A Brief History of Camp Cachalot:
Mergers and Acquisitions
The 1970s were difficult years for the Boy Scouts of America. Over the span of the decade, Scouting nationwide lost over 30 percent of its membership [1], and the losses were actually worse in the southeastern Massachusetts area.
In 1971, for largely financial reasons, the National Council recommended a merger of the Fall River-centered Massasoit Council with the New Bedford-based Cachalot Council. After initial reluctance (and a decline of the merger) from the Massasoit Council, the two councils' Executive Boards approved a merger late in the year, forming the new Moby Dick Council in 1972. This new council would serve youth from Tiverton, RI and Somerset in the west to Wareham in the east. This was not a complete solution to the financial issues, as the new Council was still faced with a $12,000 deficit left over from the Massasoit Council at its formation.
Members of the National Council's Engineering Division visited Cachalot in 1973, for the purpose of drawing up a long-range plan for developing the property. While most of the suggestions from this plan [2] were never acted upon, given the Council's financial condition, had it been implemented Cachalot would be a much different facility today.
In 1972, the council continued to operate summer camps at both Camp Noquochoke in Westport and at Cachalot, attempting to share staff across both facilities. This attempt was seen as unsuccessful, and 1972 would mark the last year of Boy Scout summer camp at Camp Noquochoke. From 1973 through 1977, Camp Noquochoke ould host only Cub Scout activities during the summer months. Attendance continued to decline at both facilities, and, in the Fall of 1977, after a failed fundraising campaign left the Council with a substantial deficit, the Executive Board made the decision by nearly a 2-to-1 margin to sell the Camp Cachalot property.
This decision didn't sit well with many volunteers, and the then-Lodge Chief of Neemat Lodge, Brian Nobrega, who had a seat on the Executive Board by virtue of his position in the Lodge, got together with many other volunteers to both oppose the sale and to present an alternative to the Board. This new "Save Our Camps" committee acted swiftly to develop an alternative plan — emotions on both sides of the issue were running very high, with volunteers even picketing the Council's offices in New Bedford in protest.
In December of 1977, the "Save Our Camps" committees plan to address the deficit and prevent the sale of Cachalot was presented to the Board by Brian Nobrega and the committees chief supporter on the Board, local attorney Alan Novick [3]. This plan included a number of options, from promises of funding to the sale of gravel from Cachalot, to address the deficit, and at this December session, the Executive Board voted to postpone any talk of selling Cachalot until at least their June meeting the following year. A representative of the National Council was brought in to work with a locally organized "task force" to consider all the possible options, including evaluating both Council-owned camps.
Ultimately, the "Save Our Camps" campaign was able to prevent the sale of Camp Cachalot, but unfortunately, as the Council was still lacking funds [4], at the recommendation of the "task force", the Executive Board unanimously decided to sell off the smaller Noquochoke facility. This decision was certainly no more popular than the proposed sale of Cachalot had been, but attempts to block the sale were thwarted, and Noquochoke ceased all but occasional weekend operations in 1978 and was sold by 1980. The money raised by selling Noquochoke paid the Council's debt, with the remaining amount being split in two. The first half was made immediately available for physical improvements at Cachalot (including providing the initial money for two new winter cabins near the Ranger's house), and the second half provided the seed money for the Council's Endowment Fund.
< Previous: The Late 1960s and 1970s Next: The 1980s >[1] This has been attributed to a number of causes, ranging from the ill-fated attempt at "City Scouting", aimed at making the program more attractive to inner-city youth but eliminating much of the outdoor program; even to continuing backlash against organizations that were perceived as being related to the military stemming from the Vietnam War.
[2] The changes were quite dramatic, and would have resulted in two complete Scout camps on the property, as well as family trailer camping surrounding Abner's Pond. The amount of clearing required for the proposed plan may very well have made it possible to see clear from one end of Cachalot to the other.
[3] Who, among many other things, had astutely pointed out that the fundraising campaign's failure could be laid squarely at the feet of the 30-plus-person Executive Board, whose members had raised a mere $2,000 among themselves, and that relatively small individual contributions from the Executive Board itself were sufficient to address the deficit.
[4] In fact, the National Council was requiring Moby Dick Council to pay up-front cash for any National Supply items at this point in time.
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