For many years, lodges throughout the Order of the Arrow have undergone mergers, bringing Arrowmen together and strengthening the bonds of Brotherhood. While some mergers consist of two lodges coming together to form a brand new lodge, like in the case of Muscogee Lodge, with a few hundred Arrowmen, others can be between three or more lodges, consisting of a thousand Arrowmen or more, like for Mishigami Lodge. Lodge mergers can be stressful for all parties involved, but these two lodges have found a new light within their new membership.
Muscogee Lodge 116 was a merger between Muscogee Lodge 221 and Santee Lodge 116, located in the now Indian Waters Council in Columbia, South Carolina. The merger process began in August 2022, and reached its climax with its lodge officer elections in January 2023. Over the last few months, Muscogee 116 has been able to provide service to two camps and several communities among the districts. Inaugural Lodge Chief Grace Franklin recounted the fellowship and cooperation between their members.
“We were lucky that a lot of people from the two lodges already knew each other,” she explained. “Because of this we were able to sit down and work together to do what was best for the Arrowmen of this new lodge.”
Grace explained that the majority of the major steps in planning the merger came from sitting down with groups from each lodge. Both Muscogee 221 and Santee 116 brought five youth and three adults to form a merger committee. After four months of logging onto Zoom and drafting new lodge bylaws, they were able to finish everything by January 8, 2023. After this process, Arrowmen could host lodge elections for this year, where instead of having co-officers like some lodge mergers may have, they elected a single executive team, with Grace as their lodge chief.
Muscogee 116 was unique, because they had a quick transition to start 2023 off right. “Many lodges that have undergone mergers may have had much slower transitions than ours, some may use co-officers too,” Grace mentioned. “We were fortunate enough that we were able to get our two groups together and get things going quickly.”
Over the last few months, Muscogee 116 was able to host its first induction weekend as a new lodge, welcoming almost 60 new Arrowmen into the Order of the Arrow. The lodge also featured Brotherhood ceremonies, and added another induction weekend to its schedule for the fall. In addition to their successful induction weekend, Muscogee brought one of the largest contingents (105 Arrowmen) to their section’s conclave this spring. Overall the first few months of Muscogee Lodge 116 have been successful and have been “going steady so far,” according to Grace.
On a much bigger scale than Muscogee, the lower peninsula of Michigan experienced a merger between the four lodges located there. News broke in the summer of 2020 that there would be a merger happening between the four field service councils that encompassed the Michigan Crossroads Council. As a result, the four OA Lodges in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula would be merged as well.
The idea of a merger was a scary thought for many Arrowmen in these lodges. Many feared that their lodges would lose membership and interest as a result of the mergers. 2022 Mishigami Lodge Chief Timothy P. was “terrified that a merger of this size between four lodges with immense traditions and pride would result in the loss of hundreds of Arrowmen across the state.”
Despite these fears, the lodge leaders of all four lodges knew the best path was forward. The legacy section C2 leadership and the lodge chiefs of all four lodges came together and created various merger committees from lodge identity and tradition all the way to finances, lodge rules, and many more. On January 1, 2021, Mishigami Lodge 29 was officially merged. Mishigami would be made up of four service areas that covered the same geographical areas as the four legacy lodges as well as 25 chapters.
During the first few months, Mishigami was still led by section leadership and legacy lodge chiefs until their first lodge elections in March 2021, where Timothy was elected to serve as the first lodge secretary. As a member of the first-ever lodge board for this new lodge, Timothy was able to help establish new traditions and history for the lodge.
Mishigami’s first year was not an easy one. Their biggest challenge arrived in October 2021. During the National Leadership Seminar in Grass Lake, Michigan, the lodge leadership that was in attendance got a text from the lodge chief explaining that the council was realigning its four service areas to form five. Later that month, the lodge board had a meeting with the Scout Executive, the Supreme Chief of the Fire, to discuss the realignment. This meeting gave the board more of an opportunity to bond, though they weren't fully happy with the change.
In January 2022, Timothy was elected to serve as the second lodge chief . With the realignment still on the radar, he knew they had to meet immediately to discuss it. They realized that they would rather start preparing for the realignment, rather than fight it and have no time to prepare. When both youth and adults finally realized that they would still be a family, that is when the real work really started.
The first few months were a bit rough, but eventually Mishigami finally came together while attending their first NOAC as a lodge at the University of Tennessee.
“Being the contingent leader for our first NOAC was an amazing opportunity,” Timothy reflected. “The bonding between the 100 Arrowmen that went with our contingent was truly heartwarming.” Hearing the chants being yelled at the top of everyone’s lungs at the shows, he saw Arrowmen make new friends, and saw the pride of Mishigami Lodge 29 truly spark.
Though the first year was rough, Mishigami 29 has already seen substantial growth and positivity in 2023. While work still needs to be done, the lodge have created something the Arrowmen can be proud of and that is truly their own. The members of Mishigami 29 know they are changing lives for the better, and are ready to continue their new legacy for years to come.
Mergers can be a terrifying thought for many lodges and oftentimes are not something that Arrowmen want to partake in, but members cannot lose sight of what the Order truly encompasses. As founder E. Urner Goodman reflected,
“The Order of the Arrow is a ‘thing of the spirit’ rather than mechanics. Organization, operational procedure, and paraphernalia are needed in any large and growing movement, but they are not what count in the end. Things of the spirit are what count - Brotherhood in a day when there is too much hatred at home and abroad. Cheerfulness in a day when the pessimist has the floor and cynics are popular. Service in a day when millions are interested in getting or grasping, rather than giving.”
Each of the Order of the Arrow's lodges have their own name, totem, and traditions, but that isn’t what makes this organization great. At the end of the day, no matter what mergers the Order of the Arrow may go through, this organization will stay strong and resilient for years to come.