Snakepower.Org Site Information

Thank you for stopping by this page. With a lot of hard work, we have put together one of the best Order of the Arrow websites on the internet.

After years of hard work, Snakepower.Org was recognized as a 2002 NOAC National Honor Website. Our site has improved each year of its existance, and the recognition is just one of the fruits of our efforts.

What started out as a simple project to make it easier for members to email each other has turned into one of the most important parts of our program. Members use it to communicate and get information, visitors use it to learn more about our program, and past members use it link themselves back to the times that they were an active member.

In 2002, Cahuilla Lodge commemorated the success of our website with this pocket flap with the internet address placed at the bottom's edge.

Just like our Lodge is known so well by our distinctive pocket flaps and rattlesnake totem, we are becoming well-known for our great website. Since the site was started by Shawn Kasner and Tracy Schultze, many, many, people have helped the site take off.

Currently, the site's lead youth is 2004 Third Vice-Chief, Chris Dietrich. He has put in an extensive amount of time making sure the information you see is informative and up-to-date. Doing this also makes it easier to have fresh information to post in our newsletter, the Call of the Cahuilla.

As times change, so will our site. We recommend you visit weekly, because information is always being updated by our lead youth and advisers. As the site continues to improve, so will our program, and improvement in what we do is what makes the Order of the Arrow program as great as it is!

It was January 1998. Shawn Kasner, then chapter chief of the Wanakik Chapter in Riverside, presented a proposal to the Lodge Executive Committee to make a lodge website. Included in the proposal were monthly fees to host, build, and maintain the website.

Tracy Schultze was then a Junior at San Diego State University. After finishing his time as a youth, he was not as active in the Order of the Arrow as he had been in the past. He heard about Shawn's proposal through Steve Scott, who was then the Lodge Chief. Not liking the idea of spending money to keep a website, he made his own "Cahuilla Lodge" page on the geocities website. It was free, and he was able to include some text, but he did not have the expertise to make the site graphically or dynamically pleasing.

Soon, Shawn and Tracy started working together. Shawn was proficient in making graphics, using Adobe Photoshop or other tools. Tracy was becoming more proficient writing Hyper Text Markup (HTML) every day, and the site was looking nicer with useful information on it.

At the time, some people didn't agree with how the site should be used, but it was soon ironed out. Shawn's Internet Service Provider (ISP) agreed to give the Lodge co-location so they could host the website on its new domain, www.snakepower.org, an obvious reference to the spirit of Cahuilla Lodge and the totem which its members stand by.

Finally, the website was fully integrated into the program on April 22, 1998 by the Cahuilla Lodge Key-3. Originally integrated into the camping program and the Camping Promotion Standing Committee, it was added to the Publications Standing Committee in September 2000.