Seminole District - South Florida Council - Boy Scouts of America

Serving the Scouting Families of Southern Broward County – South Florida

The Order of the Arrow

OA Basics
The Order of the Arrow is Scouting's National Honor Society.

Purpose
The purpose of the Order of the Arrow is fourfold:

To recognize those Scout campers who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives
To develop and maintain camping traditions and spirit
To promote Scout camping
To crystallize the Scout habit of helpfulness into a life purpose of leadership in cheerful service to others

Visit our Chapter’s web site:
Paldani Chapter

Visit our Lodge's award-winning web site:
O-Shot-Caw Lodge 265

History
The Order of the Arrow (OA) was founded by Dr. E. Urner Goodman and Carroll A. Edson in 1915 at the Treasure Island Camp of the Philadelphia Council, Boy Scouts of America. It became an official program experiment in 1922 and was approved as part of the Scouting program in 1934.

In 1948 the OA, recognized as the BSA's national brotherhood of honor campers, became an official part of the national camping program of the Boy Scouts of America.

The Order is a thing of the spirit rather than of mechanics, organization, operational procedures, and all that go with them are necessary in any large and growing movement, but they are not what counts in the end. The things of spirit are what count:

Brotherhood - in a day when there is too much hatred at home and abroad.
Cheerfulness- in a day when the pessimists have the floor and cynics are popular.
Service - in a day when million are interested in getting or grasping, rather than giving."

National OA Web Site
For more information on the Order of the Arrow, please visit the National web site: http://www.oa-bsa.org/

Seminole District of the South Florida Council
Boy Scouts of America

e-mail: info@seminoledistrict.org