How Procedural Secrecy Threatens the Elangomat-led Ordeal and the OA As We Know It

The recent proposal to revise the Induction was handled in ways that depart sharply from longstanding OA practice:

• At NCOC, Scripts were numbered and collected after the walkthrough.
• Recordings were prohibited.
• Attendees were told revisions were coming, discouraging critique because the proposal was “not final”.
• Youth leaders were advised that questioning the proposal was inappropriate.

These steps illustrate a level of control inconsistent with the OA’s principles of youth leadership, mentorship, and shared stewardship. It is unScoutlike. A violation of the long-standing rule against secrecy in the BSA.

This secrecy is a violation of the barriers to abuse. A key barrier to abuse is visibility. Nothing is done privately. Yet interested Scouters and parents have no knowledge of these changes. This is not just a theoretical issue. The new Admonition Ceremony includes a violation of the need for female consent before being touched and creates a public ceremony that appears romantic in character. I doubt that parents and Scouters will find this acceptable. But secrecy has blocked their input.

As the new induction is rolled out, the secrecy continues.

• Ceremony copies are now watermarked to indicate the individual receiving it.
• Copies to interested parties are forbidden.
• It was announced that there is no way to make a copy that cannot be traced back.
• We are told that the only way to understand the new induction is to see it.
• Historically, introductions of new ceremonies did not require these controls.

The procedural facts speak clearly: the lack of transparency has blocked the actual input of youth. I have yet to find a young Arrowman who likes the proposal. The claim that the youth desire this is contradicted by the fact that only a few youth have seen it, and even they were not permitted to study it in detail.

Unfortunately, neither this website nor the corresponding Facebook group has that many youth members. Why? Many parents put limits on their children’s use of social media.

This secrecy is the mechanism by which these changes have advanced. If members cannot study the proposal, they cannot defend the Elangomat-led Ordeal. If youth leaders cannot discuss it, they cannot represent the wishes of the youth they lead. The secrecy itself eliminates opposition before it can form. It is this secretive process that allowed such an all-encompassing change to get this far. It threatens not just a ceremony, but the very character of the OA.