"During a meeting last month with the National Service Territory #10 (the state of NY) leadership, we were informed the Council would be receiving a Conditional Charter for the upcoming year. The territory cited concerns about our Council’s sustainability. They cited specifically the declining membership of the Council for the last few years.
Last month, at our monthly Executive Board meeting, the Council Key 3 signed a document that gave the Rip Van Winkle Council a Conditional Charter for the year 2023 to 2024. It also outlined the expectations the Council is to meet in order to maintain that Conditional Charter.
If we do not meet the expectations of the Conditional Charter, the Council will be forced to begin a plan to merge with another Council.
"As we shared with you in November of 2022, the Iroquois Trail Council and the Greater Niagara Frontier Council have been engaged in merger discussions. We are excited to let you know that effective May 1, 2023 the councils will formally come together to create the new Western New York Scout Council, Boy Scouts of America.
The Iroquois Trail Council and the Greater Niagara Frontier Council have partnered together for generations on many activities. As a result of this close connection and the desire to grow the Scouting program in WNY, the councils began merger discussions last fall. The result of these careful and detailed discussions was the unanimous realization that the councils were truly stronger if they joined together to share resources and programs. Combining the strengths of each council into one organization will benefit our Scouts and leaders through increased summer and offseason camping opportunities, more frequent training programs, a wider range of council-hosted Scouting events and activities, and a larger council staff to support units.
The WNY Scout Council will serve youth from all of Erie, Niagara, Genesee, Orleans, and Wyoming counties, and most of Livingston County. The new council will continue to operate both Scout service centers in Buffalo/Cheektowaga and Oakfield. The council will also continue to operate Camp Scouthaven and Camp Sam Wood.
The transition process will take a couple of months logistically as we work with BSA National on many system issues behind the scenes. With a new Council name also comes new imagery including a new council shoulder strip, logo, flags, signage, and website all of which will be phased in over the coming days."
"On Sun., Nov. 14th, over 65 members of Ktemaque and Nacha Nimat Lodges gathered at Camp Bullowa for the first official meeting of our new lodge. The new name for the Greater Hudson Valley Council Order of the Arrow lodge will be 'Mahicantuck Lodge #15, W.W.W.' and it's totem will be that of the historic 'Mastadon', where remains have been found in the Hudson Valley area.
The new officers were elected at this meeting."
Even though they were both chartered to Greater Hudson Valley Council, according to Project Magellan, Ktemaque 15, as part of the old NE-2B, was assigned to Section E18, and Nacha Nimat 86, as part of the old NE-2A, was assigned to Section E20. Now they've merged, I had to consult both the Project Magellan map and Section E20 website's list of lodges, to decide that Mahicantuck 15 must be part of Section E18. This was confirmed by the logo for their 2022 conclave held at Alpine Scout Camp, which listed all of the attending lodges: 4, 15, 360, 412, and 427.
|
New E9
|
OA Section List Created: June 19, 1996 This page updated: webmaster@oasections.com |
OASections.com
|
¤
|
¤
|
|
![]() |
Copyright © 2022-24 by Robert Higgins. All rights reserved. |