Legal Information

Website Disclaimer

This site is in compliance with the latest guidelines for OA websites, as approved by the National Order of the Arrow Committee.

This site is designed and maintained by the Madockawanda Lodge Website Committee, under the guidance, direction and approval of the Lodge Chief, Adviser, and Staff Adviser of Madockawanda Lodge.

Madockawanda Lodge, its activities, program, and publications are under the administrative authority of the Pine Tree Council and its Scout Executive.

Opinions on this site are that of Madockawanda Lodge. They may not represent the opinions of the Boy Scouts of America or the Order of the Arrow. For official opinions and information, please visit their sites.

All names and email addresses are listed on this site with the permission of the person listed.

Privacy Policy

You have the option of registering with the Lodge's Turtle Soup Express mailing list. If you choose to register for this service, Yahoo! Groups, the service provider, will collect your email address. Once registered with Yahoo!, that information is subject to their Privacy Policy. If you do not want Yahoo! Groups to collect your email address, do not register for the Turtle Soup Express service.

An alternative to registering with Yahoo! is to subscribe to the Hot Soup RSS Feed. It functions much like the Turtle Soup Express, save that it does not email you, nor collect any information. (except the basic data noted below) To subscribe, click the RSS icon in the right navigation bar and bookmark the resulting page.

Pine Tree Council's servers (which host this site) automatically collect some basic information when you visit this site, including the URL, browser type, IP address, language, and the date and time of your request. This data is used for informational purposes only.

Restricted Files Notice

Training programs which contain ceremony information are restricted to certain levels of membership in the Order, as appropriate.

The Order of the Arrow is not a "Secret Society" and secrecy has no place in the Order or in BSA Scouting. The in-circle ceremonies of the Order have their best impact on Candidates when the words and gestures are first heard and seen at the appropriate times, in the appropriate sequence and location. The Order uses an atmosphere of "mystery" to help the ceremonies work better for all candidates. While there may be some disagreement about which parts of the Order's procedures should be considered part of the "mystery," it is generally agreed that all in-circle ceremonies, including Pre-Ordeal, Ordeal, Brotherhood, and Vigil, are in that group. Scouts and Scouters who may become candidates for those ceremonies in the future, who hear or read those ceremonies before the appropriate time, may later find that the quality of their experience could be diminished by premature disclosure of the material in restricted files. We urge all who gain access to those files to assist in protecting the quality of the ceremonies for those who have not yet experienced them. Please check the latest edition or revision of the ceremony for any possible changes. Order of the Arrow materials are revised frequently. Electronic editions of ceremonies and training programs are not an official project of the Order of the Arrow, or of the Boy Scouts of America.