The purpose of the BSA's Direct Service Council, is to make the Scouting program available to United States citizens and their dependents who live in countries that are outside the jurisdiction of the Transatlantic Council, headquartered in Germany. The Direct Service Council serves U.S. Scouts in much of Western Europe, and the Far East Council, headquartered in Japan, serving several Far East nations.

The Direct Service Council is administered by the International Division of the Boy Scouts of America at the national office in Irving, Texas. The Direct Service Council provides many of the same services that a local council provides including the operation of the Gamenowinink Order of the Arrow Lodge (No. 555.)

The Gamenowinink Lodge (meaning "On the other side of the Great Sea" in the language of the Lenni Lenape) averages twelve actively registered chapters and two hundred members.