Putting Together a National Conference

The planning process for the 2004 NOAC actually began several years ago when the National OA Committee picked the location of this conference to be Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Following the choice of a location, contracts were drawn up and preliminary planning for the facilities was made.

In December of 2003, at the National Planning Meeting in Dallas, all of the section chiefs met and picked the theme for the conference, "Chosen to Serve, Inspired to Lead".

After electing the national chief, vice chief, four region chiefs, and the conference vice chiefs (CVC's), they started to develop their program plans. With members of the National Order of the Arrow Committee providing guidance, the CVC's led their committees into creating the individual program areas. Matt Walker of Richardson, Texas, was appointed conference program chairman. In the spring of this year, conference vice chiefs and lead advisers visited ISU. They carefully looked over the various facilities, and continued detailed planning for the event.

The 2004 NOAC committees are: American Indian Activities, Camping and High Adventure, TOAP, Communications, Activities and Recreation, Training, Founders' Day, Inductions and Ceremonal Events, Extreme High Adventure, National Council of Chiefs, Region Chief, Shows and Special Events. In addition to the program committees, there are also support service groups that are designed to ensure the success of the conference. This year's service committees are Financial Services, Support Services, Information Technologies and Trading Post. The committees are headed by a member of the National Committee and supported by enough staff to carry out the support responsibilities. The approximately 1200 NOAC staff members began arriving on Tuesday to finalize arrangements and begin setting up program areas.

The Trading Post staff had the formidable task of preparing all of the orders Arrowmen placed before leaving home. Items for each pre-order were sorted and placed in grocery bags. The bags were numbered and lined up ready for pick up by participants. The result was a veritable field of bags.

The Outdoor Adventure Place (TOAP) is a place where a Scout can pick up some skills and have some fun. The TOAP staffers have been working hard to get their site ready for all the participants. They have set up many high adventure activities and have arranged for several government agencies to provide informative displays for the NOAC participants. Lots of lumber, nails and hammering were required, but the result is a great place for Arrowmen to have fun. They even built a swimming pool!

The Shows committee prepares the exciting evening shows for NOAC. The Opening Show, History/Recognition, American Indian and the Theme Show all have to be ready to entertain and inform the participants at NOAC. They even put together a Staff Kick-off on Friday evening.

The other committees were also busy. Communications put together the newspaper, the web site, radio station and planned for their other responsibilities. Training was busy scheduling trainers, sessions and making sure all materials are available for the start of the sessions. Competitions and Recreations also did scheduling and prepared for their events. All of the staff were busy making sure that the 2004 NOAC would be ready to go when the participants arrive on Saturday.

Revised 7/31/2004