I’m off to the ISCA Dallas National Trade-o-ree this weekend 1/20-1/21/12. Its been going for over 30 years. The hosts, Ron Aldridge and Dave Thomas, really put out the welcome mat. In Dave’s case literally as he hosts an open house Thursday night for all in the area (address in the flyer). All are welcome to stop by. Also Jim and Bea Stevenson have an open house. They can be reached through their web-site. Good Texas hospitality from all.

Here’s the TOR flyer

2012_Dallas_TOR_Flyer_1_

8′ tables are sold out but there are some 6′ tables left. I’ve written before how this is the best annual, national show. As the flyer indicates, this is the 9th National ISCA show. Along with the TOR there is a full schedule of educational sessions, ISCA Board meeting, display competitions (see one by Kelly Williams from last year here) or (the one on Sea Scout ship insignia with Sam Fairchild here) and more.

Here’s the Saturday agenda:

9:30-10:30AM ISCA will have it’s annual meeting for members and prospective members. Come and meet our officers and Board members and discuss where ISCA is going in the future.

 

10:30-11:30 Alan Goldsmith and Dr. Dan Miller, two of the nation’s foremost experts on collecting Philmont patches will present on this well loved collecting area. Come and hear some of their patch stories.

 

11:30-1PM The judges, led by Dave Thomas, will judge the displays and award the ribbons to the winners. Come and see the displays brought to the Trade-O-Ree by your friends and colleagues.

 

1:00-2:00 Terry Grove, author of “A Comprehensive Guide to the Eagle Scout Award” and other well known books in our hobby will teach a class on Eagle patches. He will be joined by Ron Oslin and Jim Erickson as co-presenters.

 

2:00-3:00 Kelly Williams will present on owning and operating a patch company. Many of us have thought about how cool it would be to make Boy Scout patches but few of us have made it happen. Come and hear from one who has.

 

3:00-4:00 Roy More, owner of “The Scout Patch Auction” and seller of several of the largest and most famous scout memorabilia collections will discuss Blue Book 2.0. Come and hear what Roy has to say!

 

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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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At the recent Pittsburgh TOR we hooked up with Virginia-based collector John Ortt. John brought his collection of lodge totem pins. This is a specialty collecting area because of their rarity. John provides some background (information about the first OA jeweler Hood starting in 1920 with these through the merger with Caldwell Jewelers in 1945 and their stopping production in 1973.) John points out that a challenge in this collecting area is we don’t know what we don’t know, i.e., who issued what when?

Previously we’ve written about the museum display at the National Order of the Arrow Conferences where collector Bill Topkis has displayed his lodge jewelry collection, the best in the country, with over 200 pieces. We figure John’s collection here is in the top 5 with around 30 pieces. For OA collectors to have more than 2 or 3 pieces is very rare.

Postscript – The opportunity for education, sharing and fellowship is one of the great aspects of trade-o-rees. If you have a chance to visit one, we recommend that you do so. The video has a fair amount of hub-bub from the TOR even though we were off to the side but things were so busy.

Here’s something not in the video – a close-up of the order form John has in his collection.

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Last weekend Destry and I attended the Indy TOR, another great regional one, and got to visiting with Dave Ramp, Paul Myers and Dennis Sydloski about the camps of Anthony Wayne Area Council (AWAC). AWAC is headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Its one of those mid-west councils that is strong but was even stronger years ago and has a very rich camp history. What brought this up was I recently acquired a Camp Limberlost patch.

I was not sure when it was used but Dave filled in the information:

Hi Roy,   The Camp Limberlost patch has the blue backing teepee which is a staff patch, plus the orange teepee which represents a third year at Camp. I have the C/L patch with just the blue backing. which could represent a first year staffer or a 2nd year as a staffer (just not sure as I need written doc. on these practices). Have several others on sashes, but need to look at them again (on display at the Council Office), and they came from a youth staff member. Also have a C/I on sash from this fellows brother. Both were younger brothers of Harvey Price later to become Chief Scout Exect.  They would date from after 1929 (1st year of camp which issued a patch on it’s maiden year plus 1 to 3 years and ran thru 1934 when the Limberlost property went back to the estate of Jean Stratton Porter  because the Council couldn’t make the morgage payment and moved the camp unto Big Island across the frozen Sylvan Lake. It then became Camp Island in 1935-36. In 1937 the name was change to Camp Big Island. The red and green silkscreened 1937 & 1938 were used, and I’m very sure blue ones exist for staff. In 1939 the embrodied on felt patches were started. They exist in red, maroon, green , and blue for staff, and continued dated until 1946 when they went to 1st year, 2nd year etc, thru 6th year in red, green and blue. The last in this series started around 1949 or 1950 (not sure) with just Big Island/Camp in red & maroon or on the blue staff just- Big Island. These ended around 1951 or 1952 when the twills went into use.     Rather confusing and complex for a rather small camp. I figure that there could be nearly 60 different felt patches, plus there are several minor varities of the Indian Head on several differnt years. Other items exist such as green segments (7 known) for various achievements. If one earned 3 of these in a year he got a year dated segment and these date from 1951-1955 and are very hard to find.  Your Sixth Year Camper patch is very hard to find. I don’t have it, but Paul Meyers does. All in all Big Island is a very interesting Camp to collect. Hope this helps you understand the sequence of these patches. I think my collection may be the largest, but then I might be wrong, but Paul M. has less than I do, but have not seen his sashes from AWAC.      YiS,  Dave      

Part of what makes this camp and council so interesting is that it is home to one of the toughest old names for Order of the Arrow lodges – Miami Lodge 75 that chartered in 1935 and changed to Kiskakon Lodge 75 in 1938. We’re in the process of brokering one of the few surviving patches from this lodge. See below:

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Here’s something that one doesn’t/can’t see very often – a reunion of three of the 272 sateens. This is the first flap for 272 Wewanoma out of Texas. Each was hand made. They came out prior to 1952 and are pictured in the Wabaningo book. It has been quite some time since these were last together. This is considered one of the best/hardest first flaps. They are typically valued between $18,000 – $28,000 depending upon condition and provenance. Thus, you’re looking here at the equivalent of 3 cars or a small house.

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The Scouting Century Foundation’s display of Sea Scout ship medallions and flag ship fleet patches won “Best of Show” at the recent 2009 Dallas Trade-o-ree. We caught up with the Foundation’s Executive Director Sam Fairchild to discuss and review for you the contents of this display. See the pod-cast below.

Sea Scouting is the oldest specialty program within the BSA. It started in 1913 and continues to this day. It has its own highly distinctive and coveted insignia and memorabilia. Some of its most distinctive badges are ship medallions, youth designed badges, for each Sea Scout unit. Also, starting in the early 1930s through the late 1940s there were national and then regional and local competitions for the best ships. The Foundation now holds what we believe to be the best collection in the country. Sam wanted us to be sure to note that Kelly Williams, President of the Krelman Co. originally built the collection and in the past year worked with the Foundation to move it to their holdings.

Here’s our interview with Sam.

[display_podcast]

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As part of the ISCA sponsored trade-o-ree in Dallas this past month there were a series of educational sessions. Silver Buffalo recipient and long time collector Dr. Hal Yocum presented one on re-enactment of Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts. We thought you might enjoy what Hal has learned over the years and recorded a part of his presentation.

Hal points out that many youth in the program today don’t know who BP was or would recognize him. For over twenty years now he has played BP at various Scout functions and Woodbadge training courses. Click on the video player below to start.

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Information is now out for the Detroit Area Council annual trade-o-ree. It will again be held at Livonia Mall, Livonia, MI. Location is Middlebelt Rd and 7 Mile Rd.

Hours are Friday 11/9/2007 from 4pm to 11pm and Saturday from 8am to 4pm.

For more information registrations call 313-533-6470 or 248-669-9787. All proceeds to benefit the DAC Boy Scout Camps.

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PDF 2008 Dallas Boy Scout TOR promotional flyer

The great team who put on the Dallas TOR, Ron Aldridge and Dave Thomas, are now taking reservations for their 2008 Trade-o-ree in January. This is their 30th annual TOR. It will be the largest national show in 2008. It is also the ISCA National Conference so there are display competitions, education sessions and forums and always great fellowship.

Click the link for a PDF of the flyer. The dates are Friday January 18th through Saturday the 19th.

Also, the Stevensons are hosting a visitation/open house on the 17th. From their recent e-mail :

4 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD COME TO DALLAS JANUARY 17-19, 2008

1. THE STEVENSONS HAVE AN OPEN HOUSE THURSDAY, JANUARY 17 FROM 4pm ON.  BUFFET SUPPER WILL BE SERVED & THE STORE WILL BE OPEN WITH OUTSTANDING BARGAINS.
We will send you directions from the TOR hotel upon request.

2. THE DALLAS TRADE-O-REE IS FRIDAY-SATURDAY, JANUARY 18-19.

3. THE NATIONAL SCOUTING MUSEUM IS OPEN EACH DAY 10am TO 5pm AND IS ONLY ABOUT 4 MILES FROM THE TOR.  HERE IS THE LINK TO THEIR WEB SITE

WE MAY HAVE SOME FREE PASSES AT THE OPEN HOUSE, BE SURE TO ASK US. We will send you directions from the TOR hotel upon request.

4. WE LIKE TO VISIT WITH OUR FAVORITE CUSTOMERS FACE TO FACE.

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