It was 1972, a year of changes.  President Richard Nixon (1969-1974) goes to China, Great Britain took over direct rule of Northern Ireland, five people were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Complex in Washington DC, and the Boy Scouts of America reorganized from twelve regions to six.  For the Order of the Arrow, this meant the end of area conclaves.  For those of us in central and northern California and Nevada, this meant the end of areas 12C and 12D.

In 1972 Cabrosha, Kowaunkamish, Mayi, Mow-A-Toc, Tannu and Tehama Lodges made up area 12C.  Thier final area conclave was hosted by Kowaunkamish Lodge at Beale Air Force Base, near Marysville, CA and Jim Hardee from Kowaunkamish Lodge was the last Area Chief of 12C.

To the south, Chumash, Esselen, Mirimichi, Sha-Cha-Quoi, Sumi and Yo-Se-Mite Lodges made up area 12D.  The final 12D Conclave was hosted by Mirimichi Lodge and held at Lemoore Naval Air Station near Lemoore, CA.

The reorganization of the BSA led to a new OA structure as well.  Regions one through twelve were redrawn into the Norteast, East Central, Southeast, North Central, South Central, and Western Regions.  Plans were mage to have Region Chiefs for each Region.  Each region was subdivided into reas and each area was subdivided into sections.  Section W3B was born out of this reorganization, as a part of the Western Region, Area 3.  Section A was formed from the ten lodges in the San Francisco Bay area, and Section C from the three lodges in Hawaii.

The "new" Section W3B was made of ten lodges; Cabrosha, Kowaunkamish, Mayi, Mirimichi, Mow-A-Toc, Sha-Cha-Quoi, Sumi, Tannu, Tehama and Yo-Se-Mite.  It spanned a large part of California, North to the Oregan border, West to the Pacific Ocean, with the exception of the San Francisco Bay area, East to the Utah border including all of Nevada except for Clark County (Las Vegas) and south as far as Visalia and Prterville in the San Joaquin Valley.  As you could imagine, with ten lodges, the section meetings could be, to say the least, "exciting".  Because the geographic area of W3B was so large, a tradition of having two Section Vice-Chiefs was started.  One of the vice-chiefs would be from the northern part of the section and the other from the southern part.  This tradition lasted until the end of the century.

Plans were made for a gathering of the new "section" to elect a slate of officers and to pick a host lodge for the first W3B Conclave.  This being the "Wild West," nothing went as planned.  According to 2003 Section Adviser and 1976 Section Vice-Chief, Bruce Mayfield, things were even wilder than any of us can imagine!

The first ever W3B Conclave was held at College of the Redwoods in Eureka and hosted by Mow-A-Toc Lodge.  In all probability, it should have been held at a High School in Sacramento, hosted by Mayi Lodge.  At the time, lodges bid for the privilege to host the conclave.  Mayi lodge really wanted to be the host.  They went so far as to print an eight-page newsletter with photos (remember, in 1972 this was a very expensive proposition... no computers or copy machines) saying they were the host for next year and passed them out Friday night of the 1972 conclave.  This did not sit well with some of the other lodges.  Mayi Lodge, a goliath with over 1,000 members at the time (campared to the other lodges at 200-300 members) was throwing it's weight around.  even though no other lodges had any plans to host, a scheme was hatched.

As there was a gentleman's agreement that you basically waited your turn, Mow-A-Toc turned up as the most logical lodge due to host, but where?  College of the redwoods was just opening.  A member of the lodge present "thought" he could probably get the OA in, but didn't know for sure.  After a few phone calls they had as good a promise as possible on short notice.  It could be done.

Moving forward, it now remained to convince all the other lodges to back the "Redwood" alternative.  No easy task, deciding between a great site as existed in Mayi's plan or the hope that everything would go right with the "Redwood" alternative.  In a close vote, "Redwood" prevailed, and the first ever W3B Conclave was held at College of the Redwoods with great success.  The Conclave even included, as promised, smoked salmon, the totem of Mayi Lodge.  I don't think the leadership of Mayi Lodge ever forgot the power of many versus the might of one.  In fact, Mayi would not host a Conclave for another four years.

In 1974, Section W3B gathered in the "sky."  Following the excitement of surrounding the choosing of the 1973 site, the 1974 site "bidding" was calm.  Tannu Lodge won with a promise of an "outdoor Conclave."  The Sky Tavern Ski Lodge on the slopes of the mountains to the west of Reno was the location.

The 1975 Conclave, hosted by Sha-Cha-Quoi Lodge, featured a small earthquake.  It was large enough that everyone felt it.  It slopped some water out of the pool that many participants were swimming in at the time.  According to Bruce Mayfield, "I guess it proves that W3B Conclaves have always been earth-shaking events."  1976 was the U.S. bicentennial year.  The conclave held at Camp Lassen was truely "in the stix".

1977 was a banner year for W3B.  William "Skip" Breland from Sumi Lodge had been elected Section Chief and at the National Palanning Meeting in December, "Skip" was elected as the Western Region Chief.  He was the first arrowman from W3B to be elected as a national or region officer.  At the first section meeting, another election was held and Jeff Winkler from Mayi lodge was elected Section Chief.  It was the year that Mayi fould finally be able to host a Conclave.7nbsp; They did a grest job showing that they were all "Leaders of the spirit."

Many of the people who were at the 1978 Conclave will never forget the host lodge trying to Bar-B-Q chickens for dinner on Saturday night in the pouring rain.

1979.  Seals called and the section came.  It was raining as the lodges arrived on Friday Night.  Bruce Mayfield recalls, "It was 5:00pm Saturday Afternoon.  "Lips," the band we'd hired from Mendocino had just rolled in, and do mean "rolling" in.7nbsp; Let's just say they were perhaps a little more "adult" themed than we could have imagined.  Fueled by plenty of propellant, they proceeded to unload at the campfire bowl, which was backed up to the lake.  As they unloaded cases, one of them slipped over the edge and into the lake.  From then on, it was nip and tuck as to thier ability to salvage the show.  The wet mics and amps were a concern, but so was "Lips" ability to stand up and deliver.  Ultimately "Lips" delivered with varying results, as most of the adults stood up and left.  At least that was one way to get rid of those meddlesome adults".  According to past section chief Ray Leonard, "Lips" went on to record a #1, Funky Town, only to disappear shortly afterward.

Past section chief, Steve Davidek, recalls, "One of the things I will never forget was running for Section Chief in 1979.  The Tannu Lodge Chief convinced me to run.  My platform was simple.  I took the 'apathy path'.  I would not change the way the section did anything.  I, of course lost."  Steve was not elected Section chief until the following year.