Our chapter will host the annual Chapter Banquet on Monday, February 8, 2010. The event will take place at 7:00 PM, in the gymnasium of Bonhomme Presbyterian Church (14820 Conway Rd, Chesterfield, MO 63017). The cost is $12 per person before February 1, and $15 per person thereafter. Mark your calendars now, as this is an event you won't want to miss! As a special guest for the meeting, the World Bird Sanctuary will make a special presentation on birds of prey, an amazing program that includes birds flying right over your head! We hope to see you there... Even better, come celebrate the 100th birthday of the Boy Scouts of America with a special surprise! Remember to bring your Brotherhood card to be signed. Walk-in registrations will be limited, so please register in advance. Click Here for an invitation and RSVP card.

The Shawnee Lodge Ceremonial Team Seminar will be held Saturday, March 6, 2010 at Beaumont Scout Reservation. This year our vision is to provide a quality seminar that helps prepare and better our ceremonial teams. However, we also want to reach out and provide a program to members of our brotherhood, who may have an interest in ceremonies but are not yet on a team. This event will provide the brothers with training cells on Ceremonial Understanding, Team Development Site Embellishment, Ceremonial Evaluation, Character evelopment, Regalia, and Ceremonies of the Order. Some training cells are still in the lanning stage at this time. We will once again have competitions but scoring changes are being planned for this program. We will also conduct a regalia help session. Cost is $12 and gets you the t-shirt and lunch if paid prior to February 19. The price increases to $18 after the 19th. If you have any further questions egarding the Ceremonial Team Seminar, please contact Ben Moore, the New Horizons Chapter 2nd Vice Chief.

New Horizons Arrowmen:
For your convenience, the New Horizons Chapter will be accepting your registration for the Shawnee Lodge Ceremonial Team Seminar, until our deadline of February 8, 2010. You may submit your registration directly to us up until February 8. After this date, you must register directly through Shawnee Lodge. To sign-up by February 8 with the New Horizons Chapter, simply email your name, t-shirt size, and troop number to Ben Moore, Chapter 2nd Vice Chief, at boatr322rep@yahoo.com. Ben will send you further instructions to complete your registration and payment. Thank you.

New Horizons OA will be hosting the third Ceremonial Team Workshop on Thursday, March 25, 2010. The event will be held in the Chapel of Bonhomme Presbyterian Church (14820 Conway Rd, Chesterfield, MO 63017), from 7:00-8:30 PM. If you are interested in discovering what participation in a ceremonial team is all about, please attend! We always welcome new arrowmen to join us. In addition, becoming a ceremonial team member satisfies a requirement for the Brotherhood Honor. We will see you there!

Would you be interested in having a New Horizons OA ceremonial team perform at your Webelos Induction / Crossover Ceremony? If so, please download the request form, found on the Ceremonial Team page. Complete the form and fax or E-mail to Mark Shapland. This is a great opportunity for an impressive, Native-American themed ceremony that you won't want to turn down!

Do you want to spend the summer outdoors? Do you want to teach Scout skills? Do you want to make new friends and have life-long memories? Then you need to apply for summer camp staff. The success of a troop's week at summer camp is many times determined by the quality of the staff. If you are a Scout who will be 15 years old and an Eagle Scout by June 1, then you should apply for camp staff.

Camp staff provides a great opportunity for a young man to broaden his Scouting contacts, improve his leadership skills, and serve the thousands of Webelos, Scouts, Explorers, Venturers, and leaders who attend our camps each year.

Applications for camp staff can be secured at any council service center, the lodge web page, or the council web page (www.stlbsa.org). Interviews will be held at the MacArthur Service Center located at 4568 West Pine Boulevard.

*To arrange an interview, please contact the Camping Department at the MacArthur Service Center: (314)-361-0600

To sign-up as an Elangomat for the Spring Conclave or Fall Reunion, simply fill-out the online Elangomat Form here. Be sure to visit Chapter Headquarters upon your arrival to the Spring Conclave or Fall Reunion, to confirm your request, and to receive further instructions.

Elangomat is the Lenni Lenape word meaning friend. As an Elangomat you'll be responsible for a "clan" of 8-10 candidates whom you'll work with during their Ordeal. You will spend most of the day with your clan, eating the same food, doing the same work, and setting an example of brotherhood, cheerfulness, and service, which the candidates learn through you. A brief training course given by your chapter or the lodge will tell you all you'll need to know as an Elangomat. Because of the influence you'll have in motivating the quality of your new brothers, your service as an Elangomat is one of the most important and rewarding things you can do in the lodge.

Being an Elangomat is one way of getting a
requirement signed-off for Brotherhood!

In August, the Lodge Executive Committee (LEC) voted to make substantial changes to our Lodge’s camp promotion program. After analyzing feedback from Scoutmasters and SPLs regarding Shawnee’s camp promotion program, the LEC noticed that it is not particularly effective, as most Boy Scouts already know about, and have been to, summer camp. Yet, at the same time, the LEC also recognized a need to better promote our council’s Cub Scouts – especially in light of recent Cub Scout summer camp numbers. Thus, the LEC voted to make the following changes:

• Instead of doing Boy Scout camp promotions, all of Shawnee Lodge’s camp promotion efforts will be focused on Cub Scouts. Instead of attempting to visit every troop, the Lodge will be contacting and visiting every Cub Pack in order to give them a camp promotion on Dad and Lad, Mom and Me, Webelos Mini Camp, Webelos Camp, and Day Camps.
• All Scoutmasters will be provided with a pack of promotional materials so that they can – if they choose to – self-promote their troop. If a Scoutmaster truly desires a camp promotion from an OA member, he may contact his chapter chief to arrange a promotion. But, such Boy Scout camp promotions will only be carried out upon request.

If any arrowmen in your troop would like to participate in this new program, which satisfies a requirement for the Brotherhood Honor, please contact the New Horizons Camp Promotion Chairman, Paddy Hennessey, to arrange your presentation to a Cub Scout Pack. In addition, camp promotion packets will be distributed at future New Horizons Roundtable meetings, as well as the February Chapter Meeting.

The NEW 2009 Camp Promotion Script for Cub Scout Packs is available for download here. For more information about the new program, please visit the Shawnee Lodge Camp Promotion website.

In order to make our chapter even better for the years to come, we need your input. By completing our online survey, you can provide comments and/or suggestions on how to improve our chapter's operation. All of your comments are welcome and we appreciate your time. You may find the online survey here.

The New Horizons website is searching for pictures of various NHOA events. If you have any photographs you would like to see on the website, please contact me to get your photos online. You may send me a link to an online photo gallery, or make arrangements to e-mail them to me.

Thank you for any images you can provide.

Ben Luedloff, Webmaster