I’ve recently been trading e-mails with an early lodge chief from Narraticong Lodge 9 out of New Jersey. This lodge was the result of the merger of Cowaw 9 and Sakawawin 287 in 1969.

My e-mail pen pal was a lodge chief and eventual Area chief. He put me onto a nice history web-site for Narraticong (such as why their totem was a mosquito).
http://www.cnjc-bsa.org/lodges/naricong/index.htm

What is nice about the new Blue Book is that these kind of pages can be posted into the lodge listings. Growing and sharing this kind of information and history makes our collections more meaningful, in my opinion.

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The Board for the new council here in Michigan approved at its first meeting new Field Service Council (FSC) boundaries. FSCs are a new concept in the Scouting structure that we’re developing. Although there is one legal entity there are at this time four (4) local delivery entities who’s primary purpose is unit support. The Coordinating Council, also sometimes referred to as the “Administrative Council”, integrates back office functions and achieves economies of scale that we could not achieve as individual councils. Basically we have been silos working within our boundaries. One of the goals of the Crossroads Recommendation is to not compete with each other but compete  to bring more youth to Scouting.

Here’s the new boundaries approved at the meeting. When will these be effective? Soon but still being worked out.

Note – the boundaries between FSCs is dotted. These will flex over time depending upon who can best serve the needs of a given unit. Within Field Service Councils we may well have additional Community Service Councils that are even more focused on unit service – MMM – membership, manpower and of course money. We’ve had discussions where our shoulder wear will change to the community level. Not as specific as red and white community strips that collectors know but more specific than council shoulder strips we’re used to seeing.

The criteria used are on this slide. The Unit Serving Executives to Total Available Youth ratio is about a third better than the current ‘gold standard’ for the national dashboard metrics in Journey to Excellence.

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Right now this is in the rumor mill but the OA National Committee is following through on its policy one charter – one lodge. The biggest outlier in this is Greater New York Councils which is technically one council but each of the burroughs operate with a lot of autonomy and they each have their own lodge several being some of the oldest in the country (e.g., Ranachaqua 4 and Shu-shu-gah 24). Anyone have any more knowledge about this situation either to confirm or refute?

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Previously I’ve shared information about what is called “The Area Project”, Area Project – Designing Scouting for the 21st Century and Michigan Councils Take Next Step In Integrating,  an effort by Central Region’s Area 2 volunteers to create a new structure for Scouting. Tonight all nine (9) councils who put the recommendation to join together to their governance approved the recommendation. That is, we’ve agreed to integrate together to become one, new council. This is the first new council since the 1940s as it is not a merger of existing councils into one successor council.

I’ve shared with some recently a quote from futurist Buckminster Fuller:

You never change things by fighting the existing model.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

Well we’re on this course. Tonight’s a night of celebration but when we wake up tomorrow we have to begin the implementation. The bottom-line will be bringing more youth to Scouting in Michigan.

Update: Here’s a note I just sent to a friend from outside the area:

Deal is done. Vote passed state-wide. Of votes turned in it was 9 to 1 in favor. Basically we’re creating a new structure by pealing away a lot, unfortunately not all, of the calcification that has come from the bureaucracy over the past 100 years. Scouting-sclerosis I call the disease we have. We’re competing with each other rather than growing the pie – that is more kids in Scouting rather than “We’ll fill our camp by recruiting Scouts from other councils.” That any Board would suggest this is myopic thinking at best.

Implementation is the next hurdle.

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A friend set me a link to a current eBay listing for a 1937 camporee patch from California.

Now in general, any patch dated prior to 1940 in BSA memorabilia is pretty scarce. One would think this would be especially true for council activity patches. The exception to this is for California councils. There are several. They come up regularly. Not sure why this is. As I replied to my friend:

Not seen this before but what’s interesting is that there are a fair number of 1930s era California council activity patches. More so than many other areas of the country. Not sure why as CA wasn’t what it is now.

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Got into a discussion with Pokagon 110 alumnus Jim Scherbarth of Illinois about Pokagon’s first flap. We both agreed that most folks get it wrong and as a result don’t have the true first flap. This came up because we were both at the Columbus TOR where someone had the wrong Pokagon cataloged as the S1. Then again later this week someone asked for an offer on a collection. In it was supposedly a Pokagon S1 but when looking at the picture, it was not.

Here’s a picture of what is commonly thought to be the S1 but is NOT!!!

Digging deeper I went to OAimages.com. What’s on there today is the wrong patch. I went to the book First Flaps in Color. The one pictured there is wrong. Finally I had to get to the first edition of First Flaps by Morley, Topkis & Gould to get a picture of the correct one. Arapahoe 2′s completely mixed up in their sequencing of the issues but this was being done just on Dave Leubitz’s recollection.

What Jim has pointed out to me over the years is that the true S1 first flap is just like the Chief’s issue, S2, but with red arrow. Unfortunately that does not help most folks have never seen the Chief’s issue. Its one of the rarest patches in the hobby.

Here’s the S2 chief’s issue:

Now here’s a picture of the true Pokagon first flap:

and a close-up of the tail:

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Jason Spangler, the Santee Swapper, just sent over a link from his blog about suspicious 2011 WJ patches are that are surfacing. They’re bringing some incredible dollars but I think the points raised, slight but noticeable variations in stitch patterns and borders, makes me think these are $3 bills (which don’t exist). Anyone got more insight or knowledge?

Here’s the link from the Patch Blanket blog – What’s with all the 2011 World Scout Jamboree border colors?

An image from his blog points out differences between what was confirmed to be handed out and what is surfacing. These kinds of differences should NOT exist with today’s embroidery techniques.

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Hopefully someone can fill in the history on this piece but neither Destry nor I have seen this brand of Boy Scout hatchet. Its from E. C. Simmons Keen Kutter out of St. Louis, MO and has a clear, but worn, etched First Class Badge (as was standard).  Destry says this company generally made work tools or hand implements, which includes hatchets, but again for skilled trades and workers. Very cool in a different sort of way.

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At this year’s ISCA Dallas Trade-o-ree Terry Grove presented one of the educational sessions on his research into Eagle Scout paper – letters, certificates, membership cards and more. We worked with Terry to record the session but have been struggling with YouTube time limits. YouTube’s now authorized us to post long form videos so here’s the both parts of Terry’s session. As an aside, these educational sessions are one of the great features of the Dallas TOR. Held at the end of January, TOR sponsors and hosts Ron Aldridge and Dave Thomas make sure folks have a good time. IMHO it is THE annual national show.

2011 ISCA Meeting presentation on Eagle Scout memorabilia — Part 1

Here’s the 2nd part:

Eagle Scout memorabilia presentation at 2011 ISCA Meeting — Part 2

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