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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.
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 October, 2008
1957 Area 3D Slide
The lodges of Area 3D met in 1957 at Camp Brulé in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania. The meeting was hosted by Winingus Lodge #30; this was the first meeting hosted by the lodge, and the first at Camp Brulé.
There were two items issued for this area meeting. The neckerchief slide was cylindrical and made of a glass, with a multi-colored decal.
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"...The task is overwhelming, and the chance is slight. We must take the chance or die."
Robert Hutchins
Muscogee 221 eX1997-3
I read the other day that Halloween is now the second biggest holiday in the US in terms of retail sales. That turns to be false, yet another urban legend. At best it ranks sixth, but still has become “big business”. So it’s not surprising that some lodges have issued patches with Halloween themes. Here are a few of the patches I have found with an explicit Halloween theme.
First is the patch pictured at the top of this post. It is the 221 eX1997-3. Halloween Fellowship is what the lodge called their Fall Fellowship that year. The design of the patch is a stylized jack-o-latern with a representation of the lodge’s totem instead of the more usual scary face.
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"There are some who've forgotten why we have a military. It's not to promote war; it's to be prepared for peace."
Ronald Reagan
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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"We first have to find the way of freedom from involvement before we can introduce freedom in involvement."
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan
1957 Area 3C Slide
The lodges of Area 3C met in 1957 at Camp Powhatan in the Blue Ridge Scout Reservation in Pulaski County, Virginia. The host lodge was Powhatan Lodge #456; this was both the first meeting hosted by the lodge and the first at Camp Powhatan.
A hand-carved painted wood neckerchief slide was issued for the event; the slide has the profile of an Indian and has the area, “WWW”, and the year lightly stamped on the feathers of the headdress.
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Ronald Reagan
1957 Area 3B Patch
The lodges of Area 3B met in 1957 at Camp Olmstead in the Allegheny National Forest near Warren, Pennsylvania. The meeting was hosted by Chief Cornplanter Lodge #255; this was both the first meeting hosted by the lodge and the first at Camp Olmstead.
The embroidered patch for the meeting is a rounded triangle shape with three arrows around the edges. The simple design identifies the event and the location.
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William Wordsworth
1957 Area 3A Patch
In June of 1957, the lodges of Area 3A met at Shikellamy Reservation near Reading Pennsylvania. Minsi Lodge #5 hosted the gathering.
The event patch was white twill with an attached tab that could be cut to go on a button, and featured the wolf totem of Minsi Lodge.
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"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
George Orwell
Word has come to me from Richard Robie that Memsochet 507 and Allogagan 83 agreed to merge on September 28, 2008 at a meeting of the Lodge Steering Committee. Pocumtuc is the new lodge. The wolf will be their totem. As Order of the Arrow lodges are chartered on a calendar year basis, the new lodge will be officially chartered for the first time in 2009.
Pioneer Valley and Great Trails Councils previously merged to form the Western Massachusetts Council.
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I Ching
1956 Area 3F Patch
The lodges of Area 3F met in 1956 at Camp Anawanna in Washington County, Pennsylvania, site of the 1952 Area 3B Meeting. Chimalus Lodge #242 was the host.
The event patch was a white twill round with blue and red embroidery, featuring an outline of the area covered by Area 3F. This design would be used for the next few Area 3F meetings, with the only changes being made to the color, date, and host lodge and camp names.
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John F. Kennedy
1956 Area 3E Neckerchief
On May 5 and 6, 1956, the lodges of Area 3E met at Camp Karoondinha near Glen Iron, Pennsylvania. The meeting was hosted by Wapsu Achtu Lodge #343.
Following the practice established the year before, attendees received a neckerchief with a patch from the host lodge attached. The patch was the Wapsu Achtu R4 (twill round with horizontally stitched deer) and was on a light blue neckerchief with a blue chain stitched edge. Continue Reading »
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1956 Area 3D Slide
The lodges of Area 3D met in the Spring of 1956 at Camp Lavigne, in Benton, Pennsylvania. The meeting was hosted by Wyona Lodge #18, which had been re-started two years earlier with an Ordeal held at the first Area 3D meeting.
A painted brass neckerchief slide was issued for the event. Continue Reading »
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"Don't be a fool and die for your country. Let the other sonofabitch die for his."
George S. Patton
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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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