 Over the decades since the Order of the Arrow 's founding , more than one million Scouts and Scouters have worn the OA sash on their uniforms , denoting membership in the Brotherhood of Cheerful Service . There are presently 183 @,@ 000 members of the Order of the Arrow in all but two of BSA councils nationwide . Summarizing what he felt the order signified , E. Urner Goodman wrote in the foreword to the Order of the Arrow Handbook from the perspective of more than a half century after the brotherhood 's inception : 
