Council Merger Updates
September 23, 2025
To: Suffolk County Council Unit Key 3 Leaders and Members at Large
Re: Merger vote and moving forward. Part 2
Dear Friends, As an update to my letter of slightly over a week ago, I am pleased to report what we hope will be a positive solution to the future of Scouting in Suffolk County. A team of Scouting Volunteers and Board Members from Suffolk County Council have met with leadership in Theodore Roosevelt Council. The teams have agreed to renew their conversations about merging the two Councils together and have tentatively worked out a new plan of merger.
MERGER DETAILS
The original business plan as proposed in the first merger will be staying the same for this merger with a couple of small changes to the plan of merger.
• All Camps remain operational.
• All Employee positions are retained
. • District Operations stay as they are today
. • Both offices and stores stay operational.
• The Legal Name will become Theodore Roosevelt Council using the DBA as Scouting America Long Island.
• The headquarters of the new operation will be in Nassau County.
• From a unit perspective nothing goes away, and we anticipate adding more program and training resources for units with the benefits of the combined Council.
• The Order of the Arrow Lodges will have 1 year to merge their operations.
INFORMATION SESSIONS
We will be offering several informational sessions for volunteers to learn more about the benefits of the proposed merger. These meetings will have leadership teams from both Councils in attendance. All meetings are at 7pm. Zoom calls require pre-registration on link below.
September 29th Clare Rose, 100 Rose Executive Blvd, Shirley, NY
October 9 th via zoom: https://mycouncil.trcscouts.org/Program/mergerinfosession
October 14th Kellenberg Memorial HS, 1400 Glenn Curtiss Blvd, Uniondale, NY
October 20th via zoom: https://mycouncil.trcscouts.org/Program/mergerinfosession
BENEFITS OF MERGER There are a number of benefits from combining the resources of our two Councils. Chief among these benefits is that we will be able to consolidate duplicate expenses, resolve our ongoing audit concerns of financial stability, and guarantee that our camp operations stay open at Baiting Hollow.
FINAL DETAILS In the weeks ahead both boards will be asked to approve a final plan of merger. That plan of merger will then be presented to the voting membership of both Councils (Charter Organization Representatives and Members at Large).
• Suffolk County Voting Membership meeting will be held on October 22nd at Clare Rose, 100 Rose Executive Blvd, Shirley, NY 11967.
We will keep you informed on future developments.
Yours in Scouting
Stephen Hoitt Stephen T. Hoitt
Territory Director & Interim Scout Executive