General
The Order of the Arrow is scouting's honor society that recognize a unit's outstanding scouts. The OA is organized through chapter lodges that are aligned with a council's districts. There is a Council lodge, but OA goes far beyond that and there are also regional chapters and a national chapter. OA members can seek leadership positons at the council, region and national levels, offering a rare opportunity to play a leadership role in an organization beyond the local level.

There are some privileges that come with the honor of being an Order of the Arrow member. This includes wearing an OA sash at OA functions, wearing the lodge patch on the right pocket of the uniform, attending local and regional OA functions and getting reduced rates at Philmont and Northern Tier.

One of the elements of OA is service and the OA does many service project for the Boy Scouts of America, local councils and national parks and forests. During the ordeals, ordeal members and candidates help the councils camping properties.

Requirments
It is the unit's scouts that choose scouts that are worthy this honor, but first, they must meet some qualifications:
1) Prior to the election, they must have unit leader approval that exhibit scout spirit by living the Scout Oath and Scout Law and have had active participation in troop activities.
2) They must have been active in camping for the past two years inlcluding at least one long term camp of at least six consecutive days and five consecutive nights during that period.
3) They must be elected by at least 50% of the scotus present during the OA election evening.

Elections are generally held between February and April each year. OA elections must be conducted by the local chapter. Scouts chosen to be OA members are OA candidates and need to attend an Ordeal weekend to become a member of the OA. Ordeal weekends run from Friday evening to Sunday afternoons are are held two times a year.

Ordeal weekends
The first weekend is held the weekend following Memorial Day weekend at Hi-Sierra. The council charters a bus, but space is limited so early sign-ups are encouraged once a scout has been tapped out and decides to participate in the Spring Ordeal.
The second weekend is held the weekend following Labor Day weekend in September at Chesebrough.
There is a fee for the ordeal weekend to cover food, the lodge patch and OA Ordeal sash.

Philmont, Northern Tier and Florida Seabase
As an arrowman, there are oppotunties to participate as an individual at Philmont, Northern Tier, and Florida Seabase, Boy Scout's national camping facilities. The trip to one of these camps in split into two halves. During the first half, the OA member performs service at the camp and during the second half, they go on a trek of their choice. For the service that is performed, the scout able to participate at a greater reduced camping fee, in the case of Philmont, at 1/3 the regular price. There is similar discount for Northern Tier. Florida Seabase is not discounted because the entire first week is spent becoming PADI scuba certified, which then allows the scout to scuba at almost any other location.

Current OA members

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