As we have seen recently, changing circumstances in council and council service territory boundaries has necessitated adjustments to several Order of the Arrow section boundaries. As those boundary changes continue and section boundaries are adjusted on a case-by-case basis, it has become apparent that flexible options must be available to sections for conducting section youth officer elections.
To support the changing needs of sections, an option for section elections has been approved by the national director and reads as follows:
The national OA director has approved sections to conduct full or partial virtual section elections in certain extraordinary circumstances. In person elections remain the preferred method of conducting section elections. Extraordinary circumstances are determined at the discretion of the national OA director. A section which requests a full or partial virtual section election must have exhausted all reasonable efforts to conduct section elections in person and provide in writing those efforts made to hold an in-person election to the national OA director. If a section’s request for a full or partial virtual election is approved, the following guidelines should be followed to conduct a full or partial virtual section election:
1. The national OA director must approve the section conducting full or partial virtual unit elections.
2. The section must follow the rules outlined in the Field Operations Handbook to conduct the election.
3. To the extent possible, the procedures used during an in-person election should mimic those used in the section’s full or partial virtual election. This includes speeches, audience questions, and other standard practices of a section election. Whenever possible, procedures should neither be taken away or added unless necessary for the needs of a full or partial virtual election.
4. The section adviser should continue to validate those eligible for elections.
5. A means to confidentially collect votes for eligible section officers must be available and used. NO OPEN VOTE COUNTING IS TO BE ALLOWED.
To be clear, in person elections remain the preferred method of conducting section elections. This virtual election option is patterned off similar policies adopted in 2020 during COVID and should only be utilized in extraordinary circumstances after all other reasonable efforts have been made to conduct an in-person election.