The other night on eBay this lot sold:  1946 FELT NATIONAL CONVENTION PATCH-CHANUTE FIELD, ILL

Over the past week I have been answering e-mails with Bruce Shelley, ISCA OA editor, and Dr. Ron Aldridge, author of the two volume book “OA at National Events”. This is the second known specimen to surface in the 60+ years since the event. The participant’s badge was a pin-back button. There was no patch. As Ron pointed out to Bruce:

The first one was found by Dennis Sydlowski in the Richard Marshall collection, sold or traded to Breithaupt, and pictured in the Arapaho book.  It is now a part of the Las Vegas International Scout Museum collection.  When I published my set of books, I was leaning toward the prototype theory as only one was known at that time.  The second one was given to Dennis Sydlowski’s council by R.L. Van Horn.  One came from Michigan and one came from Indiana – this patch might well be a patch made by a council in the mid-west for wear by their contingent members.

In all the years I have researched these early patches, I have seen no evidence that this patch was made or ordered by National.  But then this was one National Meeting before the BSA took over the OA.

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We’ve had in our Blogroll, a list of related blogs, the one for Scouting magazine. I’ll admit I haven’t checked it out in a while even though I work with their team on some magazine articles. They have really freshened up their site (I’m a little jealous). It covers adult Scouting topics which also includes insignia.
Scouting is the magazine for registered adults. Probably most collectors get it but not all. From time to time the magazine has produced great references of current program recognitions such as religious emblems, square knots, and announcing new insignia.

Here are some recent articles that you might find interesting. I did.

Why does silver outrank gold in Scouting awards?

The USA 2011 World Jamboree Contingent patch (which I think is near hideous, where’s Michael Feigenbaum’s design expertize when they need it?)

The 2019 World Jamboree coming to the National Summit (we talked about this at the Dallas TOR, I need to post on this too.)

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At the upcoming National meeting there will be the introduction of a new knot for “Commissioner
Award of Excellence in Unit Service”. I don’t have the requirements yet. Knot collecting continues to be quite popular. George Crowl has a great web-site for these. Go to the Publications section. There he has Word documents covering all the periods back to the beginning. Enthusiasts even go after the type of backs and twill differences (some of which are VERY hard).

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One of my Scouting roles is an Area Vice President. I chair one of seven task forces chartered by the National Key-3 to propose the ideal structure for the delivery of Scouting in Central Region Area 2. The vision for the project is to:

We will have the ideal structure to support a vital, growing Scouting program for youth, families, charter organizations, units and communities within Area 2 that will remain sustainable through the 21st century.

We’ve been asked to dream big and with a blank slate – that is, if we were starting fresh except for what goes on in units, how would we design the organization of Scouting.

There is a project web-site that has minutes from the various discussions, presentations made on work to date, etc.. Check it out. Feel free to pass on your suggestions and I will take them to the task force. This is an open project with nothing predetermined.

Naragansett Council of Rhode Island has initiated some structural changes within their council. They have dropped the term ‘District’ and have organized Community Groups and Service Area Groups (comprised of Community Groups). They have even re-named their commissioner titles and issued new badges of office. See below.

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

The Scouts are getting into the 21st century with their holiday card.

Enjoy this.

(you need Windows movie viewer or similar to watch.)

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I’m not a member of the National Rifle Association but our incoming council president is. When we met recently for lunch he had the December, 2010 issue of American Rifleman. In it they have a wonderful article about the Marksmanship merit badge, this year’s National Jamboree and the NRA’s partnership with the BSA. Check it out on their web-site.

As the article points out:

“Marksman” was one of the first 14 Badges of Merit (later termed Merit Badges) offered in the original 1910 Scout Handbook

Aritst Joseph Csatari

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Earlier I blogged about how poor a design we got form the Post Office for the 100th anniversary of Scouting. I didn’t think they could be any worse but I was wrong. I bought some of the stamps the other day. Here’s the write-up on the back:

Since the creation of the international youth scouting movement some 100 years ago, hunreds of millions of children have benefitted from ooportunities for adventure, skill building, leadership, personal development, and community service provided by scouting organizations.

Normally I see “scouting” capitalized when we’re talking about the movement. It is the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America. The organization that helped with raising 100s of billions of dollars (in today’s dollars) of war bonds during WWI, providing food and supplies during WWII, providing the most service hours of any organization during the recent volunteer campaigns. The political correctness crowd has taken over the US Post Office. What a shame. Maybe we should not be surprised they’re a failing organization.

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Starting two Jamborees ago, Jere Ratcliff as Chief Scout Executive (CSE), maybe it was Roy Williams, began handing out a patch to Scouts attending the Jamboree that he met. This year Bob Mazucca continued the new tradition with his own CSE patch:

Chief Scout Executive Jambo 2010 patch - front

Handing these patches out to Scouts is a nice touch by the Chief.

Until I turned it over…:

Boy Scouts of America CSE - Made in China

Now I posted last spring about the BSA being at best being insensitive, at worst being out right dumb, by having certain patches relating to the American labor movement made in China. Somehow I’m feeling that this is worse because it indicates our leadership does not get it. The comments are the same; he’s either being insensitive at best or dumb at worst. Now I hope our Chief is too busy to be designing and ordering patches but it means he is not being served well either by the Supply Division or by his assistant (who gets his own badge). But neither did he catch it.  He could at least have had his staff take the sticker off to make it less obvious. But no… they couldn’t even do that much. What message are they sending to our Scouts? What message are they Sending to our volunteers? Has he not looked at unemployment levels by age group (it is much worse for those under 30)?

The number I am hearing is that the Scouts need to raise $175 million to build the new jamboree site, more on that in another blog. How much are they asking for from China? Why should any American employee support Scouting? This patch is bad for our brand. It is bad for our leadership. Same conclusion as before – some heads must roll.

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Due to picking up the Clay estate and subsequent car problems I missed this year’s BSA National Meeting.  Well I’m getting reports back and the one that pops up for patch collectors is that we’re going to three (3) regions down from four. Not sure when and not sure the structure. I’m sure we’ll get filled in soon enough. One may probably want to put away some of the region patches but not too many. This isn’t the hottest area of collecting.

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