Q: What is the cutoff age for youths and adults in OA Activities?

A: For Order of the Arrow participation (events, elections, etc.), a youth is anyone under age 21. Adults are those 21 or older. This holds true for everything except housing status at events, where adults are defined as 18 and older (see more below).

Note that this does NOT change the BSA youth protection policies, which define Boy Scout youth as those under 18, and adults as those 18 or older. These policies still apply to all OA activities.

So individuals at OA activities really fit into one of three categories:

• Those under 18, who are youth for both OA events and BSA policies
• Those 18 to 20, who are youth for OA events, but are adults for BSA policies
• Those 21 and older, who are adults for both OA events and BSA policies

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Revised 3/26/01