Before the current system of four regions was created, the BSA utilized several different organizational structures for councils and lodges. In 1921, councils were organized into twelve regions that roughly corresponded to the twelve districts of the Federal Reserve banking system.

That same year, the Grand Lodge of the Order of the Arrow was formed, with organizational meetings being held on an annual basis. In 1926, it was decided to move to bi-annual meetings "with regional groupings of lodges meeting in intervening years" (Davis 25). Comparable to a National Conference, delegates elected "regional" officers, inducted Vigil Honor candidates, and discussed methods of strengthening the program at the local lodge level.

A year later the OA became one of four programs* sanctioned as official experiments by the BSA. By 1934, the OA had been approved by National Council for use in all councils. Over the next fourteen years more councils adopted the OA, and standardization of methods and procedures were made towards permanent incorporation in the Scouting program.

In 1936, Owasippe Lodge #7 invited Tom Kita Chara Lodge #96 and Ay-Ashe Lodge #73 to their lodge fellowship in Chicago. It was so successful that National Chief (i.e., National Committee Chairman) Joseph Brinton declared "We believe these fellowship meetings are fine activites for our lodges, and we are hopeful of promoting many more next spring and fall." (Davis 52). When the National Lodge executive committee met in Pittsburgh Jan 17, 1937, they approved the idea of promoting "sectional fellowship meetings" (Yates 2.1)

An article in the June OA bulletin, (Lodge News (1.1) 1937), reported that Kuwewanik Lodge #57 and Anicus Lodge #67 had a "sectional" meeting of all of the lodges in the "area" on May 29-31, 1937 at Camp Twin Echo in Ligonier, PA (Davis 53).

In 1938, National Chief Joseph Brunton appointed fifteen professional scouters to serve as a resource for local council executives and lodges, each within fifteen numbered Area Territories. They were also urged to set up "fellowship meetings" among local lodges. Yates states (2.1-2.2) that there were Area Fellowships meetings held in September of 1938 in several areas; however, the earliest of these events documented by Dingwerth is the Area 11 Conference at Camp Tesomas that was hosted by Tom Kita Chara Lodge #96.

In 1940, areas were renamed as letters, i.e., A-O. This was perhaps to avoid confusion with the numbered BSA regions (Yates 2.2).

By 1945, because of the growth of the Order following World War II, the number of areas had expanded to twenty-six (A-Z).

As part of the 1948 integration into the BSA program, the 26 Areas were abandoned and lodges were redistributed among the Twelve Scouting Regions. 1949 was a transition year, with some areas holding final events while others adopted the new region-area alignment.

*The other three were the Tribe of Gimogash, the Tribe of Mic-O-Say, and the Tribe of Ku-Ni-Eh.

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