A Scoutmaster's Blog

I recently completed my first Scouting patch blanket. I have received several positive comments about it already. One Scouter even wrote to say he may start his own after seeing the pictures of mine. I say, go for it. It is a great way to display the patches collected through the years. Much better than a notebook anyway. Unfortunately, my first blanket only displays patches collected to 1996. I have a lot more patches so it is time to think about creating a second blanket.

Today I began laying out the patches for that second blanket. The 4 foot by 4 foot piece of paneling I used to staple the patches to only went up to 2004, so I had to start looking around the house for last nine years worth of patches. You see, I did not have one nice place that I would put them after each outing. This could be interesting.

I began looking in the closet cabinet in my basement family room. I keep a lot of Scouting stuff in there. I did find quite a few in the various small totes but I knew there was more of them. I checked my briefcase, the bedroom, the office, and the kitchen. (I did actually find a couple in the kitchen.) I soon had enough patches to make a couple more rows.

I found a few Many Point Scout Camp patches but they did not have years shown on the design. Time to do a online search on the Many Point virtual patch collection. I discovered the years of all the patches on the site except for one. For some reason the site only shows patches to 2010. I hope that one patch is for 2012 because that is were I plan to place it.

No one will be playing table tennis at my house for awhile. As you can see in the picture, the second blanket is laying on half the table. The patches are laid out on the other half. Last time it took me nearly a year to create a patch blanket. The goal this time is to finish the new blanket by Christmas. This year. Or at least by the end of 2013.

I do have a question for those of you who have created your own patch blankets. Have you put your Scouting knots on your blanket?

It is hard to believe that it is nearly three years since I first seriously began thinking of taking thirty years of patches from various Scouting events and sewing them on a blanket like so many Scouters have done. In the summer of 2012 I laid out one of my Scouting blankets on my ping pong table and started placing patches to see how it would look, and play around with an arrangement. After six months I came to the conclusion the patches were not going to sew themselves so in January of this year I began sewing patches.

After the first row was sewn, the blanket laid untouched for a few months. I do not like to sew. Finally, the second row was complete. By the time I was working on the third row I discovered I had a hard time keeping the patches straight and that the blanket was starting to bunch up a bit. I tried an experiment when I began the fourth row. I had a bottle of Fabri-Tac so I tried spot glueing the patches into place to try to keep them straight. It worked, very well in fact. I decided to try using only glue on a few patches to see if they would stay without sewing. They did. Sewing was now done. The rest of the patches would be glued into place.

Last Sunday I finished the last three rows on the blanket. It took me nearly 11 months from when I first grabbed a needle and thread. If the Fabri-Tac had not worked well I would bet the blanket would not be even one third of the way completed today. I was able to glue 4 patches in the same time I was able to sew one patch. I just had to be careful. I only had one chance to place a patch properly when I glued it.

There one hundred forty two patches in twelve rows on the blanket, including the segment patches from summer camp. For the bottom half I used a straight edge to keep the patches in line. The first patch is from a 1980 council camporee. The last patches were from the 1996 summer camp at Many Point Scout Camp. Patches from Wood Badge, Philmont Scout Ranch, and awards earned at the summer camp rifle range are included. In the middle of the blanket I placed an assistant scoutmaster and a scoutmaster patch to represent those troop positions I held during those 16 years. A roundtable commissioner patch can be found along the left edge. Order of the Arrow conclave patches and one from the 1995 B.S.A National Meeting complete the blanket.

The only thing left is to find a way to display the blanket when it is part of Scouting displays set up around town. The best thing I have found online so far is an expandable garment rack. I am open for suggestions if you have any.

If you click on the picture a larger version will appear. Which one is your favorite patch? Do you see the one from America’s Funniest Home Videos? How does this blanket compare to your patch blanket? Send me a picture and I may post a future article featuring your blankets.

Now it is time to consider starting work on the second blanket….

I do not know about you, but I hate sewing. Maybe one reason for that is I am not very good at it. And it takes too long. And I keep sticking myself with the needle. That is why when I decided to take the Scouting patches I have collected over the last 33 years and start sewing them onto blankets (yes, that is plural) I knew it was going to be a challenging task to accomplish.

Well, I have two rows of patches sewn to the first blanket. They cover the years 1980 through 1984. I have discovered that sewing gets tougher when you start moving further into the center of the blanket. Also, I am having trouble keeping the patches straight. They seem to move on me when I am not paying attention. Grrrrr. When it came time to start the third row I decided to try a few spots of Fabri-Tac permanent adhesive to hold them in the proper place while I sewed them. It worked very well, but I was still sticking my fingers.

I finally decided to try completely glueing a patch into place. Actually, it was three little ones, quality unity patches. After an hour I checked them. The glue was holding very well. I tugged on the four previous spot glued patches and the glue was holding the patches to the blanket very well. I decided to glue four pocket patches along the border.

Wow, what a time saver. I am able to position and glue ten or more patches in the time it would take me to sew one patch. Of course, they will be stuck permanently to the blanket, but I really have no intention of ever removing them. I have only one chance to position them properly or I will end up with a mess.

The goal was to have at least one blanket done to use in the displays we set up around town during Boy Scout anniversary week in February. If I glue them, I may have both blankets done in time for this year’s Thanksgiving holiday. Actually, I could probably have the first blanket done by this weekend which would be great because the troop’s overnighter will be held at my place, and I will need the ping pong table open so the Scouts can have their their table tennis tournament.

I will wait another hour or two before making a final decision, but I have a feeling the rest of the patches will be glued. Of course, I would not use the Fabri-Tac for glueing patches to a shirt. Sewing or Badge Magic is still best for that type of use.

Last Tuesday was my second meeting as a member of the roundtable staff once again. I have to admit, I am having fun. And I think the Scouters who have been attending have discovered my method of roundtable training is a bit different then other peoples’ methods. I do not like to just stand there and talk. I like to move around, change up my voice tone, and even get everyone up on the feet to do things. I think the roundtable commissioner likes what I have brought to the table. At least I hope he has. Here is a review of things we both covered at this month’s Scenic District roundtable.

This year we start our roundtables with a two part opening, one part patriotic and one part Scouting related, and we plan to change it up for each monthly meeting. For this month we began with the American Creed and the Scout Law.

We would usually go into skill development next but since it gets dark early this time of year we switched things up and went outside for our game. Yes, you read that correctly. We played a game. The goal is to introduce troop leaders to possibly new games they can bring back to their troop to play. This month’s game was Tip, played with a frisbee. The two teams tossed the disc to each other. Team members would try to “tip” the disc to other team members and then have someone catch it. The team scores one point for each successful tip, but only if the disc is caught at the end of the tipping. The Scouters had a blast playing the game and really got into it. I believe a few grass stains may have been taken home.

Back inside the meeting room, Al and I conducted a brief uniform inspection and talked about the uniform being one of the methods of the Scout program. I opened a discussion of this month’s Jamboree On The Air and the Jamboree On The Internet. Many of the Scouters had not heard of these events. Al lead a discussion about the duties of a troop’s junior leaders.

Before the meeting I had set up a table display of my patch collections, including OA lodge patches, council shoulder patches, and patches from the 2001 National Jamboree. I also had several old Scouting themed books set out to view. We talked about the fun of patch trading, who trades with who, and about B.S.A. policy regarding trading.

Al finished the day’s skill development by discussing how to plan a troop meeting, or I should say, how the troop’s junior leaders should plan a troop meeting. A few Scouters were eager to share their thoughts on this subject. We closed the roundtable with Scout Vespers.

After the meeting, I caught up with a Scouter who is a fairly new scoutmaster and asked him if he had been finding this year’s meetings helpful. He said that he has been learning quite a bit and is discovering good ideas to bring back home to his troop. I walked to my car with a grin on my face. I guess Al and I are doing a good job so far.

Yes, the 2013 National Jamboree may now be nothing but a memory, but I just received my set of patches from the Central Minnesota Council’s Jamboree troop. Now I am ready to attend! Well, if I would have gone that is. I almost did not receive a set of this year’s patches but Scoutmaster Mike of our Jamboree troop remembered me and saved me two sets. I now have council patches from the 2001, 2005, 2010, and 2013 National Jamborees.

I have to admit that I do like this year’s patches. The council shoulder patch is quite colorful and features two Boy Scouts canoeing on one of the 10,000 Minnesota lakes. Or it could be one of our many rivers. Or could it be one of the lakes at the Summit? It is hard to tell from the patch. From the deep blue waters, to the bright red canoe, to the green pine trees in the background, and the white smiles on the Scout’s faces, the colors and details really bring out a well designed patch for this year’s event. Although it’s trade value was maybe not as high as the Star Wars or Marvel patches I would still bet it was a well traded patch.

The Naguonabe Lodge put together a fantastic Order of the Arrow two patch set for the Jamboree. Once again it has keep the theme of featuring Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox, as they have for a few Jamborees and National Order of the Arrow Conclaves (NOAC). The two part patch features Paul and Babe parachuting into the Summit, the location of this year’s National Jamboree. The pocket flap patch features the bright red and white parachutes with the feather totem of our lodge. The pocket patch features the two central characters in their harnesses about to land on a… lake?  Paul even wears a Brotherhood Order of the Arrow sash. (I wonder how many yards of material it took to make a sash for him, and where he slept for his ordeal conclave.)

So now I am curious. How many of you who attended this year’s Jamboree took home these patches as part of your collection? What do you think about them? Let us know by writing a comment, and don’t forget to tell us your troop number and what part of the country you claim as yours.

The 2013 National Jamboree is officially over. The new Summit high adventure base has completed its first real test at handling large groups of Boy Scouts, leaders, and staff. It will be interesting during the next several weeks to see what the reports will read.  Were there problems? How will things change for the next Jamboree? What will remain the same. What will change? And the most important question, did the Scouts have a great time? I would be willing to bet that Bryan at http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org will keep us informed.

I have been reading things online written by both leaders and Scouts who have attended this year’s big event. One thing that impressed me is that many of the council patches have really been outstanding. I wish I would have attended just to collect patches. Granted, I did collect a fair amount when I attended the 2001 National Jamboree, but I think I would have had to bring five times as many patches to trade if I would have attended this year.

Every Jamboree has plenty of stuff to collect, not just patches. There are shirts, pants, towels, neckerchiefs, books, pamphlets, pins, rings, papers, and lots of other miscellaneous stuff. And I would guess there is more to collect now then there was 12 years ago. The picture above shows some of the “official” things I accumulated during the 2001 Jamboree, including a towel, cap, and tee shirt. I even kept a couple shopping bags for good measure.

During the next few articles I thought I would share a few other things I saved from the jamboree, including some special items that are irreplaceable. Stay tuned. Or should I say, plugged in?

More Boy Scout patches for the collection.

I served as the scoutmaster for one of the two troops that the Central Minnesota Council sent to the 2001 National Jamboree. That trip to Fort A.P. Hill was one of the highlights of my Scouting tenure. It also was a reason to begin another Scouting themed collection. (As if I really needed another one.) I began collecting 2001 Jamboree patches and other memorabilia. I have a medium sized tote in the closet filled with stuff from this event.

Today I was lucky enough to score a small collection of 23 council shoulder patches (csp) from this event. I think I already have 3 or 4 of these in the notebook but the others will nicely fill in part of the void in the collection. The doubles may allow me to actually do some trading instead of purchasing. The new ones will create to need to start another binder or get a larger one.

Have you been to a National Jamboree? Did you trade and collect patches? How many do you have in your collection?

Central Minnesota Council Friends of Scouting 2013 shoulder patch.

I don’t know about your council but ours, the Central Minnesota Council B.S.A., is in full swing for its 2013 Friends of Scouting (FOS) drive. Representatives from the council or district will visit each of the troops, packs, and crews to talk to families about the Scout program, and ask for donations to help the council provide a great program for thousands of youth. In Melrose Troop 68, this visit usually takes place at the March court of honor which will happen on Monday, the 25th.

The council will accept any donation but does have a couple of “levels” at which the person or family who donates enough financial support will receive a special token of appreciation. At the lowest of these level points the donator will receive a patch. At the next levels he/she will receive a Norman Rockwell unframed print or framed print.

I visited with Bob, my district executive, for awhile yesterday and found out the design of this year’s patch. This will be the sixth year that the council continues a theme based on the Scout Law. Each year has featured a point of the Law. This year has Kind as its theme. Is it a sharp looking patch, in my opinion. It is also nice to see that the council has returned to a stitched patch, instead of the cheaper looking print patches it used during the past three years. As you can see from the picture, this year’s FOS council patch is one you could proudly wear on your uniform.

What does your council do to show its appreciation during its Friends of Scouting drive?