Indian Summer Day 6 Update

Posted on 08/06/2011 by Kevin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today was our last day at Ridgecrest so only a few things remained for us to do. First off was breakfast, after which we loaded the van and trailer and took our contingent photo. Once our rooms had been checked it was time to hit the road for our hotel in Martinsburg. Six hours later we had arrived in WV and it was time to grab some dinner. The group split as half headed to a local pizza place and myself and some others went to cracker barrel for a delicious steak. We went back to hotel after dinner and discussed our last day of travel on Sunday. The night was finished off with a lovely game of apples to apples. That’s all from this trip, maybe I’ll do daily updates like this more often.

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Indian Summer Day 5 Update

Posted on 08/05/2011 by Kevin

I can’t believe it is already the last day of the conference, Indian Summer has been so awesome so I made sure to make today just as great. Things started off with my usual routine and after my last stop in clouds I headed to my first class, chief and adviser. This class really dived into how youth and adults interact and discussed through breakout sessions how we can make that interaction the best. My next and last training class was Inductions Resources and Publications, another interesting and useful course. Before I went to lunch I headed down to the trading post to hand in my participant’s award card and pick up my pin and also make a few more purchases. Once I finished spending money I had to head over to the brave cave to take the ARC (activities and recreation committee) staff photo for their adviser. Finally they all behaved and smiled and I was able to leave and go get some lunch. (just kidding it was actually quick and painless) I walked over to spillman after lunch to work in the communications office on NOAC promo before I needed to head downstairs for the dress rehearsal for the show. The dress rehearsal was a slow process as scene after scene was run, and run again until it was smooth. (reminds me of my theater companies dress rehearsals) Once the run was finished we had a 45 minute break before the next run so I went back upstairs to work. The second run took much less time as they got our mic-check out of the way first thing and let us leave. I met up with the contingent for dinner and after a lovely meal I headed back to my room to get cleaned up and go back to spillman for the call for the show. Once inside things got moving as the shows staff finished their preparations and got ready for the doors to open. Arrowmen streamed in as the national officers threw t-shirts, bracelets and more down from the balcony. Soon enough the show was under way and it was our turn to go on stage and read our definitions of servant leadership. The show was great, as it told the story of the founding of our order. Our final tribe gatherings were held after the show. A quick contingent meeting with pizza followed. After I got some pizza I went back to johnson springs to have one last in-person meeting with the noac team. While their we discussed how we could get the OA to trend on twitter during NOAC by using QR codes. When I got back to my room I packed up my suitcase so we could leave early in the morning. Indian Summer was definitely one of the greatest scouting experiences of my life and the only thing I can say now is I’ll see you at the Next Stop at NOAC 2012!

 

 

 

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Indian Summer Day 4 Update

Posted on 08/04/2011 by Kevin

I seem to have developed a morning routine while here at Ridgecrest. Every morning I get up, shower, go to breakfast and then head to the coffee shop for a chai. It was at the coffee shop that I saw something that has never been done before, Alex, a member of the communications staff had decided to use his Macbook air as a platter to carry muffins and hot chocolate back to their office!  I finished my chai and headed to my first class, Inductions in Small Lodges. This class was more of an open forum to discuss problems that smaller lodges have and some really great discussion was had. My second class of the day was Elangomat Ordeal, Nimat Brotherhood. This class really helped me get a better understanding of the elangomat system and how our lodge can better carry out it. I got to meet more new people at lunch since I sat with different people every day. After lunch I had two classes in the afternoon, Call-outs and public ceremonies and Real-Life Inductions Issues. Both classes contained some great info that I will definitely be taking back to my lodge. Three different evening programs were available to us today. One was movie in the brave cave, the last AIA pow-wow and the National Ceremonial and Inductions Forum. Before any of these started I spent some time working on a poll for patrol z if you’d like to answer leave a comment below. The questions where; are you going to jambo 2013? have you registered yet? and if you haven’t registered yet why? I got a lot of great answers and photos for the summit blog. Once I finished my poll I popped into the pow-wow for a bit to get some photos. After the pow-wow had ended we gathered with our tribes/clans for our evening reflection. It was during our clan gatherings that I found out that my clan’s definition of servant leadership had been selected for reading at the show, and since I was the only person from my clan present I was chosen to read it! Our contingent meeting followed and after that Braden, a member of our contingent and myself headed over to Johnson Springs to have a meeting with the other National Promotions team members to discuss NOAC 2012 promo. A lot was accomplished and when we left to go back to our rooms we could sleep knowing we were back on track. Well time to sleep, more tomorrow.

 

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Indian Summer Day 3 Update

Posted on 08/03/2011 by Kevin
I can’t believe it is already Wednesday. The day began like yesterday with breakfast and my obligatory trip to the coffee shop for a chai. After enjoying my chai and the WiFi I headed to the training building to begin my second day of training. My class for the entire morning was about how to run and plan an ordeal weekend. This class was very informative and was planned to take the entire morning but we ended up getting done an hour early. This gave me some time to talk to Jeff about NOAC promotions before we both had to go to lunch. I had lunch with arrowman from a couple different lodges, recruiting one for project 2013 in the process. I made the decision to visit the brave cave and attend the pow-wow after lunch. The brave cave is a part of the recreation activities available at NOAC. The area has air conditioning, a ping-pong table and two big screen tvs with xbox’s. I headed over to the pow-wow after my short visit to the brave cave and spent the rest of the afternoon their taking photos and enjoying the awesome dancing. Once the pow-wow was done I offloaded my images and hung out in Johnson using the wifi and power to charge my laptop before it was time to meet up for dinner. At dinner I sat with a couple members of the Indian Summer staff who are working on the shows team. The evening activity was the Gathering of Nations so I went back to room after dinner to get my stuff together to head up to the rec field with my nation, the plains. When we met up at our nation meeting spot we were each given four plains nation trading cards. We were to trade three of these with one arrowman from each of the three nations and keep one for ourselves. We could hear the music playing as we arrived at the rec field to find an OA carnival had been set up with ice-cream, games, and a inflatable attractions. Also available were mini-golf, ultimate, volleyball and disc golf. I had a great time participating in and photographing the events and it surely was memorable. Following the gathering of nations we had out tribe and clan reflections and we then met as a contingent to discuss meeting times for tomorrow. After our contingent meeting was over I headed over to the communications office to talk with Alex, the other NOAC promotion lead and discuss promo stuff. A lot happened today but not as much that can be put in writing. Sleep time, more tomorrow.

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Indian Summer Day 2 Update

Posted on 08/02/2011 by Kevin

Today began the first day of training at Indian Summer 2011. My day began with a breakfast with the national chief,Jonathan Hillis. Jonathan celebrated his 20th birthday today,his sixth year in a row celebrating it at a national event! After breakfast I had some time to kill before my first class so I headed to the coffee shop to enjoy an iced chai and some free WiFi while the region chiefs fought over whose region was the best (east is beast,just saying). My first class of the day was Finding the Arrow;Introduction. The finding the arrow series is a group of classes designed to teach you how a professional actor would approach the pre-ordeal ceremony. Today’s session was designed to discuss how we will go about approaching the ceremonies and some other basic information. I will be taking the finding the arrow for Meteu later in the week. Following finding the arrow I had some down time so I went for a walk in the lobby only to find my adviser for the National Promotions Team Jeff. Jeff and I talked for a bit on the subject of NOAC 2012 before I had to head off to my next class,making my way to How to conduct personal unit elections. Once class was over it was time to drop my laptop off in my room to charge and then head to lunch. At lunch I sat with a bunch of random people,two of them I had met before but otherwise they were all strangers. My first class after lunch was Inductions @ LLD which discussed how to design and run an LLD or Lodge Leadership Development Conference. My last class dealt with how to run a new member orientation at the conclusion of an induction. All my classes were very interesting and were taught by experienced trainers who included a professional actor,a past NOAC CVC of Inductions and Ceremonies and others. After my last training I decided to visit the communications office to say hello to Jeff,Alex and John and finally meet Thomas,our other NPT adviser. Soon enough we were gathering up for dinner and headed to the dining hall for pulled pork and rotisserie chicken,there was even had a cake for Jonathan to celebrate his birthday. After dinner we had a small amount of down time before we had to meet up and head down to the opening show. The show opened with the region chiefs throwing pies at the western region chief. After Joe was thoroughly coated in pie it was time for Jonathan to make his opening remarks and begin the show. The show involved different parts of the Order of the Arrow legend as well as speeches from Jonathan Hillis,nation chief,Dan Dick,national vice-chief,and Ray Capp,OA national chairman. After the speeches the best dancers from Sunday’s pow-wow were invited on stage to dance. The show ended with a video about summitcorps,an arrival day video from yesterday and a NOAC 2012 promo video. Our tribe and clan gatherings took place after the show and the night ended much like last night. Time for sleep,more tomorrow.

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