One of our Tutelo Ceremony Teams completed at the 2009 NOAC Ceremonies Competitions held August 2^nd-August 6^th.  The team consisted of Justin C. as Allowat Sakima, Mike L.as Metu, Steven B. as Kichkinet, and Brian F. as Nutiket.  There were two separate rounds of competition: a National Championship round of competitions (for more polished teams) and an Evaluation round for all teams.  Lodges from all around the country sent one or more teams to compete in just the evaluation round or both evaluation and championship competition. Tutelo competed in both.  On Sunday, during the first round of championship competition, the team was video taped conducting the ceremony.    During this first round of taping, approximately 50 Lodges’ top teams were taped and reviewed by a panel of judges.  On Monday and Tuesday, nearly 120 ceremony teams then competed in a separate Evaluation round where approximately 20 teams were selected as Merit Honor Teams- Tutelo’s team received such an award.  On Wednesday, from the video taped round of competitions, 10 teams were then selected for a second round of reviewing by all judges individually.  From this round of reviewing, 5 finalist teams were selected to deliver the ceremony once again for the NOAC National Ceremony Championship.  This round was video taped on Thursday morning in a professional television studio for the purpose of using the footage in the next OA National Ceremonies Training Video due out within the next year.  After completing this last round of competitions, the Tutelo team was awarded the Third Place- National Ceremony Championship title.  We all know Tutelo has top ceremonies, now we can quantify that with a National Title.