge is Enda Lechauhanne Lodge #57; see this external page. Squamate 12:36, 12 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Frankly, recipients should not be listed in this article. If someone would want to create separate lists, that would be OK.  --Gadget850 ( Ed) 12:40, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

60th Anniversary Bicentennial Award
Greetings:

I am wondering if someone can help me flesh out a section within this artice pertaining to the B.S.A. Order of the Arrow 60th Anniversary Bicentennial Award.

I was active in OA as a scout during the B.S.A. Bicentennial period (I say period because if you were involved with Boy Scouts during the mid-1970s, you might recall that scouts could earn several different U.S Bicentennial scouting  patches each individually featuring a historical flag of the American Revolution from 1774 to 1777) and  have the "60th Anniversary Bicentennial Award" cloth patch on my Brotherhood sash that we were authorized to wear sewn above about 1/2" above the top bar for life.

The 60th Anniversary Bicentennial Award is a six sided patch with OA red rolled trim a thin blue inner roll on a white background. The top and bottom edges measure approximately 1.25 inches. and the remain four sides measure at 1.5 inches. At the top of the patch is the silver embroidered "60" (without quotation marks) over a horizontal red OA arrow. The uppercase text "ANNIVERSARY BICENTENNIAL AWARD" (each word to a single line without quotation marks) is centered on the patch, and a silver embriodered scout fleur-de-lis is centered at near the bottom of the patch.

I will submit a free use image file of this 60th Anniversary Bicentennial Award when I receive a card reader for my new digcam.Bee Cliff River Slob 18:53, 3 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes- I have the Bicentennial Eagle Scout emblem. Your patch is going to be a non-free (fair use) image, as we must presume that it is copyrighted- see WP:S-IMG].  The big question is- how many old awards do we include?  How notable is this patch to the OA?  --Gadget850 ( Ed) 21:27, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Well Gadget850, perhaps a section titled "Anniversary Award" or something similar to incorporate all of the various OA Anniversary Awards would be better suited that a more specific "60th Anniversary Award". I know that it really isn't good form to answer to your question by asking a question of my ownbut, "How notable are merit bages to the Boy Scouts of America? " I realize that due to timing of membership, not every OA member can (or could) receive an Anniversary Award, but I am thinking  that this type of sction could provide some additional info about the awards.

I do recall a more specific fair use image tag for Boy Scout types of images that would like apply in this type of use, but at this hour and cannot recall the details.Bee Cliff River Slob 04:54, 17 September 2007 (UTC)


 * The image tag you are looking for is documented at WP:S-IMG. Merit badges are part of the current Boy Scouting program, thus are quite relevant.  --Gadget850 ( Ed) 11:10, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Peer review

 * Lead needs improvement
 * Order of the Arrow covers the membership levels quite well; thus this material is redundant
 * Membership and honors starts off with historical material that is never developed; such material belongs in a separate history section
 * The Brotherhood section has the requirements copied verbatim; none of the jargon such as "Obligation " or "Admonition" are explained; the use of the second person "you" is inappropriate
 * The Selection and Vigil Honor sections have quite a bit of how-to material
 * Awards within the Order has a whole paragraph on the DSA; the DSA then has a separate section and an article

Overall, I think the membership material is covered quite well in the main OA article where it belongs. I propose that Membership and honors merged into Order of the Arrow with inappropriate material removed. This article should them be renamed to Awards of the Order of the Arrow. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 11:33, 6 October 2007 (UTC)