It was publicly announced at Winter Banquet on January 21, 2012, that Nacha Tindey Lodge would be merging with Indian Drum Lodge to the north. There are many questions about how this process will work, and this page serves to provide more information.

An Overview of the Area Project

The Area 2 Project began in 2010 with the goal of finding a new structure for Boy Scout councils to make them more efficient and unit-focused. The project included eight task forces, each charged with finding the best solutions for their respective area of focus–everything from communications to finance to the boundaries of the new councils. Over 1,000 proposals were created, and those proposals were narrowed down to just one over the course of many months.

So What’s Changing?

The final proposal included many major changes. First, the entire lower peninsula of Michigan will be in one council, called the Michigan Coordinating Council (MCC), which will be further divided into four smaller areas, called field service councils (FSCs). Also, all properties will be handled by the MCC and will no longer be owned by the individual FSCs. There are many other changes; for more information see the “Where Can I Get More Information?” section below. The Gerald R. Ford Council will cease to exist as of February 1, 2012, and the President Gerald R. Ford Council, number 781, consisting of what was previously GRFC and Scenic Trails Council, will take its place.

The new boundaries of Field Service Councils

How Does the OA Fit Into This?

Naturally, the OA needs to adapt to this new structure, so the decision was made that each FSC would have one lodge. This means Nacha Tindey will be merging with our brothers to the north, those of Indian Drum Lodge. The new lodge will continue to serve the President Gerald R. Ford Council in many of the same ways we have in the past. All of the lodges in the lower peninsula will be undergoing some sort of merger–as the state moves from nine councils down to four FSCs, lodges are doing the same. Michael Sulgrove has been selected to be the head of our FSC and he will continue to be our Supreme Chief of the Fire.

What Will Our Name Be? Indian Tindey? Nacha Drum?

The transition will take some time, as it should. Lodges were given the challenge of completing these mergers by the end of NOAC on August 4, 2012. Each lodge has, however, been given complete control over the merger process; that is, pending the approval of the National Order of the Arrow Committee, we will be able to choose our new names and determine how the transition process will work, along with how the new lodges will be run. We are very grateful to have this flexibility, but it will take awhile for our transition teams to come to a conclusion on how each of these things will happen. The process has only just begun, and we will post new information as soon as it is decided by the transition team. Our teams are completely run by youth, and all decisions will be made by youth, with input from our adult advisors and the general membership of both lodges. Some basic decisions have already been made, and they have been detailed in a letter prepared by our Lodge Chief and Lodge Advisor. You can view this letter by clicking here.

Where Can I Get More Information?

If you have any questions about this process, you can email us using this contact form. We will do our best to answer any questions you have. Please keep in mind, however, that no major lodge-specific decisions have been made–that is, we do not know anything like what our new name will be or how conclaves will work. We will post new information as soon as it has been decided. Until that point, however, we ask that you refrain from asking questions about specifics, as we simply will not know the answers. For more information about the Area 2 Project, you can read through the final recommendation (click here), titled the Crossroads Recommendation. (If you do skim that document, note that there have been some changes to it since it was released, most notably to the final boundaries. The image above gives the final boundaries, and you can ignore those given in the recommendation.) You can also peruse the Area Project’s website and view all of the information posted there.

Conclusion

We understand that this will be a difficult and confusing process for many members of our lodge, and we will be trying to make it as simple as possible. As previously stated, regular updates will be posted on this website when new decisions have been made, and we welcome any suggestions and questions you may have. While this will be a lengthy process, we hope to reach a final recommendation as soon as possible. This will be challenging time for our lodge, but the merger of our two lodges will only make for a stronger combined lodge. We are excited for where the future will take us as we continue to grow and develop to better serve our councils, our camps, and our communities.