April

2, 2014


Dear Member of Yankee Clipper Council Executive Board,


I regret to inform you that actions connived by a small faction of the Yankee Clipper
Council Executive Committee lead by the Council Key Three and recently voted on by the
Council Executive Board has forced me, George Kouloheras, a volunteer and Member at
Large in the Yankee Clipper Council, to reconsider my financial support for The Yankee
Clipper Councils Friends of Scouting campaign for the 2014 fiscal year.


I write this with some trepidation, as Council President Michael Jewell and his
faction have shown that they do not like differences of opinion and dissent among the ranks.
I hope no actions will be taken against me for my opinions. However, the actions of the
Executive Board gives each and every volunteer Scouter reason to be concerned about how
much your group values democracy, transparency and differences of opinion. Every
Scouter in the Yankee Clipper Council needs to ask themselves the following question: Who
is next?


There are two separate decisions that I find objectionable and unScout like. I find
them to be personal attacks on individuals and organizations that have served this council
for decades. They act to divide us and directly hurt the youth it is our job to serve.


The first thing I find objectionable is the severing of ties with The Key Foundation,
an organization that has worked tirelessly for the good of the Yankee Clipper Council and
the youth we serve for over 25 years. For reasons which have not been made clear and
which are going unanswered to the President and Chairman of the Board of the Key
Foundation, you have voted to severe all ties with that organization.


For those of you who dont know, The Key Foundation Inc. is a private, not for profit
organization, incorporated in and based out of Lowell, Massachusetts. A group of friends
and Brothers from Lowell and the surrounding towns of the old Greater Lowell Council
founded it in 1988. It is an alumni organization resulting from the shared experiences in the
camping program of the Boy Scouts of America. Today its members come from every
community served by Yankee Clipper Council as well as throughout the United States and
around the globe.


Much of the effort of the Key Foundation has been dedicated to supporting the
camping programs of the Yankee Clipper Council. It is The Key Foundations belief that
camping is the method that is most effective in making the Scouting Program a profound
experience in the lives a youth.


The Key Foundation works to promote and expand the Culture of Camping in the
Scout program. As such it strongly supports the Order of the Arrow Lodge, Nanepashemet
158. Most of its members have strong backgrounds in the Order of the Arrow as well as
camp staff.


By severing all ties with the Key Foundation and refusing all of its support including
financial, talent, manpower, scholarships, program grants and gifts in kind, you have limited
our ability to support and help the youth that we are pledged to serve.


Since 2000, when the Greater Lowell Council merged with the Yankee Clipper
Council, The Key Foundation has donated well over half a million dollars in grants,
materials, direct financial assistance and gifts in kind. If we are so financially sound that we
can turn down this kind of support why do you need my hard earned money?


The Key Foundation paid for and built the new boathouse at Wah-Tut-ca Scout
Reservation to the tune of $185,000 to honor Andrew Curry Green, one of its founders, and
a Wah-Tut-Ca Scout Reservation staff member and 9/11 victim.


The Key Foundation built and paid for the Craig Ryder, a replica of the turn of the
century rescue boats at Wah-Tut-Ca Scout Reservation to a tune of $45,000.


The Key Foundation provides $3,000 -$5,000.00 every year in Vervaert Grants to all
our Councils camping programs.


The Key Foundation provides thousands of dollars each cycle in Patrick Doyle
National Order of the Arrow Conference Scholarships to our Order of the Arrow members.
Kevin Nichols has told the boys that they can no longer apply for these. This means some of
the boys we are charged to serve will not be able to attend the 100th Anniversary of the
Order of the Arrow conference in 2015. Shame to Michael, Dennis, Kevin and the faction
they lead!


The Key Foundation gives a Livoli Scholarship every year for one of our staff
member to use for his higher education.


The Key Foundation gives a Frank Barre CIT of the year award to a deserving
Counselor in Training at one of our camps and provides him with a uniform and a small
stipend.


The Key Foundation recognizes four hard working volunteers every year with the
Craig Ryder Excellence Award.


The Key Foundation provides our camps and our Order of the Arrow Lodge with
banners, posters, buttons, signs, maps, shows and the sparkle they have come to be known
for.


The Key Foundation has provided the Yankee Clipper Council with hundreds of
thousands of dollars in gifts in kind by developing and producing countless camping
promotion, FOS and marketing promotion campaigns.


The Key Foundation has financially supported The Yankee Clipper Council through
donations to the Friends of Scouting, campaign, sponsorship at the Golf tournaments, Scout
Strong Hikes and Distinguished Dinner events.


This past November the Key Foundation was asked to raise $3,000.00 to help the
council end its year in the black. After Scout Executive Kevin Nichols promised The Key

Foundation its support in writing, the council pulled the rug out from under them and
refused any assistance. The Key Foundation carried on, raised the $3000.00 the council
asked for and was able to donate an additional $500.00 to fund the camping programs
Christmas card promotion.


At all times the Key Foundation has been a good partner to the Yankee Clipper
Council, always saying yes and always providing services and funds even when they were in
fundamental disagreement with the actions and course the Council Leadership was plotting.
They were loyal and good partners, traits not shown to them by Council President Michael
Jewell and his leadership!


The second thing I find objectionable is the removing of Brian Lobao and Dan Smith
from any role in the Yankee Clipper Council Camping Programs and forbidding them to set
foot on the good soil of Wah-Tut-Ca Scout Reservation. You have created trumped up
charges that they are in conflict of interest to a current council investigation on possible
dumping at Wah-Tut-Ca Scout Reservation.


This all started with discussions on where to put a new shower house at Wah-Tut-
Ca Scout Reservation. When the pros and cons of locating the new shower house on the far
side of the main parking lot were discussed Brian Lobao said that we might want to rethink
that because when he was a child at Wah-Tut-Ca he heard stories that fill may have been
brought up from Lowell to make way for a loop in the road.


Forty years later the very person who brought the possibility to our attention is
being attacked and told to step aside and not set foot in the camp he loves and has dedicated
his life too. I too heard stories when I was a staff member in the late seventies but had
frankly not thought about them for thirty years until I heard Mr. Jewell announce the
investigation.


As for Dan Smith, he was not even born until 25 years after the fact. His inclusion in
this is just another attack on his character and service to this council that began with Mr.
Jewell publically removing Dan as Yankee Clipper Council Camping Chairman in August of
2013. I have served on the Council Camp Committee since 1983 and Dan has been the most
dynamic and effective chairman that I have served under. Mr. Jewells action has only served
to change the Council Camping Committee from its largest and most effective committee to
one that is a shell of its former self. This is just another example of how poorly our
leadership treats its volunteers. Mr. Jewell, your actions have been noted by all.


I currently serve as the food service director for the Yankee Clipper Councils
camping programs as well as the Food Service Committee Adviser for Nanepashemet Lodge
of the Order of the Arrow, positions I have served with distinction and great success for
years. Both positions are direct support to the youth we serve. These are two areas I intend
to keep serving in as long as I am allowed. I will continue to give these positions 200% of
my time, efforts and abilities. I hope my vocal opposition to the current course set by this
faction does not prevent me from doing so. As a volunteer in the Yankee Clipper Council I
cannot in good conscience remain silent. The pledges and promises I make to the Scout Oath
and Law prevent me from doing so.


I also look forward to continuing my financial support of the Yankee Clipper Council
when the Board decides to end its retributions on its volunteers and support organizations.



In conclusion I ask the majority on the Yankee Clipper Council Board of Directors, Is
this what you got in this for? Didnt you sign on to do your best, and work with others to do
some good for the youth in our communities? I am confident it was not to perpetrate
pettiness and divisiveness with the volunteers that you need to fulfill your mission.

As a Council Member at Large and one that has recently voted to elect the current
officers and members of the Yankee Clipper Council Board of Directors, I would publicly call
on Michael Jewell, Dennis Gleason, Kevin Nichols and the small faction that they lead to
resign their positions on the Council Executive Board.

We deserve and need a Council Leadership that will unite us and not divide us. We
deserve and need a Council leadership that will trust and empower its volunteers to do
great things for the youth we serve in our communities. We deserve and need a Council
leadership that will work tirelessly to make The Yankee Clipper Council the premier Youth
Serving organization on the North Shore of Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire.
We deserve all of these things and we deserve them now! We do not have them and the
current council leadership is incapable of providing them. Please Mr. Jewell, for the good of
the youth that you say you want to serve, step down and let this Council flourish.



Thank you for listening!

Yours in Scouting,

George D. Kouloheras
Volunteer and Member at Large
Yankee Clipper Council
Boy Scouts of America
30 Lyon Street
Lowell, MA 01852
978 319 3645
gdkouli@aol.com


P.S. It is my Intention to share this correspondence with every volunteer Scouter that will
listen, as well as make it available for publication in the press and social media. GDK