June 30, 2006

Dear Family,

As explained in "Update from Peter—June 27, 2006," we have now posted a temporary updated version of the Charter on the MOv3 site.

This temporary version is the presently used 1998 edition, but now also includes the relevant amendments and updates that have been published in GNs, LNFs, and addendums since that time. The amendments have been cut and pasted directly into the Charter, replacing the previous clauses or sections. The reason for doing this is to provide a temporary Charter file that includes the many Charter changes from the past years as an interim solution until we can get the fully updated Charter finalized and posted for you.

Since this is a temporary version, we have not taken the time to go through the other parts of the Charter and fix what you will find as obvious inconsistencies. For example, many of the amended clauses or added sections refer to the Regional Shepherds, the Shepherding Desk, or to the coaches while unchanged sections of the Charter still refer in places to Continental or Area Officers and while some of the new clauses or sections refer to the Steering Council or Home shepherds and managers, unchanged parts of the Charter still refer to the Home Teamwork.

We understand that this may be somewhat confusing, but we hope less so than it has been with having all the amended Charter parts and clauses scattered throughout a variety of GNs, addendums and LNFs. As Peter mentioned in his notice, all of the changes in the Family's structure are reflected in the next Charter edition that we're in the process of finalizing.

When you look through this Charter file, you will find that titles of various sections have been highlighted. A highlighted section title indicates that something has been added to or is changed within that section in one of three ways: 1) it is an entirely new section added into the Charter, 2) it is a replacement section, replacing the previous version, or 3) there are some amended or additional clauses within that section while the remainder of the section has not been changed.

You will also see in many of the highlighted section titles the labels "(New)" or "(Dropped)," which indicates that the entire section is either completely new or that section has been dropped from the Charter. If dropped, only the section title remains as an indicator to you of the previous old Charter section. If the section title has been highlighted, but without indicating "new" or "dropped," there will be places within that section that are also highlighted. Those highlighted parts are the only changes made within that section. If the section title is not highlighted, nothing within that section has been changed at this time.

To repeat, the highlighted parts are the Charter amendments and changes which have been published over the past few years. But again, please remember that this "amended" version of the Charter is for temporary reference only.

The next edition of the Charter will be finalized section by section. As sections are finished, we will add them to the file of the new Charter which will be posted on the MOv3 site alongside the old Charter until the new Charter is complete, at which time the old Charter will be taken down. As each section is added to the new Charter file, we'll post an official explanation concerning any changes that should be noted.

We hope all this will be a blessing to you, making it easier to follow and get to know all the changes the Family Charter has been going through.

Love, The WS Charter team