Virginia Division Brigade Realignment

By Brandon Dorsey, Past Commander, Virginia Division

Greetings Virginia Compatriots,

Much like our national and state governments, most organizations that use a representative form of government periodically reexamine the apportionment of representatives to make sure that representation remains fair and equitable.  The Virginia Division is no different.  Over the years, the balance of camps and members in our brigades has fallen seriously out of balance, and we took a look at the situation at the last Division Executive Council meeting on Sunday 18 September with the goal of making a minimum of changes that would bring brigade camp and membership back into balance.  This report provides the solution that we passed at the DEC meeting.

The Virginia Division currently has 75 camps in good standing and approximately 4162 members in good standing.  The Division also has 7 brigades.  Based on these figures an equitable number of camps and members per brigade should be:

10.7 camps per brigade

595 members per brigade

Going into this realignment review, the Division had several brigades which are extremely inequitable in their percentages:

Particularly over proportioned brigades are:

3^rd Brigade - 15 camps, 1015 members

2^nd Brigade - 14 camps, 871 members

4^th Brigade - 14 camps, 681 members

Particularly under proportioned brigades are:

5^th Brigade - 6 camps, 234 members

7^th Brigade - 7 camps, 325 members

The 1^st Brigade is perhaps the most ideal in number of camps and members.  The 6^th Brigade is on track with the number of camps, but is particularly weak in membership levels.  No consideration was given to enlarging the territory of the 6^th Brigade as it is already considered wide-spread and its highway system makes further expansion problematic for a brigade commander to travel within a reasonable time frame and is a deterrent to further cooperation among wide-spread camps. A perfect balance of camps and members in the brigades is impracticable due to proximity and geographic concerns.  However the following recommendations were developed for correcting the gross imbalance of membership strength and number of camps in the Division’s brigades.  These changes were voted in unanimously at the DEC meeting on 20 September.

Camps moved into the 5^th Brigade:

The Stonewall Brigade #1296 (71 members from 3^rd Brigade)

The Botetourt Artillery #1701 (16 members from 3^rd Brigade)

Carpenter’s Battery #1927 (65 members from 3^rd Brigade)

Col. DHL Martz #10 (71 members from 4^th Brigade)

Camps moved into the 7^th Brigade:

A.P. Hill #167 (181 members from the 2^nd Brigade)

Pittsylvania Vindicators #828 (11 members from the 3^rd Brigade)

Cabell-Graves #1402 (64 members from the 3^rd Brigade)

Appomattox CH Rangers #1733 (48 members from the 3^rd Brigade)

The Brigade Statistics following these changes are:

1^st  Brigade -   9 camps,  628 members

2^nd Brigade - 13 camps,  690 members

3^rd Brigade -   9 camps,  740 members

4^th Brigade - 13 camps,   610 members

5^th Brigade - 10 camps,   457 members

6^th Brigade - 11 camps,   408 members

7^th Brigade - 10 camps,   629 members

These changes have been incorporated into the Virginia Division Directory on this web site and the Camp Map has been updated accordingly.

Brandon Dorsey, Past Commander

Virginia Division SCV