Fellow Arrowmen,
Are your dues up to date? If not, it would be greatly appreciated if you would support the Lodge and the Council camps by paying your Lodge dues (if you have not done so and are a past member). Do not worry, if it has been many years since you have paid your dues, you do not have to make up all of those years. It is only the current years dues that need to be paid in order to be up-to-date.
The money received from Lodge dues is used for a variety of things. The money is used to give back to the camps by providing service projects. These projects are either repair an old building that you used to love, or simply adding something to help improve the quality of the camp.
It also is used to support the Lodge in providing opportunities to arrowmen. The past few years, the Lodge has paid for over half of the Section Conclave Cost. For those of you who are not aware of how much this cost is, Section Conclave usually cost between $45 and $50 to attend. The Lodge covers part of the cost to bring the price of Section Conclave down to the price of $23 for Black Hawk Lodge members.
As you all have gone through and experienced, the money received from dues also, is used towards inducting new Ordeal, Brotherhood, and Vigil Honor members of Black Hawk Lodge. When going through your Ordeal, you may receive a few things beside for life long memories and friendships, but also a physicals item. The Ordeal Sash and the Order of the Arrow Hand-book. Even though these seem like a couple of small things, those two things alone cost the Lodge around $25 per person. When the Lodge has an event of 80 people, and half of them are Ordeal Candidates alone and they are only charge $23 for the event, the Lodge is indeed not making a profit. So by paying your Lodge dues, you are sponsoring the Scouts of Mississippi Valley Council and making sure they are able to have the same experience you had.
By being a dues paying member of Black Hawk Lodge, you will also receive frequent updates on what the Lodge is up to along with information and reminder about upcoming events. All service work done that falls under the OA National Guidelines will be counted as service hours in the Lodge. Service is something that Black Hawk Lodge takes pride in through various ways of recognition as well as programs. A couple examples include the yearly Lodge Service Flaps that are awarded at Winter Banquet as well as the two Lodge Service awards. As you may also know, Black Hawk Lodge was a recipient of the National Service award in 2017 and 2018.
After the previous year, the Lodge's Membership level has had a dramatic decrease for the size of our Lodge. Starting off, the Lodge is only 2 members short of meeting the same number of members as last year. From the 2019 to 2020 the Lodge saw a drop of around 50 members. One of my goals as Chief is to get the Lodge back to when it was thriving. The total of number also plays a role when it come to Vigil slots given to the Lodge.
Again, it would be greatly appreciated if you would get your due up-to-date with the Lodge. To do so, you can visit your local Scout Office or visit blackhawklodge.org to pay them online. If you have friends who are also past members of the Lodge, be sure to pass the message to them. Winter Banquet is coming up in December and it will be open to any one and every one, so I would love to see you there! For more information see here.
Yours in Brotherhood,
Jadon Schreacke | Lodge Chief
Black Hawk Lodge
Comentarios