A Scoutmaster's Blog

It is that time of year. Units in the Central Minnesota Council are being visited by council representatives for the annual Friends Of Scouting (FOS) campaign. Families are being asked to contribute what they can to the council to assist in providing a quality program for the boys.

Like many councils, the Central Minnesota Council offers gifts for donors who meet certain levels of financial support. For many years they offered a framed Norman Rockwell Scouting print as an upper level gift. I am proud to say that a wall in my home office is covered with these prints collected over a decade.

During the last several years a special council should patch has been offered as a gift. Each year has been a different patch featuring a point of the Scout Law. I happen to be one of those Scout leaders who like to collect patches so yes, I have every one so far. This year’s patch feature the law point of Cheerful, especially cheerful service. By the way, when you think of cheerful service don’t you think of the Order of the Arrow? Did you know this year is the 100th anniversary of the OA? Can you guess what else is featured on the 2015 patch?

Once again, I like the design of the shoulder patch. I will not be wearing it on my shirt though. It will go straight into my three ring binder of council patches. This is number eight of the twelve patch series. I wonder what the next four will look like.

What do you think of this year’s patch design? Does your council do something similar?

If you have been following this blog then you know my frustration in not being able to find the missing piece to my Scouting Village collection, the Trading Post. I was not quick enough that first year in buying the pieces and missed that building. I did find a few people selling it on eBay at vastly inflated prices, so I went without one.

This year the Scout Shop (and scoutstuff.org) came out with the new pieces which included the cool looking Dining Hall. It made me want the Trading Post even more, but not enough to where I would spend $100 to get one. Then, as if the national sales team wanted to pour salt into my open wound, they came out with a “starter kit” that included all the pieces from 2012 and 2013, including the Trading Post! I had no intention of spending $80.00 just to get that piece, even if it included all those other pieces.

A little over a month ago I received an email from a person who worked in a council Scout Shop in the southern United States. She stated that she was breaking apart a “starter kit” because other people also wanted to fill in gaps in their collections. She was willing to sell me a Trading Post! The price she gave me was very reasonable, but I would have to add shipping to the cost. By the time everything was added up I discovered I could add this missing piece to my collection for $31.00. Yes, that is double the price I would have paid if I would have bought it that first year, but I guess I learned a lesson.

When I set up my Scouting Village toward the end of November it will include all the pieces available from the three years of the collection. I am looking forward to seeing it all together. One big question in my mind is whether everything will fit on that piece of plywood I bought for this purpose. I guess I will find out in a few weeks. If the Scout Shop comes out with more pieces next year I know I will need a larger piece of plywood.

Stay tuned! I will be posting pictures of the village once I have set it up. I invite you to send you pictures of your Scouting Village, along with a brief description, to this blog so I can post them for the world to see.

The time has come. The selling begins today. This week I am beginning to sell the Order of the Arrow Tonkawampus Lodge Patches that I wrote about a week ago. As far as I can tell, these are had to come by, especially since this lodge does not exist any longer. (For more information see the previous blog post: http://www.melrosetroop68.org/blog/?p=4413 )

I am going to start selling the patches on this blog, which gives you, my readers, the first chance to purchase them for your collection. In the coming weeks I plan to expand the sale to eBay and other sites. The proceeds from these sales will go toward a campership fund to help Boy Scouts attend summer camp.

The patches will sell for $10.00 each, plus $1.00 for shipping. Buy two patches and it is still only $1.00 for shipping. There will be a limit of two patches per person. For payment and shipping information, or if you have any questions, you can contact me at stevejb68@yahoo.com .

My goal is to sell at least twenty patches by the weekend. I would appreciate it if you would help me to spread the word.

I recently had a great visit with a couple of old Scouting friends of mine. We had not seen each other for a few years so it was great to get together for a few hours to reminisce about the “old” times and catch up on how we have all been doing. Of course, we also exchanged some Scouting memorabilia. I gave him two 2010 Boy Scout Fleece blanket patterns which he can use to make a couple patch blankets, and he gave me various patches for my collection and a special surprise.

A fair number of the patches given to me were Tonkawampus Lodge #16 Order of the Arrow patches, #S19. This lodge was chartered in 1924 in the Viking Council, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2006, during the merger of the Viking Council and the Indianhead Council of St. Paul, Tonkawampus Lodge #16 and Agaming Lodge #257 merged to form Totanhan Nakaha Lodge #16.

The patches given to me are shown above. I have done an online search for this patch and had a hard time founding it anywhere. eBay did not have this patch offered by anyone. I finally found some information on the Internet Guide to Order of the Arrow Insignia, but even that page did not have a lot of information, other than stating that this was the 80th anniversary patch for the lodge.

My friend told me this could be one of the last patches made for the lodge before the merger. Hidden in the design of the patch is the year 2003. The first two feathers, following by pictures in the two zeros, followed by three feathers, gives us the year 2003. That is a pretty cool design in my opinion. I plan to add a couple of these to my collection of OA patches, which will be even more special since this lodge does not exist any longer.

My friend gave me this collection of Order of the Arrow patches with one stipulation. I could keep some for myself, but I should try selling the rest and use the proceeds to provide camperships for Scouts who may need some assistance paying for summer camp. I thought that was an excellent idea. I know of a couple online sites, like eBay, that would probably be good places to post sales for these collector patches. We discussed what price should be listed but neither one of us had a good idea what that price should be. I finally sat down today to see if I could find something online on an average price for this patch but found nothing. Not a thing. Do I have a rare patch here?

I decided to write a post about it here before I started auctioning them off on various sites. If you have any information about this patch I would love to hear from you. I was thinking about asking a starting price of $10.00 each. Too high? Not high enough? What is your opinion?

I remember when the Boy Scout stores began selling the Scouting Village pieces a couple years ago. I decided to start collecting them a little too late and missed out on getting the lighted Trading Post building. I still do not have one. When this year’s village pieces became available at our local Scout Shop I bought all three immediately. I did not want to make the same mistake a second time.

I recently noticed that in addition to this year’s collection pieces, scoutstuff.com has an eight piece starter set available to purchase. The set includes all the pieces from 2012 and 2013, including the lighted Trading Post. So, in other words, I can now get the piece I am missing, if I am willing to spend $80 on the whole set. Since I have all the other pieces already, I do not think I will be doing that.

I wish the scoutstuff.com website would make all the pieces available as single pieces. It is obvious they are manufacturing the pieces again, otherwise why wouldn’t they have offered the pieces online earlier to clear out inventory?  I am sure I am not the only one who missed out buying a building during the last two years, or maybe I am. I does frustrate me a bit, almost to the point of thinking that this will probably be the last year I will collect the Scouting Village pieces.

It is a great idea to offer the set to new collectors, but I feel it is a slap in the face to those of us who began collecting two years ago. What do you think about it?

http://www.scoutstuff.org/set-village-lighted-8pc.html

Maybe I should not have done it. After all, it has been 13 years since that event was held. But I had a good time and a great group of Scouts along so I will always remember the 2001 National Jamboree fondly. So, last night I decided to try to expand my collection of patches from the Jamboree. I decided to try my luck on eBay.

When I buy patches for my collection I have a rule I kind of follow: unless it is a very special patch that I really want badly I will only pay up to $5.00 per patch. Of course, this means there are quite a few patches that I will probably never add to my collection because the people selling them price them too high for my budget, like the Marvel hero patches or the dinosaur patches. I also prefer to buy patches as sets or lots. I like sets because I can (maybe) get all the patches from that council in one lump grouping. I like lots because they usually are priced as less than $5.00 per patch, plus I add more patches to the collection quickly.

I bid on or bought patches from four actions last night, and added another four to my eBay watch list. The best of the batch was a ten patch set of Jamboree shoulder patches from Indian Nations Council. It is one of those council sets in which the same patch design was used for all ten troops, with a different border color for each troop, which is actually a popular way to provide different patches for each troop but also keep the cost to a minimum for the participating Boy Scouts. (The picture only shows six of them.)

The other auctions include council shoulder patches from the West Central Florida Council, the Blue Ridge Council, and the Crater Lake Council, and a two patch set of Order of the Arrow patches from the Sakuwit Lodge. The auction description stated this lodge does not exist anymore. This lodge was located in the Central New Jersey Council which was dissolved in February 2014. I look forward to adding this set to my collection since they have now become a part of Scouting history.

This will add 15 patches to my 2001 National Jamboree collection. These patches will force me to start a second three ring binder. I will probably put council shoulder patches in one book and OA patch sets in the other. I may need to order the few more pages in which to place the patches. I will worry about that after I receive the patches.

What do you think of when you hear the words “bear skin”? Is your first thought a bear skin rug? Maybe a sporting game between the Bears and the Redskins? Maybe a sunburn after sitting with bare skin in the sun too long? One of the things I think of is summer camp. It was the name of the campsite my troop used for two years when I attended camp as a youth.

I attended Parker Scout Reservation of the Central Minnesota Council for three years during the mid-1970’s. It is a small camp by some summer camp standards, but it was the home of Troop 68 and other troops for a week of fun and excitement. In its earlier days it was called Camp Clyde. These days it is sometimes called Camp Parker. It closed as a summer camp in the late 1970’s but is still used as a weekend camp for council Boy Scout and Cub Scout activities. Troop 68 has used the camp on several occasions over the years for their own weekend activities.

The council has done several major renovations and additions to Camp Parker during the last few decades. The old dining hall was completely renovated and an addition was built onto it. A storage building was added next to it at the same time. A new shower house was constructed back in the nineties. Several older buildings have been remodeled with new heating systems installed. The biggest addition to Camp Parker took place when the castle was built. Yes, you read that correctly. A castle. (Pictures of the castle can be seen at http://www.bsacmc.org/photo_gallery_miller_castle.html .)

A few months ago I received a phone call at work asking if the lumber yard would like to donate some cedar lumber so new signs could be built for the campsites. The signs were getting pretty run down and looked rather shoddy. I did not even give my boss a chance to reply to the request. I used this as a chance for myself to give back a little to the place I have been going to for four decades. I donated the materials.

But I had one request. I wanted the old campsite sign of the camp I stayed in as a young Boy Scout. I wanted the old Bear Skin sign. I was told that should not be a problem and that they would set it aside for me.

That was a couple months ago. Yesterday, when I arrived back home from working at my parents renovation project, I found something placed between my front door and combination door. Later in the morning my district executive had stopped by my house on his way through town and dropped off the sign. Other than patches and pictures, this is the first item from Camp Parker I have been able to add to my Scouting collection.

The sign was actually in decent shape considering it has weathered several Minnesota winters and summers. I really have no idea how long this sign has marked the campsite. I would doubt it is the same sign that welcomed Boy Scouts in the 1970’s, but it is a piece of camp history and I am happy to have it in my collection.

Below you can see a map of Parker Scout Reservation from a camporee probably held in the early 1990’s. As you can see, Parker is not a big camp but it really does not matter. I have made a lot of great Scouting memories there.

It is inevitable. If you are in the Scouting program for several years you will start collecting something. It could be activity patches. Maybe it will be council shoulder patches (csp’s) or Order of the Arrow lodge flaps. It might be coffee mugs or bolo ties. Would handbooks or fieldbooks be more to your liking? What do I collect? All of the above.

When I went to the Philmont Training Center in June I brought along some Central Minnesota Council shoulder patches to trade with Scouters from around the country. The first time I was introduced to patch trading was at the Philmont Training Center in 1984, and I was not prepared to do any trading. I have tried not to make that mistake anymore whenever I leave the council.

I brought 19 csp’s with me to trade at Philmont this year. Trading was to take place Monday evening that week. I was going to be ready.

I was a bit disappointed to see that only a half dozen people show up to trade patches at the South Tent City activity building, but I was able to do some trading. I was also able to trade a couple patches during the rest of the week. I went back to Minnesota with ten new council strips and one Order of the Arrow patch. I did well. I was happy.

There was one patch for trade that night that I really wanted for my collection. It was a Far East Council should patch that featured James E. West, the first Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America. The young Scouter (a possible staff member?) that had the patch did not want to trade one for one. He wanted more. I did not want to give up any of my new patches so I prepared to leave without it. But than another young Scouter arrived and he had the same patch to trade. He was willing to trade one for one. I was able to add James E. West to my collection.

There was one patch that eluded my trading. National Commissioner Tico Perez was in attendance during the week I was at the training center. I tried to trade csp’s with him a couple of times but each time he did not have any patches with him to trade. He did however have his special red “National Commissioner Tico Perez” patch which he gave me. To tell the truth, I was more excited to add this rare patch to my collection than his council patch.

What do you collect? How many items do you have in your collection?