WORDS FROM THE CHIEF
Dear Lodge Members
Congratulations on a great year! In case you missed it, we
won the Conclave Award, most Indian Lodge, and the Spirit Award.
It was a very fun weekend. We had one of the highest attendance
in lodge history. It was probably the most fun event I've been
to in my
scouting career.
In a few weeks we are having a lodge BBQ to celebrate our victory and welcome the new officers. It should be a lot of fun so make sure you can make it.
YIS
Ted Zika
THE 2005 CONCLAVE
The Conclave 2005 was a success
for all Hungteetsepoppi members. We won all the sporting events
and had a great time doing it. We had more spirit than anyone
with our Hungteetsepoppi Western Tanager costume and we had the
2nd biggest attendance at the Conclave, earning us 7 points, 2nd
to only the host lodge Ut-In-silica. But in our defense, they
had more people attending the Conclave then there are people in
our lodge. Although we had the greatest percentage of attendance
which is a giant victory for us.
In the competitions, we got third place in Indian Dancing. That
is HUGE! If we can get more people to dance, hopefully we will
be able to beat Achewon Nimat and take home all the awards. In
ultimate Frisbee, we had a slight challenge in the finals, but
won anyway over Talako. The dodgeball tournament was no problem.
We won 1st place and managing to peg our section chief in the
process. In volleyball and Indian handball, we dominated. In ceremonies
we got third, which will become first next year after Jacob is
through with our ceremonies team. In sandpainting we got 2nd and
in the website we got an unfortunate 6th place, due to a small
computer screen. In Planbook we got 2nd and newsletter we tied
for first.
In training, we didn't do so well. We had only 87.8% of our attendees
earn a degree, when 4 out of 8 lodges got 100%. In spirit, somehow
Achewon Nimat managed to beat us at spirit at the theme show even
though we had a dancing bird and a loud crowd. We did get full
8 points in the Council of Chiefs rank order though. This brought
us to a grand total of 138 points scoring first over Achewon Nimat
with 133 points. And Hungteetsepoppi wins the Conclave for the
3rd straight year.
Andrew H.
DANCE TEAM WINS AWARD AT CONCLAVE
Hungteetsepoppi's
brand new Indian Dance team had its first competition at Conclave,
finishing 3rd place, with reigning champion Achewon-Nimat taking
the trophy. Through the combined efforts of Liam Z., Kevin C.,
Andrew H., Jacob A. and adviser Adam Lovell, we were able to enter
two dancers in this year's competition. Kevin C.participated in
the straight-dance (southern traditional) competition, and Jacob
A. entered as a grass dancer. Everyone who participated had a
good time, and our success in the dance competition helped us
secure our 3rd victory at Conclave. Other lodges were very supportive,
even offering to help get the fledgling team off the ground. "You
can come to our practices," said the Ache dance adviser,
"but only until you get better than us."
We are always looking for new members - this is a fun thing
to do and a great tradition that extends far beyond the Order
of the Arrow. Interested in joining? Send an email to: oa466dance@googlegroups.com
to sign up.
JACOB A.
A PERSPECTIVE ON THE CONCLAVE
This year's section W3A Conclave
has been won by none other than Hungteetsepoppi Lodge, which gives
us a three year winning streak! Congratulations and thanks to
everyone who attended and helped make this Conclave a time to
remember! A lot of planning and preparation went into this Conclave,
and it certainly showed through as we swept the sports events
and demonstrated our prowess and will to win all throughout the
weekend. Arriving Friday night, the usual signing in and signing
up for classes took place, and everyone just milled around, eating
popcorn and drinking punch until the opening ceremony was to take
place. A certain excitement filled the room as all 8 lodges prepared
to make themselves known and feared by showing their tremendous
spirit, and the anticipation was felt even more by the new Ordeal
members, as this Conclave was to be their first. Hungteetsepoppi
started the spirit "battle" early by issuing a never-flinching
cry of "Po-Pi, Po-Pi," and disregarding the pleas of
other lodges to hush while never crossing the line of being obnoxious.
Various decorous items supplied by our mighty Spirit adviser and
Spirit chair helped bring out the Tanager in us and would eventually
lead us to victory, paired with our overwhelming enthusiasm and
desire to win. The opening ceremony was informative and stimulating,
with an overview of what the weekend would hold from the section
officers, and an excellent game of Simon-Says, which our very
own Luke Roy won, along with another very alert and cautious contender.
With the opening ceremony behind us, everyone brought out a plain
white T-Shirt and waited to have a very cool iron on picture of
our Totem put onto it. Thanks to Kevin Fischer for making those
iron on patches! After everyone had their T-Shirt petitions we
were participating in. Meanwhile, the teams on the field were
winning the first of their competitions, and practicing against
each other to warm up for the next game. As we walked out of the
judging room, we quickly discussed our good points and our flaws
before taking off to get to dance and sports competitions. While
Jacob Andreas competed in dance, we managed to win every one of
our matches in dodge ball, volleyball, Indian handball, and ultimate
Frisbee in spite of the heavy rain bombarding us as we fought
valiantly for the cup. By the end of the day we would have won
every championship. We missed out on OA Jeopardy later in the
afternoon, but arrived back in the camping area shouting victoriously,
"Poppi, Poppi, Tweet Tweet Tweet. We're The Lodge That Can't
Be Beat!!" Needless to say, the other lodges appeared shamed
as we marched through their campsite cheering loudly, showing
which lodge is truly "numero uno".
Everyone gathered
in the main hall to congregate and hang out. Some Hungteetsepoppi
guys learned how to operate the popcorn machine, and had a great
time experimenting with how to make Kettle Corn with large amounts
of artificial sweetener. They were just perfecting their formula
when it was announced that section officer elections would take
place in just a few minutes, and that all youth should go to a
neighboring building to vote, as the youth were the only people
who vote. Some new faces made their way into the positions this
year, and were welcomed into their new duties officially later
in the weekend. After the elections, we made our way back to the
main building to get some grub. Dinner tasted even better knowing
that we were the top dogs, and as one would expect we were loudly
discussing the day's happenings and talking about patch trading,
something many of the new Ordeal Members were not familiar with,
and were eager to learn more about. Patch trading, however, would
have to wait until after the evening show, which was based around
Fun. It was definitely a ball for Hungteetsepoppi, when our mascot
got up on stage to show everyone a few moves. There were a few
attempts to un-stage The Bruce, but he pulled through and thwarted
even the most ambitious of tormenters. This was obviously a symbolic
message to all the other lodges that you just can't beat "numero
uno". There was a slideshow of high adventure programs that
are available through the OA, and everyone discussed potential
trips and how much they would like to participate in these really
great programs. All three bases looked like a lot of fun, Northern
Tier Canoeing, the Florida Sea Base and Philmont Scout Ranch all
provide challenges and rewards, and are all offered to arrowmen
with great prices and opportunities. The Saturday evening show
was really fun, and we got to show our Poppi-pride, and bask in
the day's glory.
Everyone got up and went over to the cracker barrel after the show, but the night was far from over. Silent auctions for youth and adults were taking place, and many people had set up patch stations and were eager to start trading. The two guys running the popcorn machine took up their post and enjoyed making everyone delicious kettle corn until there were no more seeds left. It was a big hit. As time went by, everyone got their patches out and started wheeling and dealing. Everywhere you would go people would be haggling over deals and getting second and third opinions on how much such and such a patch was worth, and whether they were doing a good trade. Some went to bed early, exhausted by the rigorous competitions earlier in the day. Eventually even the die-hard traders grew sleepy and packed up their wares, happy with the trades they had done and the people they had met. There was no crazy rap music tonight. Everyone was sleeping like a log.
The next morning was
greeted with bleary-eyed squints and icy stares as people slowly
trickled into the main hall and got ready for breakfast. Hungteetsepoppi
lodge, however, stayed back and met behind the teepee for lodge
officer elections. We listened to all the candidates' give their
speeches and words were said for some guys who couldn't be there
to run. After all the elections, we had four great new officers.
Kevin Clark as our new lodge Chief, and Jacob Andreas, Patrick
Nolan and Andrew Harvey as the new lodge Vice Chiefs. As a group,
we went off to breakfast, having to drag some exhausted members
along with us. There was a generally subdued aura over the hall
that morning, and with good reason. Yesterday was filled to the
brim with excitement! There were people passed out on the tables
and sleeping on friends' shoulders, but some were perky, excited
and ready for the closing show and the announcement of the winning
lodge. Finally the big moment came. We all took our seats and
sat quietly until it came time for awards to be given. Once again
we had Bruce the Tanager leading us in celebration, and we did
a lot of it. Bringing home the Most Indian Lodge award, Spirit
award and overall winning the Conclave was a great feeling, as
well as winning all the sports and taking second in dance. There
was a very emotional exchange of section officers, and everybody
gave our new officers a big hand as they carried out the rest
of the show.
Yours in Brotherhood,
Tyko S-C
LODGE OFFICER ELECTIONS HELD AT THE CONCLAVE
New Officers Elected
At the Conclave, Elections were held, and the 2005-2006 officers were elected. The new Chief will be Kevin C., with Vice Chief of Membership, Jacob A., Vice Chief of Activities, Patrick (Bruce) N., and Vice Chief of Communications and Finance, Andrew H. Their terms of office will begin at the Ordeal in the Fall, and extend to the following Ordeal in 2006. Don't forget to congratulate them when you see them.
Exciting news for Outdoor Adventurers!
The Piedmont Council will launch a new Co-ed High Adventure
Crew to include all youths over the age of 14. Like a
Troop, the Crew will meet 2x a month to discuss program and develop
new skills. Trips and adventures will be determined by the Crew
membership. The theme of the Crew is centered around outdoor adventures
and could include: kayaking, mountaineering, orienteering course
challenges, backpacking, snow camping, canoeing, mountain biking,
technical rock climbing, extreme sport competition to name a few
possibilities. Please express your interest by contacting the
Council Office (510) 547-4493 and leaving your name, email or
phone number.
LODGE BUSINESS MEETING AND BBQ, MONDAY, JUNE 20TH, 2005
The Lodge will hold it's "END OF YEAR" and "victory" meeting and BBQ at 6:30pm on Monday, June20th, 2005, at the Piedmont Community Center. All Arrowmen are invited and encouraged to attend. There is no cost (this means free food) for burgers, dogs, potato salad, desert, etc.
To celebrate the third Conclave win in a row, we will hold the BBQ at the BBQ area of behind the Piedmont Community Center. You will need to RSVP so we know how much food to buy no later than Friday, June 17th. Send an email to our Vice Chief of Communications and Finance, Jacob A, or Our Vice Chief of Activites, David M., or call them, and let him know you plan to attend. Scout uniforms and sash are required.
You will receive an email with additional information shortly.
Please plan on attending this total fun event!