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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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Archive for July, 2008
Cuyahoga 17 X1
I turn to the Buckeye State for this installment in the series about state shapes on patches. Through the years there has been 35 different lodges headquartered in Ohio, 23 of which are no longer active. Several of these have used the shape of Ohio on their patches.
In addition to using the shape of this state in the design, this list includes classic issues shaped like Ohio as well as modern two-piece sets forming a similar shape. Issues include odd-shapes, flaps, neckerchiefs, event patches and one chapter issue.
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"Here's something to think about how come you never see a headline like 'Psychic Wins Lottery'?"
Jay Leno
Santee 116 J4?
Santee lodge has issued a new jacket patch in commemoration of the lodge’s 70th anniversary. This is a large 8″ round patch and shows the various poses of the Carolina parakeet that have been used on the lodge’s patches through out its history. The parakeet in the center of this patch is used here for the first time and may appear on a future lodge flap.
Thanks to Jason Spangler for sending me this image.
The lodge produced 200 of these patches. Brothers were able to pre-order up to five of these pieces. After filling the pre-orders very few remained. These were all sold to the new Ordeal members, one per person.
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"It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow."
Calvin Coolidge
Skyuka 270 X7.3?
Apparently there is a common issue from Skyuka 270 that has been missed by Blue Book editors for nearly fifteen years. I’m guilty here, too, as I had seen the patch before. I never neither really bothered to get it as I don’t particularly collect South Carolina nor made a scan of it. Thanks to Rick Horne for sending along this scan.
There are thre three odd-shaped patches from Skyuka lodge issued for their 50th anniversary in 1994. X7 is in the shape of a mountain, like the lodge’s X2 and X3, but expanded to add a buttonhole and a gold mylar (GMY) border. X7.5 in an oversized CSP issued by the lodge with a silver mylar (SMY) border. Pictured here is a second CSP, identical to the X7.5 but with a GMY border which I have labeled “X7.3?”.
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"We have scarcely gotten home ... when our children's sneezes greet us, skinned knees bleed after waiting all day to do so. There is the bellyache and the burned-out basement bulb, the stalled car and the incontinent cat. The windows frost, the toilets sweat, the body of our spouse is one cold shoulder and the darkness of our bedroom is soon full of the fallen shadows of our failures."
William H Gass
1967 Area 6-A Fellowship Patch
The eight lodges of Area 6-A returned to Camp Raven Knob for their 1967 Area Fellowship. They had previously met there in 1956 and 1962. Wahissa 118 was the host lodge .
The patch issued for this event is shown here. As had become customary, Wahissa’s totem, the calumet, figures prominently in the patch design just below the bonnet.
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"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come."
Matt Groening
1966 Area 6-A Fellowship Patch
Tslagi 163 hosted the 1966 Area 6-A Fellowship at Camp Cherokee, near Reidsville, NC. The pocket patch for this event shows a representation of Tslagi’s totem, roughly modeled after the lodge’s flap. It’s not my favorite 6-A patch, but I still think it’s a nicely rendered design.
Like Occoneechee’s Camp Durant, this camp has also since moved. Cherokee Council closed this camp after the 1966 Summer season. Camp Saurakee, a camp for special needs children, is now run at this location.
The present Camp Cherokee, officially the Old North State Scout Reservation, opened at its present location in Caswell County in 1968. It is now the home camp for Tsoiotsi Tsogalii lodge.
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"We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes."
John F. Kennedy
Ag-Im 156 1993 Events Issues
Here is the next entry in the series of posts on state shaped patches, and state shapes used in patches. About a third of the states have now been covered. Previous entries may be found in the category, “These 50 States.”
Michigan is one of the more difficult states to depict on a patch. Its territory consists primarily of two peninsulas, roughly positioned perpendicular to each other. It is largely bounded by Lakes Huron, Superior and Michigan. As such, no patch is in the shape of the entire state. Many patches depict one of the state’s two peninsular. Ag-Im has issued two sets of event patches shaped like the state’s upper peninsula.
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"One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community. "
Albert Einstein
1965 Area 6-A Fellowship Patch
Once again, the lodges of Area 6-A broke with their tradition of holding their area fellowships at Scout camps. Croatan 117 hosted the 1965 Area 6-A fellowship at Camp Lejeune.
Notice that there is no indication of the host lodge — either in words or by totem — on the patch. Was this some sort of tradition with Croatan?
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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
In 2005 Occoneechee lodge issued a blue monochrome flap (S58) in order to help raise funds for a proposed new lodge building. This was to be the first of several such patches, issued one at a time at lodge events. However the lodge leadership changed. The new officers were not so keen on this idea and no further monochrome flaps were issued. That will soon change.
The lodge will issue four more monochrome flaps. In preparation for these issues Shelby Patch Company produced four different prototypes. Two copies of each were made. One set remains in Shelby’s archive. Occoneechee lodge owns the other set. There has been some thought given to the lodge auctioning its set of prototypes, like they did for the S58 prototype (YS2?).
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"Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education."
Bertrand Russell
Tali Taktaki hosted the 1964 Area 6-A Fellowship at Camp Wenasa. The lodge’s totem, a juvenile blue heron, is portrayed here as it is on many of the lodge’s flaps.
Tali Taktaki lodge disappeared in the first of the two mergers to hit Scouting in North Carolina. Camp Wenasa, too, is no longer around. Its former location is now home to a housing subdivision.
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"There are three things which are real: God, human folly, and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension. So we must do what we can with the third."
John F. Kennedy
Occoneechee 104 hosted the 1963 Area 6-A fellowship at Camp Durant, just four years after they last hosted in 1959. This time around only the lodge name was used on the patch. Their thunderbird totem does not appear.
Some North Carolina collectors may not realize that this is not the same Camp Durant we know today. Then the camp was at a different location, now run by the city of Raleigh as the Durant Nature Park.
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"The more extensive a man's knowledge of what has been done, the greater will be his power of knowing what to do."
Benjamin Disraeli
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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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