On Restrictions

Rick Obermeyer posted this to Patch-L earlier this week and I thought it worth repeating here.  So with Rick’s permission here it is:

The NOAC training session on ethical patch distribution got lively sometimes.

For example, one adult strongly asserrted that if just anybody could somehow acquire an Eagle medal, such as off of eBay, it would diminish and cheapen his personal whole experience of achieving the rank of Eagle. It was like the value of that whole significant life’s experience  hinged on limited possession of a small piece of metal and cloth.

In another example, a couple of youth were showing me the designs on some of their lodge’s flaps. I pointed to one, and said, “I like that classic design of your lodge the best.”
They said, ‘Oh, that’s our Brotherhood flap. You can only ever get two at Brotherhood.”
I said, “And are you only allowed to ever get two Brotherhood sashes?”
They said that they saw what I meant.

In one question and answer period, a couple of youth in the back of the room asked, “Can you come talk to the members of our lodge that aren’t here?”
My glib answer was, “I’m sorry, but I can’t be held responsible for the members of your lodge who choose not to think.”
The actual answer would be what follows, which is taken from the syllabus for that class. I know that it’s a lot of text, but I am encouraged by how many requested the cd, and I still really wish I could reach “the members of (that) lodge who aren’t here.”

Q4: How do you feel about restrictions?
A4: That really isn’t in the context of this session, but since we have time, I’ll give you my personal opinions, if you like. I can’t speak on restrictions for everybody. That would be too presumptuous. I can only talk about what works for my own lodge back home. Shall I go ahead?

How my lodge feels about restrictions is based on some premises. The first premise is that we are all brothers in the Order of the Arrow. That is, equal brothers. We all got into the OA the same way, with election by others. If we have Brotherhood membership, that’s because we all individually made a personal promise to accept the challenge to cheerful service that was shown to us during the Ordeal. If we are Vigil, that is a sign given to indicate that others feel that we have done a decent job of keeping that personal promise we made to ourselves at Brotherhood.

All that is individual and private and personal. Is your Ordeal more significant to you than mine was to me? Is the promise you made to yourself at Brotherhood more meaningful than mine? I don’t think so, and I’m not going to tell you that it’s not, because it isn’t. Then because we are all equal members of the OA, it’s hard for me to think of a restriction that doesn’t either insult a fellow lodge member, or embarrass the lodge.

Let’s say a lodge has a special project or event coming up. I have heard it said, “Let’s have a restricted patch. If we have something special, that will encourage people to come and work.”

First of all, I have yet to figure what there is in the Ordeal ceremony that’s supposed to turn Scouts into OA patch collectors. Why is it that youth (usually not collectors themselves) think that a “special” patch will encourage certain behavior – attendance, work, etc.

Are workers in your lodge are so uncommon that they need to be encouraged with a special patch? In my lodge, we take the attitude that everybody is a worker. If everybody is a worker, then what do we need a special patch for workers for? Our lodge’s workers are not so unusual that they are special. Our workers are everybody, and wouldn’t saying otherwise insult my own lodge’s members? Isn’t saying that workers are so unusual in your lodge that they are special and unusual really kind of an embarrassing thing to say about the general membership of your lodge?

Sometimes an LEC will get the idea that a special patch is needed to encourage attendance. Maybe a participation patch or a limited patch will do it. That’s fine if the people you want to come to your weekends are all patch collectors. How many people go through your lodge’s Ordeals turn out to be collectors? Not many, I bet. I suggest that the way to get people to come out to your activities is to have decent activities they will want to return to. Almost any new Ordeal member will come back to at least one activity. What will be there for him at that activity? I have seen Executive Committees discuss for 30 minutes what the shape of the next patch is going to be, and then not spend five minutes discussing what is going to actually happen at that weekend.

It’s been my experience that very few youth join the OA so they can become patch collectors. Instead, they look forward to how membership in the OA can enrich their Scouting activity. They look forward to what there is for them to do, not what special patches they can have a chance to get. To me,. saying that a restricted patch might be what it takes to get more people out to your events is inadvertently making a pretty poor comment on the quality of your events. Isn’t saying that your lodge weekends are so unappealing that people need to be offered a incentive to attend kind of an embarrassing thing to say about the content of your events?

The second premise is that the lodge name belongs to all the members of the lodge. Does your lodge name represent everybody in the lodge, or only part of the lodge? (Everybody) Does your lodge’s name represent you all the time, or only part of the time? (All the time.) When does your lodge name not represent the lodge? (Never)

We feel that everybody is entitled to an equal chance to get something that represents them. Sure, we have a NOAC contingent flap, and in our minds it works out like this. Does your lodge’s NOAC contingent represent the whole lodge, or just the people who were able to come to NOAC? (The whole lodge). Does your NOAC contingent flap have on it your lodge’s name, or does it say something like, “The Guys From ABC Council Who Went To NOAC?” Of course, it has your lodge’s name on it.

If your NOAC Contingent flap has your lodge’s name on it, does your contingent flap represent the whole lodge, or just the guys who had the money to come to NOAC? (The whole lodge) It’s been explained to me that the guys coming to NOAC deserve a contingent-only flap because they are special. Why are they special? Because the experience is special, they say. I know a lot of youth who wish they could have that special experience, too, except that their family can’t afford for them to have it. In my lodge, we choose NOT to tell some of our brothers that they are not special just because they don’t have the money to go to NOAC, while the people who do have the money to go ARE special.

I know of a Florida lodge that used to give each of its NOAC contingent members a single special flap. That’s just one, a one per life flap that was instantly worth about a hundred dollars to rabid collectors. Now, say you’re a member of that lodge. Because you don’t have the money to go to NOAC, you don’t get a hundred dollar gift, because you’re not special. You’re not allowed access to something that represents you because your family doesn’t have the money to make you special. How would that make you feel?

So what’s more important, to make a minority of your lodge’s members feel extra special, or to choose not to insult the big majority of your lodge’s membership by telling them that they are not special. In my lodge, we feel that the special reward for going to NOAC is the NOAC experience itself. We choose not to make the contingent members more special, which they don’t really need, by insulting everybody else who couldn’t go. Sure, we have a NOAC contingent flap, which everybody in the lodge can buy as many as they want. If we run out before NOAC, we order more. We don’t have a contingent only border color and a general membership border color, because having something limited to just the contingent insults everybody who couldn’t be part of the contingent, because we don’t have some members that are more special than others.

By the way, yes, my lodge had Ordeal, Brotherhood, and Vigil flaps. Are you an Ordeal member in my lodge and wanted a Vigil flap? Sure, you can buy one. You can’t wear it yet, but you’re entitled to own one if you want it. After all, it has your lodge’s name on it.

I know of a couple of lodges that have LEC or “Lodge Officer” flaps. Well, that wouldn’t work in my lodge. When somebody stands up to run for office, he usually talks about what he wants to do for his fellow members, and how hard he wants to work for them. In other words, he is asking to serve them as an officer for a year. He doesn’t stand up and say, “I want to be an officer so I can be special.”

Doesn’t an officer deserve a reward for doing a good job? Well, of course he does, and that reward is the satisfaction from a job well done. Do you reward somebody for doing something that he asked to do? Is somebody special because he keeps a promise that he made? In my lodge, we don’t think so.

A third premise is to keep in mind what does Little Johnny Arrowman want, and I have never, ever heard a youth Arrowman say, “Gee, I sure wish I wasn’t allowed to buy as many as I want.” There’s not a single youth in my lodge who feels that his experience in the OA is lessened because our patches are plentiful, reasonably priced, and unrestricted.

I have heard it said that if a patch is restricted, it will be worth more to the collectors. Or, if there are a lot of them, it won’t be worth as much as if it was restricted. Well, OK, who are “the collectors.” Who, ultimately, are the people most likely to want to collect patches from your lodge? They are going to be your own future members, aren’t they? And who’s going to have a harder time collecting the tough stuff then, youth or adults? So why would you want to make your stuff more difficult for your own lodge’s youth?

Some people think that if they limit the quantity that can be bought, there will be fewer in circulation, so the patch will be worth more. Worth more to who, youth or adults? They feel it will make better trades if there aren’t many around. Me, I would rather make five easy trades with five people instead of one tough trade with a single person. I would rather that a youth make several friends in trading, than just one acquaintance in a single hard nosed transaction.

Some lodges feel that they will make a patch special if they make it a fundraiser at a stiff price. My lodge would rather sell five patches for three dollars each than one patch for $15.00. How many youth in your lodge can afford $15.00 patches? How many youth in your lodge could afford to buy several extra $15.00 patches? How many extra’s are going to be bought by anybody of that $15.00 patch? OK then, how many youth in your lodge could more easily afford to buy a three dollar patch? How many then might be able to buy a few extra three dollar patches? Should patches be for youth pockets or adult wallets?

If a youth buys a fifteen dollar patch, he has it, and he’s glad to have it, and it goes into a drawer, and his experience with it is over. If a youth has five three dollar patches, he has them, and he’s glad to have them, and one or two go into the drawer, and he’s maybe able to trade the rest and make some new friends or keep up with old friends and have the fun of trading and remember the people he traded with. My lodge would rather help its members have several friendly experiences instead of a single encounter with a drawer.

My lodge feels that it’s more important to augment the experience of a youth in the OA than it is to create investment properties for him. We would rather that he have the fun of easy trading with several people rather than worrying about the value of a few special limited patches..

And because there are so many extra’s out there, who gets the fringe benefits? The people who aren’t even in your lodge yet, your lodge’s future members and the future collectors and the future traders. We made a lot of flaps for our 50th anniversary ten years ago. Today, those aren’t hard to locate. We made a LOT of flaps for the OA’s 75th anniversary fifteen years ago. Those are still out there all over the place. I am delighted that a current youth member of my lodge can get those pieces of our history without too much trouble, instead of being personally satisfied at how my own ones are getting more valuable all the time because they’re “rare.”

Next time somebody talks about restricting a patch to make it worth more, whether in price or quantity or requirements or work, remind yourself: when did you ever hear a youth say, “Gee, I sure wish I wasn’t allowed to buy as many as I want.”

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But what is the difference between literature and journalism?
…Journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. That is all.

Oscar Wilde, The Critic as Artist, 1891
Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet (1854 – 1900)