Returning to Santa Barbara, after having conducted two meetings of Scout executives in San Francisco and Los Angeles last week. A. R. Groenink, Santa Barbara County Scout Executive, announced that following the annual fellowship meeting of Area U of the Order of the Arrow during Easter vacation at the Glendade Boy Scout Camp, the present Area U will be divided into three separate areas.
Attending the meetings of Scout executives of Region 12 was H. Lloyd Nelson, national chief of the order, from Philadelphia, who had been attending an Area Y fellowship meeting in Yakima, Wash., the previous week. He reviewed the history of the order, which started some 27 years ago1 in the camp of the Philadelphia Scout Council on Treasure Island, Pa. A question period followed the presentation.
Nelson’s visit was at the invitation of Groenink, who for the past three years has served as Area U leader and for the past year as a member of the nine-member executive committee of the national lodge. A questionaire (sic) sent to Region 12 Scout executives last November revealed that 24 councils in the region which did not have chapters of the order and were desirous of starting them. It was to have the Scout executives of these councils as well as those councils having lodges, meet the national chief that the meetings of the past week were conducted by Groenink.
There are at present 19 lodges of the order in Region 12, this also being the largest number in any area in the country. Distances being great and transportation expenses to Area fellowship meetings correspondingly high, it was necessary to divide the present Area U territory to smaller and more compact areas, Groenink said. Nelson and Groenink agreed upon a division of the territory into three areas, one being Southern California, southern Nevada and Arizona; the second, the Northern California coast area, and the third the Central Valley of California, northern Nevada and Utah. As more lodges are organized in Arizona and Utah these states will eventually have there own areas, it was indicated.
New leaders for the three new areas were also selected by Nelson and will be announced by Groenink at the Area U fellowship meeting next month, as well as the division of the lodges and councils in each Area.
Nelson also announced that the biennial meeting of the national lodge would be held over the Labor day weekend at one of the Universities of the Middle West. More than 2000 members are expected to attend. Groenink has been made responsible for the Indian lore, pagentry (sic) and the opening ceremonies of this meeting. Nationally, more than 36,000 members are active in the order and total membership passed the 75,000 mark.
The order is composed of Scouts and Scout leaders who have been selected by their fellow campers as outstanding in leadership and service to their fellows campers. Santa Barbara County’s Lodge No. 90 is the oldest on the West Coast.
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