I got into the Order of the Arrow with a few friends. Basically, after you were accepted, you had to go to a vigil, if I remember correctly, which was based around, as others have said, discipline and small service projects.

The cool part, for me, was on the very first night, you are pretty much led out into the woods for the night. They made sure you were separated from your friends (the no talking rule was in effect anyways; some people obeyed it, some didn't) and you weren't allowed to bring a tent.

There was a thunderstorm that night, and I had was basically a sleeping bag, a tarp, and a water bottle. It never did end up raining - thank God, because I would have been screwed - but I didn't get much sleep because I just kept expecting it to happen. If it weren't for the thunderstorm, there would have been no problems, but I probably got like three hours of sleep.

As Huff said, I remember actual Order of the Arrow representatives visiting us and counting the votes. Not too sure if they kept them, but it sounds like your troop was up to shenanigans. That's no good.