In mid-August, the national office will send out NOAC registration information to the LODGE KEY THREE on record (make sure your information is up to date) and mail a hard copy to the Council Service Center. Starting on October 1, lodges will be able to sign up Arrowmen to attend.
Now is the time to plan how you will launch your recruiting effort. While your lodge may not know the final cost for your contingent, most lodges use a nominal deposit to guarantee a NOAC slot—usually about $100, which is normally refundable. Lodges can gauge interest based on those deposits and determine how many slots to reserve. There is no need to transmit funds for those deposits, because National will bill the council office directly for all money due for each attendee slot reserved. As a reminder, there are no quotas or limitations for attendance, as long as the lodge brings as many youth arrowmen (up to age 21) as adults (21 and older. Most lodges bring many more youth than adults and have used the fundraising ideas communicated in Callout #2 as a means to do just that!!
The Contingent Leader and Lodge Chief should prepare and do a presentation on NOAC 2020 at their next lodge event. Some of what they will want to share was included in CALLOUT #3. In addition to the details of dates, location and costs, it is recommended that the presentation include details of what to expect at NOAC. Comments from arrowmen from your lodge who have attended NOAC before can be very helpful in this regard. Typical NOAC items to be covered would be: nightly shows, ceremonial competition, athletic events, dining hall food (EXCELLENT AT MICHIGAN STATE), the OA Museum attractions, patch trading, trading post, Indian events, VIA Luncheons, and Founders Day activities. At your next lodge function, each Contingent Leader and Lodge Chief should be sure to talk about the different aspects of a NOAC that would appeal to your Arrowmen!
As an additional resource for typical NOAC information, utilize www.noac2018.org. A new website, www.noac2020.org , will be in service by late August as the site for the most up to date information available. Future CALLOUTS will feature a number of these topics beginning in February 2020 once the Section Chiefs meet in late December 2019 and finalize specifics on program elements.
It is not too early to communicate in the next several days to all the members of your lodge where and when the NOAC sign up will begin. It is never too early to provide your lodge membership everything they need to know NOW about NOAC 2020.
August 3-8, 2020 Michigan State University