A Scoutmaster's Blog

You were given a preview of the trader’s two patch set in May. Yesterday I wrote a post about the participant’s set. But did you know there is one more option available for the Naguonabe Lodge members who will be participating in this year’s National Order of the Arrow Conference (NOAC)? Yes there is!

You may have noticed in the previous posts that the original pocket flap patch and the pocket patch did not “flow” together in their design. Do not get me wrong, I like both patches. But I thought it would have been nice for the two patches to “share” a continuous design like the patch sets of the last few years. Maybe it is just me being an old fuddy duddy. I think the reason for the design was to allow all lodge members to buy a pocket flap patch to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Order of the Arrow. I understand this. I think they did a great job designing the patch and I am glad to have it as a part of my collection.

The picture above shows the recent third option of this year’s patch set. Yes, there is a final option in which the patches “flow” together into one continuous design. The wolf’s ears and forehead can now be seen. I like it! I also like the bright color scheme chosen for this year’s set. I am willing to bet this will be a popular set traded at this year’s event. Yes, this set is a trading set. Note the dark gray border. No, I do not have any patches to trade since I am not attending the conference.

So, you have seen the three options of the 2015 NOAC patches for the members of the Naguonabe Lodge of the Central Minnesota Council. Which set do you like best?

It was over a month ago when I wrote a post about the Naguonabe Lodge’s patch design for the 2015 National Order of the Arrow Conference, otherwise known as NOAC. The two patch set also commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Order of the Arrow. I like the patch set. Unfortunately, I will not be attending this special function so I was able only to show you what the trading set looks like.

Well, today I was able to see, and take a picture of, the participant’s set of patches. It is the same design except that the border is silver instead of dark gray. Each person attending NOAC this year had the opportunity to buy one of these sets for their uniform. I know of one participant that may put his silver bordered set into his collection and place the trader’s set on his uniform instead. He does not want anything to happened to this very limited set, and to tell the truth, I cannot blame him.

What do you think of this patch set? What does your lodge’s patch set look like?

The Naguonabe Lodge of the Central Minnesota Council began handing out patches to its members that are attending the 2015 National Order of the Arrow Conclave during this weekend’s spring conclave. Once again, it will be a two patch set, but unlike previous year’s these patches do not match into each other and do not feature Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox. But that is okay. After all, this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Order of the Arrow so something different needed to be done.

The pocket flap patch is our lodge’s official patch to recognize the anniversary. The pocket patch is for the NOAC event and seems to feature a wolf spirit watching over the campsites. I like the colors used on the pocket patch. The picture is of the trading patches. The participant patches have a different color border on each of them.

I was able to receive two sets of the trading patches for my collection thanks to a Scouting friend of mine. I had to work this weekend so I was not able to attend the conclave. If they have any sets after the conclave I plan to get a few more sets. I would like to add a set of the participant patches to my collection, but since I will not be attending I do not think I will be able to do that.

What do your lodge’s patches for the the 2015 NOAC look like?

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?

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 know many of you collect patches, be they council strips, Order of the Arrow lodge flaps, or activity patches. One of the several patch collection I have is of the 2001 National Jamboree. I collect from that event because I attended it with nine Boy Scouts from my troop. I still add patches to this collection when I can pick them up at a reasonable price. Here is a photo of the patches I collected from eBay auctions in the last three weeks.

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.