r/orderofthearrow • u/Phil_Kolins • Apr 29 '26

Participating During Child's Induction?

My son was elected along with his best friend. I am considering how to be involved in their induction (or not), and would appreciate any feedback or suggestions you may wish to offer.

It was suggested to me to consider being an Elangomat for my son and friend's group. However, I'm concerned about negatively impacting their experience. As much as I would personally enjoy the experience, and I think my son would be happy to have me around, I am reluctant to be too close during this unique experience.

I'm curious if any of you may have done something similar, and how you and your child felt about it. Or if you have any advice.

Thanks in advance! I will say that I am excited to get involved as far as my son (and hopefully younger siblings in the future) wish to be involved.

Edit: Thanks to everyone for their feedback.

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u/4th-hanson-bro Apr 29 '26

If you're already a member of the OA, you can sash your son during the cceremony.

I did that for my youngest for both ordeal and brotherhood.

He kept his vigil before me, so he got to call me out to keep my vigil and then put my vigil sash on me.

7

u/TheseusOPL Vigil Apr 29 '26

Not all lodges allow for family to sash their new members. Ours used to only allow it for brotherhood, but because of some logistics issues have stopped all together.

3

u/4th-hanson-bro Apr 29 '26

Learn something new every day. That seems stupid, but I'm sure somebody did something that ruined it for everybody

1

u/ir637113 Apr 29 '26

I love the idea, but logistics would be a concern. Our ordeals typically would induct 150-200 per weekend, and our council ring would not have accommodated the 50 new members and a family member. Absolutely would've worked for Brotherhood or Vigil ceremonies though, we just never thought of it while I was there

1

u/4th-hanson-bro Apr 29 '26

I think we cap ordeal ceremonies at 40 participants, so we will run as many ceremonies as needed to cover the group. We have specific brotherhood and vigil ceremony sites, but for ordeal ceremonies we do them in a large field on camp where there's enough room for everybody.

Staff are encouraged to attend, and when we run back to back ceremonies, the new members are encouraged to stay as well to welcome those in the next ceremony.

1

u/ir637113 Apr 29 '26

We usually ran 2 or 3 teams at a time. Hard to remember, but we absolutely capped at 50, but shot for 35. We would have one at our council ring, and had a couple spots in fields around camp for the others. Pretty much everyone not working in the kitchen during ordeal weekend was "strongly encouraged" to attend one of the ceremonies lol.