What a great event!  Nearly two hundred members of Coosa Lodge met at the second annual Winter Banquet.  The food was fantastic (thanks to Jim n Nick’s catering service!), there  was plenty of it, and the everything stayed more or less on schedule.  We feel like everyone there had a great time, so plan to join us next year!

2012 Lodge Chief Kyle Dotson addresses nearly 200 members in attendance at the 2012 Coosa Lodge Winter Banquet.

The Lodge voted to approve the updated Lodge Rules in a general assembly to kick off the program, then we heard a few inspirational words from Dr. James Flatt before presenting our 2012 Founder’s Award recipients, presenting our outgoing lodge advisers (Col. Kent Jackson and Mr. Doug Jackson) with some tokens of our appreciation, presenting immediate past Lodge Chief Devan Beitel with a James E. West Fellowship Award, and announcing a new fundraiser “patch” to help diffuse the cost of attending NOAC with this year’s contingent.

The Founder’s Award recipients were Devan Beitel, Mr. Wayne Jackson, and Mr. Doug Jackson.

The surprise fundraiser release is a rubber flap pin, shaped like a lodge flap (though a bit smaller) and designed to resemble our red shouldered hawk totem in a more winter environment.  Less than 500 of these were produced and less than 30 remained in the trading post after everyone went through the line.  The lodge is selling one online as a fundraiser.  Click here to see the auction.

With our 2012 calendar year kicked off with a bang, it’s time to look forward to American Indian Seminar (March 16-18 at Camp Comer) and Conclave (April 20-22 at Camp Ben Hawkins) with an eye on NOAC and three Ordeals, plus a end-of-year party with our annual Fall Fellowship at Camp Sequoyah.  See you at the next event!

We’re counting down the last few days until we kick off our 2012 calendar year with the second annual Winter Banquet. The banquet will take place on Saturday, January 21st, at the Gardendale-Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church in Gardendale, AL. The street address for the church is 805 Crest Dr. Click here for a map and driving directions via Google Maps.

This event is free to all dues-paid members. You can pre-register and pay your dues online by visiting our new online registration base page. On-site registration and dues payments will be available.

Registration and Check-In open at 5:30; dinner will be served at 6:30.  Also, the trading post will also be open for business to fulfill all of your Coosa Lodge memorabilia needs!

This event was a huge success last year and we’ve already had more than 150 members pre-register for this year’s event. We’ll be presenting our 2012 Founder’s Award recipients, we’ll have a special guest speaker, and our Lodge Chief will recommend approval of an updated set of Lodge Rules.

For more info on the update to the Lodge Rules, click here.

See you this weekend!

The Coosa Lodge Executive Committee met today in a special session at Camp Westmoreland to approve an updated version of the Lodge Rules.  Pursuant to the current lodge rules, those updates are being posted here for review.

Click here to download the LEC-approved update to the Coosa Lodge Rules.

To ratify these rules, the LEC has called a brief general lodge meeting to be held at the upcoming Winter Banquet for the purpose of approving these rules. At that meeting, the Chief will recommend that these rules be made effective immediately except for Section III, subsection C, “Lodge Executive Committee”.

The 2012 Coosa Lodge Winter Banquet will be on January 21, 2012 at the Gardendale-Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church in Gardendale, AL. This event is free to all dues-paid members. Dues may be paid on-site or on-line. To pre-register or pay your dues, click over to http://coosa50.org/registration-base.

If you visit the website regularly, you may have already noticed the new buttons in the sidebar.  There’s one for “Dues & Event Registration” and another for “Ordeal Candidates”.  This is the the first of many effects you’ll see this year from all of the planning and strategy-building we finished at the Winter Leadership Retreat.

We’ve added online registration for Winter Banquet, 2012 Dues, Lodge Event Registration (incl. buying an Event Pass), Conclave Contingent Registration, Conclave Memorabilia Pre-Order, 2012 NOAC, and Ordeal Candidate Registration.  For a look at all of those forms, head over to our “Registration Base” page.

We’re pretty happy with how these have turned out so far, but please let us know if you have any trouble with any of these forms.

The 2011 Lodge Leadership Retreat was a huge success. More than 40 Lodge Officers, Chapter Chiefs, Committee Chairmen, and Advisers met at Camp Sumantaga for a full weekend of training, discussion, problem-solving, goals-setting, team-building, planning, strategy development, and fellowship.

2011-2012 Coosa Lodge Executive Committee

Over the course of the year, you’ll see the fruits of this labor at lodge events, summer camp, chapter meetings, Conclave, and NOAC. You’ll also see a stronger focus on improving communication throughout the lodge and specific, focused plans to help strengthen the chapters in each district.

With LLDR behind us, all eyes are on the 2012 Winter Banquet on January 21st at Gardendale-Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church in Gardendale, AL. This event is free to all dues-paid members (If your dues are not currently paid, you can do that at this event!), so come join us for some free food, some great fellowship, a special keynote speaker, and the recognition of our 2012 Founder’s Award recipients. Dinner will be catered by Jim & Nick’s BBQ. Registration opens at 5:30, Banquet begins at 6:30. The trading post will be open.

If you plan to attend, please visit coosa50.org/registration to register online and let us know that you’re coming. Pre-registration is not required (on-site, walk-in registration will be available), but it helps us plan better if we know how many are coming, so please let us know.

If you read the Digital Eagle, you’ve probably already seen this, but we somehow managed to not post this stuff to the website, so here it is.

The date for the 2011 Lodge Leadership Retreat has been moved from December 9-11 to December 2-4.  This was at the request of several youth leaders, since the original date conflicted with end-of-semester exams.  It’ll take place at Camp Sumatanga (near Gallant, AL). 

Remeber – This is an invite-only event.  If you show up on-site and you weren’t invited by the Key 3, you’ll be sent home.  The purpose for this weekend is to have all of our new lodge leadership and their advisers participate in a great weekend of fellowship, team-building, training, and goals-setting. This is where the Key 3, LEC, and Chapter Chiefs will all set their goals for the upcoming program year and where our rag-tag group of young leaders will gel into a strong, cohesive team.

All Lodge Officers, Chapter Chiefs, Lodge Officer Advisers, and Chapter Advisers can expect to receive invitations from the Key 3.  If you fall into one of those groups and don’t receive an invitation in the next few days (check your spam filters!), send an email to key3@coosa50.org and let them know.  Your invitation may have gotten lost somewhere.

Also, the location for the 2012 Coosa Lodge Winter Banquet has also been announced.  It’ll be held during the evening of January 21, 2012, at Gardendale-Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church in Gardendale, AL.  This event is free to all dues-paid members (and you can pay your dues on-site!), so come join us for some free food, some great fellowship, a special keynote speaker, and the recognition of our 2012 Founder’s Award recipients!

Just a quick reminder that next weekend’s Ordeal (Nov. 4-6) has been moved from Camp Jackson to Camp Comer due to catastrophic storm damage experienced at Camp Jackson during the April 27th, 2011 tornado outbreak.

Ordeal Candidates — With any luck, you should have all of the information you need.  If not, click here to go to our “Instructions for Your Ordeal” page.  When you get home from your Ordeal, be sure to take a few minutes to visit our After Your Ordeal page for information on how to get involved and stay connected.

Brotherhood Candidates — If you completed your Ordeal at least ten months ago, this is you.  Do you know everything that you need to know?  If not, take a few minutes to download and review our Brotherhood Study Guide. Then tell the staff at registration that you’d like to seal your membership by obtaining Brotherhood.

Everyone Else — What will you be doing to enhance the weekend and help provide cheerful service?  If you don’t know how to help, ask a member of the Key 3 or talk to the folks at registration.  They’ll help you connect with someone who can match your abilities to our needs.

This isn’t a Scouting event, but there was some talk of it during Fall Fellowship and several folks seemed interested in attending, so here’s a quick reminder.

The 2nd Annual Wills Creek Intertribal Powwow will be held this weekend (Oct 29-30) at the VFW Fairgrounds (135 18th St.) in Ft. Payne, AL.  If you’re interested in Native American drumming, singing, or dancing, this is a great opportunity to see a wide variety of talent.

Grand Entry on Saturday will be at 1pm and 6pm; Grand Entry on Sunday will be at 1pm.

Here’s a quick note I got this morning:

We had fifteen Coosa Lodge members at our Hawk Day last weekend.    We cut trees, cut grass, weed eat camp sites, cleaned camp sites, cleaned out fire pits, put up a new gate, cleaned the council ring and put 5 posts in the ground to block areas from car travel.  The Camp Jack Wright committee would like to thank Coosa Lodge for the help.

This is a great example of the spirit of cheerful service upon which our Order was founded.  Thanks to everyone who spent their day helping out at camp!

Just a quick reminder that this Saturday, from 8 to 3, there’s a work/service day (we call ‘em “Hawk Day”) at Camp Jack Wright, southwest of Birmingham.

If you don’t know where to find Camp Jack Wright, here’s a map to camp via Google Maps.  Just go in the front gate at Tannehill State Park and tell the attendant that you’re there for the Boy Scout workday.  They should let you through without paying the park fee.

Remember to bring lunch, water, some sturdy work gloves.  The Camp Jack Wright Committee has also asked that folks bring shovels, rakes, chainsaws, wheelbarrows, and lawnmowers if they can.

Arrowmen who attend will get an opportunity to buy a Coosa Lodge service flap.