A couple of recent notes that came across our desk.

The new lodge 16 Totanhan Nakaha has their first flap out. This is the merger of lodge 16 Tonkawampus and lodge 257 Agaming. The council name is Northern Star Council, St. Paul, MN. Here’s their web-site: Northern Star Council web-site Its a little bitter sweet when one of these early, original lodges change names after all of these years but time moves on (or see below where it doesn’t.)
Then, from Matt Doellman we got the following un-merger news. We don’t see this too often where a group from one of the OA lodges in a merger separates to form their own honor camper program.

Matt wrote:
I’ve recently been informed that the chapter executive committee of the Silver Tomahawk Chapter of Black Hawk Lodge #67 has decided to pull out of the Order of the Arrow. On April 8th, they will be having an official vote of the chapter youth to disband the OA chapter and go to a Mic-O-Say program. From what I understand, it is the wishes of all the members to pull out, and the vote is officially sealing the deal.

Nevertheless, it is unfortunate the differences could not have been resolved among the members. Having been through both mergers, however, I can honestly say that both sides will be better off when this is resolved. I served as the Lodge Chief of Maheengun Lodge going into the second merger, and this merger wasn’t meant to be. The Silver Tomahawk Chapter’s blend of Mic-O-Say and Order if the Arrow was very unique, and when they were forced to relinquish their customs and traditions, it was not the same. We (Maheengun Chapter) continued to run our Order of the Arrow program (with constant
bickering and controversey), but they struggled to let go of their old ways. Ultimately in the end, both
sides will get what they want and the fighting will finally stop.

As for the Maheengun Chapter, who will then run Black Hawk Lodge, we will just go back to the way we’ve always done things. After consulting with some of the youth currently in the lodge and serving on the executive board, you can bet you’ll see a vote for a lodge name change shortly. I’ll let you all guess what name they’ll be proposing