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January 10th, 2010
Nisha Kittan 114: First Flap Issued
Previously I had reported of the formation of Nisha Kittan lodge, in Lewis and Clark Council, from the merger of Kishkakon 32 and Taleka 81. Thanks to Rich Dillow, I now have an image of the lodge's newly issued first flap. The lodge has decided to use 114 as a lodge number. As far as I know there are no other issues from this lodge at this time.
The design of the flap a simple portrayal of the lodge's black wolf totem, depicted baying at a full moon. It's nicely done. However some observant collectors, especially those in the Southern Plains may find this patch rather familiar looking. I have to wonder if the designer of this flap was inspired by another patch.
Read the Full Post on blog.oaimages.com
October 27th, 2009
Never Assume
There is an old adage about what happens if one assumes. Randy Holden recently gave me an example of why one shouldn't assume.
A few years ago this privately made patch bearing the name and number of "Unilachtego 107". Given the history of lodge 107 and what was already published in Blue Book, and a proclivity for the recycling of some old lodge names, I assumed this was a predecessor lodge to Kon-Kon-Tu 107 that never had an authentic issue. That was where I was wrong.
Read the Full Post on blog.oaimages.com
August 30th, 2009
The Unknown Lodges
The Unknown Lodges (Originally printed in Blue Book reprinted with permission of the American Scouting Historical Society)
by Jeff Morley and Bill Topkis
It is hard to imagine the Order of the Arrow of the early 1920s. The scouting program itself was less than 15 years old and the Boy Scouts of America was only one of several scouting organizations competing for national dominance. In those days, the program was not even called Order of the Arrow. What we now know as the OA began in 1915 as Wimactendienk W. W. and was one of several honor camper societies to form during the first decade of Scouting.
Based upon the few first-hand accounts by members who were active in the 1920s, minutes of early meetings of the Grand Lodge and the official History of the Order of the Arrow by Kenneth Davis, an amazing picture of the orders early years begins to emerge.
Scout councils began procuring their own camps in the early to mid 1920s. Before then, it was commonplace for councils to share large camp areas. Three such areas were Treasure Island on the Deleware River near Philadelphia, Lake Kawonanke, and Crystal Lake in New York. Scout encampments from many councils co-existed along the shores of the latter two locations and in the case of Kawonanke Lake, we know that well over thirty different scout councils had campgrounds there at the same time. In circumstances such as these, it is easy to see that if one council utilized a popular honor camper society, it would not be long before the idea would spread to neighboring council camps and such was the case in the early days.
Read the Full Post on blog.oaimages.com
August 25th, 2009
Guest Editorial: On Patch Restrictions
Rick Obermeyer taught a training session on "Ethical Patch Distribution" at NOAC earlier this month. The topic of patch restrictions often arises in conversation both at NOAC and elsewhere. It is raised often enough that he included an answer to this question in his handouts. I share this here with his permission.
Q4: How do you feel about restrictions?
A4: That really isnt in the context of this session, but since we have time, Ill give you my personal opinions, if you like. I cant speak on restrictions for everybody. That would be too presumptuous. I can only talk about what works for my own lodge back home. Shall I go ahead?
How my lodge feels about restrictions is based on some premises. The first premise is that we are all brothers in the Order of the Arrow. That is, equal brothers. We all got into the OA the same way, with election by others. If we have Brotherhood membership, thats because we all individually made a personal promise to accept the challenge to cheerful service that was shown to us during the Ordeal. If we are Vigil, that is a sign given to indicate that others feel that we have done a decent job of keeping that personal promise we made to ourselves at Brotherhood.
Read the Full Post on blog.oaimages.com
August 22nd, 2009
Patch Trading at NOAC
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.
Read the Full Post on blog.oaimages.com
August 18th, 2009
2009 NOAC: Who Had the Most Patches?
Now that NOAC is over we can start to get a better grasp on what the lodges issued for this event. I would not be surprised if there's ultimately close to 1500 issues from the approximately 300 lodges. Keep those images coming.
Today's question: Which lodge issued the most patches for NOAC. Skyuka 270 had 14 pieces and they are not a lodge known for its large quantity of issues. Has anyone issued more?
I think there's at least 11 issues from Amangamek Wipit (not yet online) so they could be a contender with a few more patches. Wipala Wiki has been known for a large number of NOAC patches in past years, but I've not seen much from them yet.
On the other extreme: Were there any lodges in attendance that issue no patches for NOAC?
Read the Full Post on blog.oaimages.com
Archive for March, 2008
Occoneechee will soon issue two new “standard” flaps. To comply with policy that there not be any special Ordeal, Brotherhood and Vigil flaps these will be sold as the lodge’s “standard” flap and a “gold mylar special edition” flap. As the lodge has an ample stock of their older Vigil flaps, there will not be a “silver mylar special edition” flap at this time. It is expected these will be issued at the lodge’s Spring Inductions in May. Thanks to Greg Grimes again for keeping me informed of this lodge’s issues.
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"The greatest wealth consisteth in being charitable, and the greatest happiness in having tranquility of mind. Experience is the most beautiful adornment and the best comrade is one that hath no desire. "
Tibetan Doctrine
Chris Jensen recently acquired a collection that had several pieces in it that might be of interest to lodge 188 collectors. They might be issues from this lodge’s Concord Chapter. Like a couple of other recent posts here, I throw these out for your comments and discussion.
The first item, pictured at the top of this post, has the strongest claim to being an issue from lodge 188’s Concord Chapter. Even though it does refer to the Concord District Spring Camporee it is conceivable the O.A. Callout was an chapter or lodge run event at this camporee. Beyond referring to an event specific to the Order of the Arrow program, the patch also prominently features an Ordeal sash oddly draped across a backpack.
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"The destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits--not animals."
Winston Churchill
Just in time for the beginning of Spring, the Winter 2008 issue of the Florida Collectors’ Newsletter is now available. This issue has the 2007 Florida checklist of known issues from the lodges and councils of Florida, and some smack talking about all of the chapter patches from Florida in the last year.
You can pick up your copy easily, just go to http://floridacsp.com/fcn/. And if you have missed any of the issues for the last two years, they are there as well.
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"My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."
John F. Kennedy
I mentioned this piece in a recent post about possible unlisted chapter items from Atta Kulla Kulla lodge. When I had first written the post I did not yet have an image and wasn’t sure if it met the criteria to be listed as a neckerchief.
Thanks again to Charlie Moehlenbrock for letting me know about this item.
Once again, I’ll quote what Charlie had to say about this piece:
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"Don't be a fool and die for your country. Let the other sonofabitch die for his."
George S. Patton
Today’s featured article on Wikipedia will be of interest to OA brothers and members of the Scouting community at large.
“Edward Urner Goodman (May 15, 1891 – March 13, 1980), more familiarly E. Urner Goodman, was an influential leader in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) movement for much of the twentieth century. Goodman was the national program director from 1931 until 1951, during the organization’s formative years of significant growth when the Cub Scouting and Exploring programs were established…”
– quoted from Wikipedia.org
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"Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity."
Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire
This is a sequel to an earlier post on this blog called, “What is a Neckerchief?”
Recently I posted the item pictured here as the “X28.5?” from O-Shot-Caw 265. It’s from the 2002 NOAC but had not previously been listed in Blue Book or my site. I had been told it was issued sewn onto a backpack and added it to the listings.
That last point has been debated by some collectors in Florida in email to me. Some believe this piece does not exist separately from the backpack unless the pack is cut up, and that’s why it had not been listed before now. Upon examination of the item in question, the facts prove otherwise.
As you can see, in the image at the top of this post, the item clearly has a finished cut edge border and a plastic backing. After production, this patch was sewn onto the backpack ini question and sold. As far as I’m concerned, this needs to be listed as a lodge issue.
I want to use this item as a jumping point to a more general question. So, what exactly is a patch? I’ll also ask the related question: What is a piece of OA insignia? What follows is my opinion and your mileage may vary. Continue Reading »
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"Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education."
Bertrand Russell
Greg Grimes recently sent me an image of a patch that he thinks might be from Occoneechee lodge. This lodge has had a lot of attention from those who classify and identify patches so I am skeptical about this. I put this out here for your information and comments.
Both Blue Book and my site currently list an undated Camp Reeves Workhorse Weekend patch as eX19xx-1. This patch identifies itself as an Occoneechee lodge issue through the use of the lodge number and the “WWW”.
Res ipsa loquitur. The patch, eX19xx-1, is clearly an Occoneechee issue.
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"Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book."
Ronald Reagan
It has once again come to my attention that AOL is blocking all email being sent from this site’s server. It’s not something new and I’m convinced it’s part of AOL’s marketing department’s push to claim they’re fighting spam. I urge you not to use an AOL.com email address on the members’ area of this site.
This has happened before. They claimed I probably had an open relay on the server (I didn’t) that was being used to send spam. At that time, I was made aware that AOL would let through what they deemed to be “bulk mail”… for an extra fee… even if I did have that open relay. After some time all was well and mail was flowing through again, without me having to pay them anything.
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The age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists and calculators has succeeded.
Edmund Burke
Charlie Moehlenbrock, a former member of Atta Kulla Kulla lodge currently in Kansas, recently wrote me about a few items that should probably be added to the chapter listings for this lodge. He also included the set of shoulder loops pictured here. They’re not material that would be included in a patch catalog but I thought them worthy for sharing here nonetheless.
Unfortunately Charlie isn’t the best photographer, so I must apologize for the less than great quality of these images.
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"There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him."
Robert Heinlein
Tsali lodge has recently issued four new patches for the upcoming 2008 Dixie Fellowship (SR-5 Conclave). Thanks again to Hank Birdsong for letting me know about these.
The lodge has chosen a theme based upon the film Transformers for these issues. There are two flaps and two pocket “dangles”. It’s intended that each flap be paired with the same colored pocket patch. The pairs have similar but not identical designs.
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"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
Sir Winston Churchill
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Recent OAImages News
December 5th, 2009
A Fun Few Days
I'm sure most of you noticed the problems this site has been having over the past few days. It went offline several times. It was a frustrating experience. To add to my woes, I somehow managed to pick up some "bad stuff" on my computer at home. The last time I had this much trouble with my site, server, and home PC I was also let go from my job. Luckily that did NOT happen!
"Techie Talk" follows...
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October 4th, 2009
Blocked Emails
I have been made aware this evening of a couple of issues with email.
Hotmail is currently blocking email from some RoadRunner servers at this time. RoadRunner is my ISP and my outgoing mail, except for messages automatically generated by my server come from there. RoadRunner currently has published this notice:
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September 30th, 2009
More NOAC Images
To those who are wondering where the rest of the NOAC patches are... A large group will be uploaded to the site later today or this evening. I'm working on large groups from the 200s and 300s ranges of lodge numbers right now. Stay tuned.
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September 21st, 2009
Temporary Email Outage: Resolved
Last Friday RoadRunner started blocking email from my server because of spam without my knowledge. I had been filtering all my incoming mail at OAImages through my RoadRunner so as to filter out most of the several hundred spam messages that I get every day. RoadRunner apparently did not like that. I had no idea the server was being blocked until I saw over 800 notices that email was rejected on my server's queue last night.
This is now resolved and I am now receiving mail again, but it is coming directly (unfiltered) to me from my server, spam and all. I am currently working to block the spam.
If anyone sent me email between Friday morning (9/18) and this morning (9/21), please don't assume I received it. I probably did not see it. Please send again.
Thank you.
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August 7th, 2009
OA Blue Book Going "Web 2.0"
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 standards (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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April 1st, 2009
New Policies on Patches Announced
This post covers an important change in policy that will soon become effective regarding patches issued for all Order of the Arrow lodges chartered by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Please read the whole post carefully.
At a recent meeting at the National Headquarters of the Boy Scouts of America, it was announced that a new policy will be put in place by both the Boy Scouts of America and the NationalOrder of the Arrow Committee regarding lodge patch issues. Further announcements and clarifications will be made at this Summer's National Order of the Arrow Conference and at section conclaves throughout the year. This policy will be effective September 1, 2009.
All lodge flaps, and patches issued as multiple piece sets (most commonly two-piece sets) must be ordered through BSA Supply Division, or an official BSA licensee. The national OA and the BSA has decreed that all items must be produced in a minimum quantity of 1000 (one thousand) pieces. In the case where a lodge wishes to make minor changes in design or colors, 1000 of each must be produced.
Should the lodge feel they do not need that many pieces to suit their needs, the BSA Supply Division will purchase all remainders from the manufacturer and retain them. They will be available to the lodges should more be needed. At the BSA's discretion, they will also be made available for sale in all BSA run Scout shops.
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Lodge 104: New Standard Flaps
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