OAImages Blog

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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Since special flaps for Ordeal, Brotherhood, and Vigil members are now officially forbidden, Tsali lodge decided they needed to issue a new standard flap. Thanks to Hank Birdsong for letting me know about this.

This new flap uses the design of their most recent OBV set (S51-S53), changing the border color to blue. As an aside, it’s interesting to note that all previous blue bordered flaps from Tsali lodge (S11, S22, S33, S43) are among the lodge’s toughest flaps to acquire.

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Skyuka lodge has recently issued new OBV set of flaps, using their traditional double headed thunderbird design. What happened with the prohibition regarding such flaps? Has the prohibition been repealed or modified, or is Skyuka lodge ignoring it?

Thanks to Jeff Cook and Richard Cash for passing these images along to me.

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Santee lodge has completed the redesign of their standard OBV series with the release of the new Vigil flap at their recent Summer Fellowship.   While maintaining many traditional design elements, it is a significant change for one of the more conservative southeastern lodges.  Thanks to Jason Spangler for the image of this patch.

The Ordeal and Brotherhood flaps in this series were issued in 2006.

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Courtesy of Jimmy Arthurs, here’s another North Carolina issue that was missed in the most recent Blue Book.   It’s not surprising this was omitted.

This patch was earned by lodge brothers in 2004 and 2005 who completed a lengthy set of requirements.  Only about 2 dozen were earned.  For those diehard collectors of this lodge’s patches, this will be one of the tougher modern issues to acquire. Continue Reading »

Yes, you read that right: Real Spoofs. Most of us know what spoofs are. They’re patches produced by private individuals for trading purposes, often with pop culture or humorous themes.

However, sometimes lodges get into this game themselves, producing flaps of their own with similar themes. Here are a few of my favorites.

In 1996 Tschitani 10 issued a simple bi-color NOAC flap, making fun of the various “Home of the National/Region Chief/Vice Chief” flaps produced by the lodges of newly elected national officers. Think about it, every lodge could issue their own flap!
Ajapeu 33 decided to encourage brotherhood conversions while making fun of those ubiquitous “Got Milk?” commercials. Unfortunately they didn’t think this idea through completely and instead of making an hilarious flap, created one of the few “text only” flaps.

Imagine if they produced a flap with their deer totem with a milk mustache, wearing a brotherhood sash, and the “Got Brotherhood?” logo either above or below it! (Anyone from this lodge reading this? )

Gabe-Shi-Win-Gi-Ji-Kens 374 also produced a text-only flap parodying the “Got Milk?” campaign for their 2005 Jamboree flap, but in a slightly more colorful manner. They chose to poke fun at the punctuation of their lodge name.

Tahoma 348 is the last lodge highlighted here. They issued two flaps showing their pride in their own lodge, but in a definitely PG manner. I wonder how these issues got past the advisers… and whether there was any fallout from it. Nothing more needs to be said.