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Milwaukee County Council and Southeast Wisconsin voted to merge to become Three Harbors Council effective October 1, 2011. Merger discussions included parts of Bay Lake and Waukesha which may take action later.
Hiawathaland is in discussions with Bay Lakes and Appleton about possible merger options.
We’re at something like 296 councils nationally.
Area 2 of the Central Region currently includes 11 councils in Michigan and northwestern Ohio. As reported on last week, the Boards of nine (9) of the eleven councils voted to move the integration recommendation on to the full voting membership. Here’s the update from the Area President regarding the other two – Hiawathaland (Marquette) and Erie Shores (Toledo):
Good morning,
We have had some inquiry related to the non-participating councils in the Crossroads Recommendation. We did not include the information in my previous announcement as the information was not available at that time. Marquette and Toledo have had Scouting alignments and kinships with different Areas in the past (Wisconsin and Ohio respectively).Marquette tabled the Crossroads Recommendation as they are currently exploring traditional merger options with Wisconsin. The Crossroads Recommendation remains on their table for future consideration as this situation develops.
Toledo choose not to send the Crossroads Recommendation onto a Council Meeting by rejecting it at the Executive Board level believing they can internally achieve the economies of scale necessary to reverse their sustainability issues and model their future operation after the Crossroads Recommendation.Both councils currently remain as part of Area 2 and the Area Leadership Team will be supportive as in the past in assisting them moving forward. Thanks for your interest and patience,
Craig A. Younkman
Area 2 President
My sense is that Hiawathaland will cease being a free-standing council within six months. Erie Shores will continue on for a time being.
From a collecting perspective, we’ll see how this evolves. The current plan is a ‘coordinating council’ with five or more ‘field service councils’. As an aside, the Region pointed out that they have chartered the coordinating council if and when needed and that this is the first new council to have been established since 1947.
Last night nine of ten Michigan councils (the entire lower peninsula) voted to take the next step in creating a new structure for Scouting. This is the outcome of the BSA Area Project . The Chief Scout Executive has described it as one of the two most important new initiatives within the BSA (the other being the Summit base in West Virginia).
Here’s a PDF of the announcement from the Area 2 President:
Sept 16 Announcement by Area President Younkman
Previously we covered this back in January Area Project – Designing Scouting for the 21st Century.
There’s still much to do and many things to be worked out. The councils will make one more vote over the next 45 days to ratify the recommendation to integrate. Exciting times. Scary times. But necessary for us to improve our ability to serve our country’s youth.
The internet is helping the hobby slowly but surely. I just fielded a call with collector Gary Ives. He’s on the hunt for a variety of the Harmon Foundation Scholarship Award pin for Eagle Scouts. He’s put up a web-site on Eagle pins (click on the menu that says “Eagle Scout Pins). The pin he’s looking for was issued from 1927 – 1931 (5 years) with 52 awarded a year for a total of 260 making it one of the rarest Eagle pins issued.
What was neat was in going through his site I saw a pin we’ve had but not really known who issued it.
As his site points out it is for the Order of the Oh-hit-e-kah pin which Kelly Williams informed him was an early Eagle recognition program like the Knights of Dunamis in Oakland Area Council (CA) circa 1926-1929. Now we can post this information, share it and learn. Neat!
In the theme of wild things lodges have done, I’d like to know the history of the following item that came in:
Wicomico Chapter has some STRANGE ways of showing their heritage…..
Addendum: The editors of OA Blue Book have decided to NOT catalog articles of clothing such as hats, t-shirts, AND underpants (although if there are patches on such then those will be included – the patch that is). Thank God!
Packing and pulling last night’s close and even I get amazed at some of the things that come through our hands. One such piece is this:
Its a telephone center/decal from the 1964 National Jamboree with the extension written in on it.
That this has survived for nearly 50 years. Wonderful. Glad it found a new home. The new owner will have a ‘brag’ piece that very few, if anyone else, in the country has. Pretty good buy I figure.
If paper could talk. I wonder what the requirements were for the “Schiff Society of Singed Eyebrows”?
This is a cute piece of our history. I don’t know what it was for but through Scouting’s 100+ years we have had many gifted volunteers and staff create some of the most innovative programs and ‘recognitions’. As the certificate makes reference to the person being a “Full, Fledged Fire Bug”. It is part of the fun in Scouting. Scouting builds community and memories. I’m sure all of those recognized by the Consolidated Conflagrationists of America can attest to. Maybe some of them will chime in with their rememberances.
From a collecting perspective, these documents, more so than than just the patches tell the ‘story’ of Scouting. If you can add such items in to your collection, you’ll set it apart from the run-of-the-mill
Or sub-titled “Where have all the great rank insignia gone?”
Yesterday I fielded two separate e-mails from very senior collectors about early rank insignia. One was about a Type-3 Life patch (the red knot with HOR red embroidery circa 1919) and the other was about an early Tenderfoot Achievement 2 patch (this was the rank program for disabled Scouts in the 1930s-1940s).
My responses to each separately was the same but different. That is, these are incredibly rare and seldom seen patches. And that their values are understated in the current market precisely because they’re not seen. These can be found for less than their scarcity would indicate but even if you have an open checkbook you can’t find them when you want them. Go figure. For the first, the T-3 Life (and we’re using Paul Myers’ book on Rank Insignia in Color for catalog numbers), we’ve NEVER had one come through in the collections we’ve handled!
In the random rumblings in my head as this discontinuity rattles around I’m thinking there are several pieces/examples of Scout insignia memorabilia that come to mind that are not seen these days. Here’s some of what’s on my list:
What’s on yours?
Note, I didn’t put Type 1 Eagle (the 1924 WJ) or Eagle on Sea Scout blue or the much rarer Sea Scout white. The first patch can bring $10,000 – $15,000 alone. The first Eagle on SSwhite can be $1,500 – $5,000 depending upon condition. The thing is, these patches DO turn up from time to time (say once every few years) but not the pieces on the list above, IMHO.
Update: Here are some sleeper, i.e. rarer than folks realize, issues that you CAN find:
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