Octoraro Lodge 22
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Octoraro Lodge #22 is the local chapter of the Order of the Arrow affiliated with Chester County Council, BSA, in West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA.
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[edit] Purpose
Octoraro Lodge #22 supports Horseshoe Scout Reservation, including both Camp Horseshoe and Camp Ware, with thousands of annual volunteer hours of service and multiple fundraisers throughout the year. The purpose of Octoraro Lodge #22 is to support camping throughout Chester County Council.
[edit] eScout
eScout was an unmoderated computer email list intended to facilitate general purpose discussion of topics surrounding Chester County Council, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Horseshoe Scout Reservation. eScout was started in November 1995 and operated continuously until the spring of 2000. The list was hosted on sakima.Ivy.NET, the same server which also hosted the web sites for Octoraro Lodge #22 and for The Horseshoe Scout Reservation Alumni Association. At its peak the mailing list numbered approximately 500 members.
Membership was open to anyone. eScout was already well established when many members had just acquired their initial email address and Internet access.
Originally the list was small, and used primarily to reconnect with camp staff members and far flung members of the Horseshoe community. The mailing list began to rapidly expand as Internet access became more readily available. Also the Boy Scouts of America were involved in several high profile controversies in the national media which also contributed to a number of lively discussions. Some of the more memorable debates on eScout included:
- What to do about Camp Ware
- How to improve the program at Camp Horseshoe
- Women in Scouting
- Scouting for All / Gays in Scouting
- Whether or not to pave over Camp Ware, turning it into auxiliary parking for Camp Horseshoe
- The great Patch Embezzlement Scandal of 1997
- The Vigil Selection Scandal of 1997
- The debate over banquet door prizes in 1999
- The Columbine Massacre
- The “Duty to God” debate of 1998
- Hazing in Scouting
- Life Dues
- Blindfolding in ceremonies
- Atheists in Scouting
- Friday Funnies
- The Great Fees and Dues debate of 1999
While not ever officially sanctioned by Octoraro Lodge or Chester County Council, because of the overwhelming membership by those who were involved in Scouting, eScout became the Council’s de facto online community. For many individuals, eScout was their first exposure to email lists, and as a result a significant percentage of posts did not follow commonly regarded Netiquette rules. Small discussions would quickly descend into full flame wars, and messages which were intended to be private would be inadvertently cc:’ed to the entire mailing list.
After a particularly heated discussion over dues and fees to the lodge, in which several members exchanged extremely rude and insulting emails over the public list, Bruce Goodman, then Lodge Advisor of Octoraro #22, called for an end to the distribution. In a letter sent to the entire Lodge membership, eScout was claimed to be “tearing our Lodge apart”. The list was taken down in the spring of 2000. The archive of eScout discussions continues to be maintained.
