Competition Instructions

Introduction

The competition process begins on March 1, 2015 via online video submissions, and then closes on May 31, 2015. The detailed competition guidelines are below. The competition guidelines must be strictly adhered to by all competition teams.

The National Finalist teams will be selected from the submitted videos. Following the video submission period, those qualifying teams will be notified of their “National Finalist” status, and will be invited to compete for “National Champion” during a live competition to take place Tuesday of NOAC. Following their live competition performance, the National Finalist Teams will receive an evaluation to determine if they are also a National Honor Team, with the appropriate recognition. All teams who are not National Finalists are also encouraged to participate in a ceremony evaluation at NOAC.

When participating in the National Champion competition on Tuesday August 4, 2015 at NOAC, each National Finalist Team will perform in front of a panel of NOAC Competition Judges as well as an Evaluator. The ceremony presentation portion will last no more than 30 minutes. This will be followed by approximately 30 minutes of evaluation of their presentation against the Honor Team standard and then feedback by the team on the National Champion Competition process they experienced. The team and any youth or adult spectators from the same lodge must arrive at least 10 minutes prior to the team’s assigned time. No spectators other than the Inductions and Ceremonial Events (ICE) staff and members of the same lodge are permitted to attend. Competition teams may not view other teams’ presentations. Audio or videotaping by spectators will not be permitted in the venue.

Competition Guidelines

Video Submissions

  1. Ceremonial teams submit a video of their Pre-Ordeal Ceremony via the web portal listed below.
  2. Submissions are limited to one video per Lodge. In the event that multiple submissions are received from the same Lodge, only the first submission will be considered.
  3. Video submissions must begin with either a text or verbal statement of the team’s: Council name, Council number, Lodge name, and the members’ names and their respective principals.
  4. Video submissions must display a full view of the entire ceremony team - unedited - and without any zooming, panning, or trucking (slowly moving the camera along a path). The video must show the full body (feet to above head hand gestures) of the forward speaker at all times.
  5. The ICE Committee reserves the right to reject any video suspected of editing, including the use of green-screen or other special effects.
  6. Teams are encouraged to utilize stage, boom, or personal microphones to improve audio quality. Teams will not be penalized for having microphones visible on screen, providing that it does not detract from the presentation.
  7. The video must display the full ceremony per the current published documents. The Pre-Ordeal Ceremony must begin with the investing and end with the principals returning their items to the fire lay.
  8. Using a ceremony ring is encouraged, but not required. Teams will not be penalized for filming indoors, provided that the team maintains correct positioning.
  9. Video submissions must be in either .mpeg4 or .avi format (other formats may be accepted on a case by case basis provided that we can view the file).
  10. Video submissions may begin on March 1, 2015 and must be submitted before May 31, 2015.
  11. At the time of video submission, the team’s following information must also be provided via the website: Council name, Council number, Lodge name, members’ names and their respective principal, members’ email addresses, team adviser’s name, team adviser’s email address, and team adviser’s phone number.
  12. The website to submit a video is at: http://icebsa.mysticorp.com/

Additional Information and Requirements

  1. Following submission, the videos will be evaluated against the National Honor Team criteria.
  2. Disqualification Warning: For those teams not meeting the National Honor Team standard (none of the Principals presenting as “Fair” and no more than one Principal as “Good”, all others either “Excellent” or “Outstanding”) will be disqualified from continuing in the National Championship process and will be provided with some actionable steps that should help them to be evaluated as a National Honor Team at NOAC. This can happen with a single Principal with a “Fair” presentation (having few or confusing gestures; garbled or mumbled lines; poor facial expression; lacking emphasis; missing a movement; missing words or obvious pausing). For details, please see the guidelines for Evaluations and Competitions in Appendix 3 on page 67 of the OA Field Operations Guide.
  3. Those teams qualifying as a potential National Honor Team, will then be scored and ranked according to their presentation in terms of the National Honor Team criteria:

    Category

    Top Tier Objective

    Gestures

    Emphasize all important points; meaning would be clear to the candidates

    Clarity & Rate

    Projected well, clear when heard by 50 candidates;

    rate varies as appropriate, but slow enough to be understood

    Bearing

    Non-verbal cues are consistent with the spoken words;

    presenting their role clearly, recognizable even without words

    Expressiveness

    Appropriate use of pauses;

    words reflect their meanings and sound like what they represent

    Movements

    Perfect according to the diagrams provided in the ceremony document

    Memorization

    Perfect rendition of the text provided in the ceremony document without any obvious pauses

  4. A limited number of the highest scoring teams will be selected as National Finalists
  5. All teams, including the National Finalists, will be notified of both their evaluation and possible National Finalist status prior to NOAC.
  6. The National Finalists may compete in the live final competition for the selection of “National Champion.”
  7. To be eligible to compete in the live final competition, a National Finalist Team must present themselves on Tuesday August 4, 2015 at NOAC for the live final competition with the exact same team members performing on their video. If any National Finalist Team fails to comply, they will remain a National Finalist, but are not eligible to be National Champion.
  8. All decisions regarding all phases of this National Champion Competition process, including the evaluation of the submitted videos, the ranking of the qualified teams, and the final ranking of the finalist teams are done by the NOAC ICE Competitions subcommittee, and are final.

Video Usage

The ICE Committee, at its sole discretion, will select from the NOAC competition performances, or any portion thereof, to be potentially used as examples of ceremonies which the ICE Committee believes should be made available to other lodges as a training resource either at NOAC or following.

Questions

Any questions seeking clarification of the competitions procedures should be directed to Assistant Conference Vice Chief, Keenan Kimmick, and Competitions Adviser, Barry Ekle, at ceremonycompetitions@oa-bsa.org.

Last revised on May 4, 2015