Ordeal Season 2008

The third and final 2008 Ordeal will be September 5-7 at Camp Bomazeen. The second Ordeal saw over 60 new members enter our Order, and made a lot of progress towards getting Camp Hinds ready for the summer. The Ordeal season is when our Lodge inducts new members into our Order, and gives a massive amount of service to Pine Tree Council's camps. Last year, the three Ordeals comprised over 30% of the Lodge's total service hours for the year. The Ordeal itself is a time for personal reflection upon your experiences in Scouting, as well as being a serious test of your dedication to the values of the Order and the Scout Oath. If you have just been elected to the Order, there is information to help you on your way at our candidate information page. The Lodge also encourages Ordeal members who are eligible to convert to Brotherhood to do so. There will be a Brotherhood conversion at each Ordeal, as well as one each Thursday during the summer at Camp Hinds. Check the Lodge Calendar for more information. Current brothers should plan on attending at least one Ordeal to help out.

Elangomat Training Available

The Website Committee is pleased to announce the addition of Caleb Frederick's Elangomat Training to the selection of downloadable trainings on our Training page.

Effective Chapter Ceremonies Training Available for Download

A new feature on the website has recently become available for use. The Training page is now ready, and the first training, Ian Hanley's Effective Chapter Ceremonies presentation, is ready for download. The website committee will be adding more trainings in the future as they are adapted for download.

2008 Trader Flap Design Chosen

At the Lodge Executive Committee Meeting on April 5, the LEC received news that the 2008 Trader Flap was in production. The flap was designed by Chris Bernier, and was voted on by the LEC by email in the weeks preceding the meeting. The flap was one of two submitted, and is expected to be ready for the spring Ordeals.

Update 4/8: We have received the first sample of the trader.

Lodge Welcomes New Staff Advisor

At the University of Scouting on April 5, the Lodge welcomed its new Staff Advisor, Pine Tree Council Assistant Scout Executive Bryan Thomas. Former Staff Advisor Matt Mower stepped down from the position to be better able to serve K Valley District, where he is District Executive. Bryan has been involved with the OA in his previous Council, and is a Brotherhood member.

Lodge Turns Out For Strong Conclave
Arrowmen travel to Vermont for annual fellowship
By Ian Hanley, Lodge Vice Chief

On the evening of June 6th, Arrowman from all over northern New England arrived at Mt. Norris Scout Reservation in Eden Mills, Vermont for the annual Section NE-1A Conclave. Hosted by Ajapeu Lodge, the event brought together members from the Section’s seven lodges for a weekend of fellowship. Madockawanda Lodge was well represented, bringing over 30 delegates.
The events started Friday night with a social card game and a BINGO challenge to get signatures of people who meet specific Scouting criteria (e.i. Lodge Chief, Past Section Chief) before the Friday night show and Conclave opening by Section Chief Jeff St. Cyr and Northeast Region Chief Patrick Rooney, who was in attendance throughout the weekend. The night concluded with a cracker barrel in the dining hall.
Saturday began with training cells after breakfast. Training cells covered a wide range of topics including camping, OA leadership, organizing an LLD, OA Jumpstart, etc. The morning offered participants the chance to go to 3 training cells, with optional training cells in the afternoon. At lunch Jeff St. Cyr hosted a Very Important Arrowman luncheon for members of each lodge. After lunch, members of our lodge participated in various competitions such as ultimate frisbee, volleyball, and soccer, which we played in the championship game against Passaconaway. Youth Arrowman also competed in the Pre-Ordeal Ceremony and Pie-Eating competition, while adults competed in the Coffee Cup race. The afternoon was concluded with the annual Healy Cup race, which is relay of running, mountain biking, swimming, kayaking, and canoeing. For the first time since Conclave was held at Camp Roosevelt in 2003, Madockawanda won the competition for the third time in the history of the event (2002,2003,2008). In the evening Arrowman took part in a pie auction and watched the Conclave show before a cracker barrel featuring Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
Sunday morning, a Scout’s Own service was held after breakfast, prior to the Annual Business Meeting. At the Annual Business Meeting, Jeff St. Cyr was reelected as Section NE-1A Chief. Current Passaconaway Chief and Section Secretary Brendan Bertagnoll was elected to the position of Section Vice Chief. Finally, Ajapeu Lodge Chief Graham Edmondson was elected to Section Secretary. In the Closing Show section, staff presented awards for the weekend. Madockawanda won competitions for website design, Pre-Ordeal ceremonies, and pie eating. The Lodge was also reunited with the Healy Cup, as it was presented to the Lodge by 2007-08 Section Vice Chief Nate Hicks from the 2007 Healy Cup winners, Ajapeu Lodge. Finally, it was announced that Madockawanda retained the Silver Tomahawk, which is presented to the lodge which provides the most service in the past year. The Closing Show saw the recognition of outgoing Section Adviser Fred Gobeille, who has been Section Adviser since the conclusion of the 2002 Conclave, and introduction of incoming Section Adviser Scott Valcourt, who served three terms as Section Chief as a youth from Madockawanda. Aside from the departure of Gobeille, the Section will also lose Ajapeu Lodge, which will become part of another Section as part of the Northeast Region 2009 realignment, as Section NE-1A will consolidate to only 6 lodges.
Next year the Section NE-1A Conclave will return to Camp Hinds for the first time since 2002. The 2008 Conclave was a great event and has left us with a high bar to strive to exceed next year. I encourage everyone to do what they can to help make the 2009 Conclave a great success. You can get involved by joining the Service Lodge contingent to staff the Conclave or just by expressing any ideas which you think will help make our Conclave a success or offering your services in any way which would help.