San Francisco Bay Area Council History B S A B S A Los Mochos Symbol, Oakland Area Council (1945 - Present) Camp Loomer Symbol, Oakland Area Council (1957 - 1973) TC San Francisco Training Camp symbol, San Francisco Council (1917 - 1924) Camp Moore symbol, San Francisco Council (1938 - 1951) Camp Lilienthal Symbol (Fairfax location), San Francisco Council (1928 - 1973) Camp Royaneh symbol, San Francisco Council (1925 - Present) Camp Lilienthal (Stern Grove location) Symbol, San Francisco Council (1919 - 1925) Boy Scouts of America, San Francisco Bay Area Council • 1001 Davis Street, San Leandro, CA 94577-1514, (510) 577-9000  |  Contact Webmaster San Francisco Bay Area Council History 1964 - Present Boy Scouts of America, San Francisco Bay Area Council • 1001 Davis Street, San Leandro, CA 94577-1514, (510) 577-9000 Pictures

About a week earlier on January 29 a preliminary officers meeting was held at the Bohemian Club in San Francisco to discuss certain items that needed consideration prior to the first official meeting of the new Council such as insurance issues, personnel issues and board nominees.  


At 7:45 pm on the evening of February 10, Boy Scouts of America Region 12 Chairman Edward Mills called to order a meeting of nearly 500 volunteer Scout leaders at the Edgewater Inn in Oakland at Jack London Square.  At this meeting they elected Arch Monson Jr as the new president of the San Francisco Bay Area Council as well as eighty-six other board members and officers.  Harvey Price was selected as the first Scout Executive of the council.  Price had been the former Scout Executive for the San Francisco Council.  Frank Dix, who had been the Scout Executive of the Oakland Area Council was named to a National Council position and moved to Florida.   Both of the former Council Service Centers continued to be utilized to serve the Scouts of the large Council.  However the Oakland office at 655 East 14th street was used as the official headquarters of the San Francisco Bay Area Council.


In 1965 the Council created a historic trail in the Presidio with the encouragement of the Commanding General of the Sixth United States Army. In 1967 the annual Scout-0-Rama was held for the first time in the new Oakland Arena.  In 1968, the Council adopted a long-range plan calling for a density of approximately 29% density by 1976.  In 1969 Harvey Price resigned as the Scout Executive of the council so that he could take on the same position for the Los Angeles Council.   Thomas W. Mooney II was appointed to replace Price.  The first coordinated "School Night for Scouting" program was conducted by the Councils surrounding the Bay.


In 1969 the Council bought 160 additional acres at the Scout Reservation at Willits and also an additional 127 acres at Royaneh both on contract. With the council office nearing capacity, an Office Building Committee was named with Mr. George Gaugler as Chairman.


In early 1971 the Council received a Trust Gift of $2.5 million dollars from Mr. and Mrs. Carl F. Wente. In 1970 the San Francisco Service Center was moved out to Diamond Heights Boulevard.


In November of 1970 Mr. Duncan Knudsen was named to represent the Council on the Six-Council Merger Study Committee. The United Crusade  announced drastic reduction of funds to traditional agencies such as the Boy Scouts.


In 1971 a bequest of $40,000 from the estate of Dr and Mrs Easton H. Lum of Oakland made it possible to construct a new multipurpose Heath Center and Leaders Lodge at Camp Dimond-O. Dr. Lum was the Dimond-O camp physician from 1959 to 1968. Also, in 1971, a new food service building was erected at the Scout Reservation.


In the summer of 1971 the Council put into operation a large trailer van mobile Scout meeting room in the San Francisco area to serve inner-city boys. The James Irvine Foundation provided the funds to have the van built and the cost of the truck to pull it.


In the Fall of 1971 the old original kitchen at Camp Royaneh was razed and by the following summer a complete new food center was built. The James Irvine Foundation gave $25,000 for equipping the new kitchen and earnings from the Wente Trusts paid for construction. By Summer of 1972 the Scout Reservation now had twelve complete Troop sites, up four from 1969.


THE NEW HEADQUARTERS

In 1972, the Council Office Committee zeroed in on and selected a site for building a new Council Service Center at 8480 Enterprise way in Oakland near the Coliseum off of Hegenberger Drive.  The Camp Development Committee also decided to stop searching for a replacement property for Los Mochos and instead to further develop that property by utilizing proceeds from the sale of Camp Lilienthal and Camp Loomer.


The design for the new Council Office Service Center was completed with an estimated cost of $315,000 for construction of the building. A grant was received for $70,000 from the William G. Irwin Charity Foundation to help secure the site. The cost of the site cost  totaled $140,000.


In January of 1973 the Executive Board approved the construction of the Council Service Center and the sale of Camp Lilienthal and Camp Loomer.  


In 2009 the Mt Diablo Silverado Council approached the SFBAC regarding the concept of merging the two councils into one. The new council would cover six counties from Fremont in the south to Lake County in the North.  In October of 2011 after months of discussions and planning, the SFBAC and the Mt Diablo/Silverado Councils announced that our two great councils would be merging pending the outcome of a stakeholders meeting on August 29th, 2012.  Although almost two years of planning went into the merger, on August 29th the voting members of the Mt Diablo Silverado Council voted not to merge, officially ending the planned merger which would have created the Golden Gate Area Council.  Interestingly the new council would have used the Council Number of 21 which was the old number for the Oakland Area Council.

In the early 1960's former United States Senator William F. Knowland chaired a study commission by the BSA Region 12 representing all nine bay area councils regarding a plan to merge all of the Scout Councils of the Bay Area into one large council.  The councils involved were:  Alameda Council (Council #22, organized 1917), Marin Council (Council #35, organized 1923), Mt Diablo Council (Council #23, organized 1951), Oakland Area Council (Council #21, organized 1916), Piedmont Council (Council #42, organized 1921), San Francisco Council (Council #51, organized 1917), Santa Clara Council (Council #55, organized 1929), San Mateo County Council (Council #20, organized 1932) and Stanford Council (Council #31, organized 1940).  Of the nine Bay Area Councils, only the San Francisco Council and the Oakland Area Council voted in favor of a merger.

On February 10, 1964 atop Yerba Buena Island, the proud old blue-and-gold flags of the Oakland Area Council and the San Francisco Council were retired for the last time.  The retired council flags were folded and presented to Robert J. Matheison and Raymond Marks former Presidents of the Oakland and San Francisco Councils respectively.


In their place, the two councils dedicated the new San Francisco Bay Area Council flag in a ceremony which united 30,000 Bay Area Scouts into one cohesive unit for the first time. The ceremony, joining the San Francisco Council and Oakland Area Council, was held atop Tower Hill on the island, a point midway between the two cities. As the new flag, bearing the names of both cities was unfurled, Thomas Williams of the Oakland Area Council and Bill Rothschild of the San Francisco Council tied a big square knot in a hawser to symbolize their unity.