My brothers,
I hope this email finds you well and that you are enjoying a wonderful summer so far! In this June update, I have outlined several key reminders for our Section as we continue to move forward together into the next century of the Wimachtendienk.
Prism
For those of you who will or have attended Prism this summer at the Summit, we would love to spread the word about your adventure. Please send any videos, photos, or other media to Section Secretary Stuart Park. We would also love to accept any article submissions to put on our social media, on the blog, and in the upcoming Five Feathers.
Section Website, Blog, and Social Media
If you have not seen our brand new website, please consider taking a look. We would appreciate any feedback/edits you have so it can continue to develop and become stronger. Specifically, we really need your assistance for our history pages and section timeline. If you have anything you wish to add about a significant event in your lodge’s history, please let Stuart know and we’ll be sure to add it in. Along with this, you may have also noticed our new blog. This blog is a wonderful way to highlight some of the many fantastic things that are occurring back at home in each of our lodges. We also have expanded our Section’s social media to cover Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat. Please continue to spread the word about these to your lodges and if you ever wish to submit anything, Stuart would love to share it with SR-5!
Dixie 2017
The wheels are turning! Each of our Section Coordinators are working diligently on their individual proposals for the November COC. It is our hope to release our proposal for the Dixie Fellowship much earlier this year. If your lodge has any suggestions for change, please feel free to reach out to the Coordinators. We want Dixie to continue to get better each year!
Along with this, Muscogee is hard at work to prepare a top-notch Dixie for our brothers in the Section and I am fully confident that they will exceed all expectations. With that said, a theme for the Dixie Fellowship has not yet been chosen. If you have any suggestions, please reach out to me ASAP and I will direct them to the leadership of our Service Lodge.
As always, promote, promote, promote! We hope this Dixie will be HUGE with its unique central location in the Section.
AKK and Skyuka Summer Fellowship
We have a VERY special occasion occurring in our Section on Saturday, July 9th. This year, Skyuka Lodge is joining Atta Kulla Kulla Lodge to celebrate a day of fellowship and festivities at Camp Old Indian. At this Summer Fellowship, there will be Ultimate Frisbee, patch trading, a delicious cookout, and much more! AKK’s and Skyuka’s leadership are ecstatic to have their lodges partner together for an occasion like this. It speaks volumes of how the brotherhood between has increased ten-fold within the past year through efforts such as the Lodge Leader Forum.
Section Seminar Schedule
After conferring with the other Section Officers, the immediate past Section Chief, the Section Advisers, and Muscogee’s Leadership, we have altered the schedule for the Section Seminar due to two reasons. One, to create less of a burden on Muscogee who is already hosting the Council of Chiefs meeting and a Dixie Preview at Barstow on November 12. Second, this new schedule allows us to share our unique practices with each other in a roundtable following the exciting trip to NEXT.
The tentative change is as follows:
10:00 AM – Welcome/ Reflection on NEXT and the year so far
a) Together, Everyone Achieves More (LLF Gathering)
b) Coffee Chat with the Section Advisers
10:15 AM – Best Practice Roundtable
a) Unali’yi Camp Promotions
b) Tsali AIA Team
c) AKK Ceremonies
d) Skyuka Spirit
e) Itibap iLEAD
f) Eswau’s Service to Camp
g) Santee’s Success with National Awards
h) Catawba Inductions (dealing with a bigger population)
i) Bob White on preserving history
j) Muscogee – Dixie promotions
Closing/ Moving Forward
11:15 AM – Break/ COC meeting set-up
11:30 AM – COC
12:00 PM – Lunch
12:30 PM – COC continues
1:00 PM – Dixie Preview
3:00 PM – Regather at flag poles/ Closing with the Song of the Order
In the roundtable discussion, each Chief/ his designee will have around 5 minutes to speak on their topic (one of the things that distinguishes each lodge). If you would like to alter your topic to something else your lodge does well at, that is perfectly fine. Just be sure to let me know and I’ll notify our Training Coordinator who will lead the Seminar.
If you have any additional lodge members in attendance for the Seminar and Dixie Preview, Muscogee Lodge requests that you have them bring $5 to cover the food cost.
Finally, please be sure that the COC, Dixie Preview, and Section Seminar are on your calendars for November 12th at Camp Barstow.
E. Urner Goodman Camping Award Revision
Recently, I had the opportunity to write a feature for the National Bulletin which highlighted some of the newest changes for the E. Urner Goodman Camping Award. Unali’yi has set the bar high for the nation and you can find that article here: http://www.oa-bsa.org/pages/content/e-urner-goodman-camping-award-orients-for-the-next-century
We would love to see all of our lodges apply for as many national awards as possible this year. You can find information on all of them here on our Section website: http://www.sr5.org/awards-and-recognition/
Final Thoughts
From our summer camp programs to Santee’s OA week, AKK’s weekly Ordeals, and many of your Callouts, summer is a very busy time for all of us. Enjoy the break! Until we meet again, keep the Arrow aimed high! As always, please do not ever hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. WWW
In the Spirit,
Matthew Watson | SR-5 Section Chief