Jason Spangler recently wrote a blog post on the sales spike on eBay following the 2010 BSA National Jamboree.   You should check out what he has to say:

http://2010jambo.com/09/boy-scout-category-analysis-2010-jamboree-spike.html

To me the interesting part was when he got to the two year graphs.   What appears to be the a sales spike after the 2009 NOAC was dwarfed by the post-Jamboree activity this year.

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Now this is patch trading!

Jason Spangler, aka The Santee Swapper, took out his video camera during the evening patch trading at NOAC.     Rather than showing every single patch that was out there — an almost impossible task if I say so myself — he wanted to capture the atmosphere of patch trading in Read Hall.     The video clip is after the jump.

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I’m spending time today trying to get images of NOAC items ready to add to this site, and to catch up on email that needs to be answered.     I probably have a few hundred images to look through; some are surely duplicates.     I also can’t get my inbox below 250 unanswered messages.     So, I thought I’d ask readers their opinions about the patches from the recent NOAC.

Usually I see at least a few patches that will strike me as exceptionally well done.     The art and the execution will both be great.     The design will be innovative and original.     This will be a patch or set that makes me go, “Wow!”       While I have seen some very nice patches, none have yet struck me quite that way.       Maybe I’m becoming jaded from seeing so many.

So readers, what are your favorite issues from this past NOAC?     Tell us your favorites.   Add your comments to this post.     Images will be appreciated.

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One of the big items of discussion at the recent pre-NOAC TOR was the fate of Blue Book.     For those who don’t know, the various legal issues in which this became entangled are now resolved.     The new editor in chief of the Blue Book is Roy More.     His desire is to maintain this resource in electronic and online forms.     It has become impractical to publish this in book form as was done for the first six editions.

The goal is to create an “ever green” resource, with active input by collectors.     It will be going “Web 2.0″ in many respects.   OAImages, will remain an integral part in this.       This does not mean uncontrolled anarchy though, with lodge listings being changed at will by anyone who chooses.     Roy writes:

…OA Blue Book will not become a ‘Wikipedia’. This is a standard’s (sic) project which means there must be structure, discipline and stability. That said, Blue Book will become much more open for all…

There are still many issues that need to be worked out.   Roy More has started a blog at oabluebook.com to discuss some of the various issues that need to be resolved.     There are only a few posts there now, but he plans to update this frequently.   Please check this out and comment on the posts there.

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I’m a bit jealous of Jason Spangler, aka The Santee Swapper. He’s at the pre-NOAC TOR and I’m not. Jason has started a blog for his trip to the TOR and NOAC. You can keep up with him at www.2009noac.com.       He also has a Twitter feed set up for those who use that site.

He already has made a few posts from the first day of the Trade-o-Ree and Wednesday night’s auction.

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Coosa Lodge: iSash Set

The Coosa Shows crew produced an excellent video called iSash to increase “Brotherhood conversion”,   where Ordeal members in the Order of the Arrow seal them membership and become Brotherhood members.     In my opinion the video is well done and rivals anything produced by the Boy Scouts of America or the Order of the Arrow (OA).

Coosa lodge has adopted the style of the iSash video and produced four two part sets.     Each set follows a similar scheme with a silver mylar border, a bold monochrome background, and a Scout in silhouette wearing a white sash.       Three of the sets depict the princples of the OA:     Brotherhood, Cheefulness, and Service.     The fourth set, pictured, depicts all three principles.     Thanks to Chris Brightwell for supplying the images of these items.

The “Brotherhood” set is particularly meaningful to members of Coosa Lodge.   It memorializes Mr. Don Burt, a charter member of Coosa Lodge and a long-time member of Kaskanampo Lodge #310. Mr. Burt was initially inducted into Unami lodge.

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It was a reunion of its patches anyway.

The Wewanoma 272 F1, their first flap is one of the most difficult OA patches to acquire.     Each flap was handmade so no two patches are exactly alike.     Roy More reports on his blog that three of these very rare patches were present at the recent 2009 Dallas Trade-O-Ree.

According to Roy these flaps sell for between $18,000 and $28,000 when they change hands depending on condition and provenance.       Those three patches represent the value of a couple of good vehicles or a small home (in a cheap real estate area!).

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Tali-Danda-Ganu 293 Charter, 1957

John Thomas recently wrote me.   He was fascinated by the recent blog post about Quil-Shan Lodge.     It seems there was confusion in the early years of his own lodge, Talidandaganu’ and he has the charters to prove this.

According to Mr. Thomas   Ron Stulce,   a charter member of this lodge, was asked to help clean out the local Council office one day and to throw out a bunch of old files.   While doing that he found, and was able to salvage some old charters that would otherwise have been discarded.

Councils routinely discard archival type information, especially older records and charters that in their minds only occupy space.     This appears to have been endemic within the BSA as a massive purge of records and memorabilia occurred when the BSA moved its headquarters from New Jersey to Texas.     There is no telling how much information was permanently lost to future Scouting historians!     Thanks to Mr. Stulce for saving these old lodge charters.

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Craig Leighty recently posted the following announcement on patch-l.

ISCA to Host the 2009 Pre-NOAC Trade-O-Ree

Please see the Trade-O-Ree announcement on the ISCA website. Go to: http://www.scouttrader.org/tforum/ and select the “Trade-O-Ree Announcements & Discussion” forum and then “2009 pre-NOAC Trade-O-Ree” for the announcement and more details.

Summary:

- The Trade-O-Ree will be held on campus (Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana) in an air conditioned, football sized athletic facility.
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There is a grassroots movement to form a service organization within the BSA’s Venturing program called the Corps of Discovery.     The program is very loosely based upon the Order of the Arrow and its idea of servant leadership.

The basis for membership is very different from that of the OA.

Induction into the Corps of Discovery should be a “pay forward” endeavor.   In other words, only current members can nominate inductees, and it is the responsibility of all current youth members to mentor their candidates until they can be inducted.   This reflects the final commission of Kodiak-X, mentoring.

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