The Order of the Arrow’s Link program is a simple concept: it identifies areas in which the OA can improve, nationally, and empowers OA section leadership to deliver tools and resources to lodge leadership to help them grow and improve in these areas.
Link begins with the OA’s Journey to Excellence program (JTE). JTE measures various metrics that indicate the performance of a lodge. Link chooses three such metrics, and packages tools into comprehensive training programs that lodges can use to improve in those metrics.
For 2018, the three Link metrics are unit election rate, induction rate, and activation rate. Lodges that consistently score highly in these areas are known nationally as “high performing lodges,” and Link seeks to help every lodge in the country become high performing.
- The unit election rate measures the percentage of units in a council that hold a unit election. Nationally, less than 50% of all units that can hold a unit election actually do.
- Induction rate measures the percentage of Scouts that are elected into the OA that actually take their Ordeal. Only 75% of Scouts that get elected, on average, choose to become inducted.
- Activation rate measures the number of new Arrowmen that come to their first lodge event within six months of their induction. In 2016, only 31% of new members ever activated, and most of them did so in that critical 6 month window.
Clearly, improving in these metrics can have significant impacts on the OA’s membership growth and retention. We challenge OA section leadership to train their lodges in the materials linked below, and we challenge OA lodge leadership to put some of the tools contained within these trainings to use!
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