patchcamp.com blog

Every patch collector has probably pondered what they ultimately seek to accomplish with their collection, whether just starting out in the hobby or after decades of collecting. When I began collecting patches at the 1973 Scout Jamboree I really didn’t have a goal in mind, it was just fun to swap patches with other Scouts from around the country. At the time I didn’t know much about scarcity or value, but I quickly discovered it was a lot easier to pursue CSP’s than OA patches because back then so many lodges had restrictions on their flaps.

In the back of my mind I would still like to have a CSP collection that includes every active council, and an OA collection that includes every active lodge, because those are attainable goals that don’t require winning the lottery to obtain the super-rare issues.

As 2008 has arrived I’ve thought a lot about what I want to achieve with my collections, since I’ve drifted without any clear direction or purpose for awhile (other than working on my Kecoughtan Lodge needs, which have become difficult to find as the list gets smaller).

Fellow collector and patch blogger Bill Mulrenin posted a timely article to his blog, Set A Goal for Your Collection in 2008 that I heartily recommend for all collectors, whether you collect Scout patches or anything else. Many of his points rang true with my own, especially the importance of organizing, identifying, and cataloging the items that make up your collection.

Without knowing exactly what you have, you can’t know what you still need, what you have in duplicate to trade, or what you’ve accomplished already. Not long ago I finally gathered all of my Kecoughtan activity patches, spread them out and sorted them into piles by decade, and discovered that I have managed to acquire no fewer than 3 of several because I hadn’t kept my own needs list updated. My system of tossing newly acquired patches into a box to “sort through when I have time” hasn’t proved successful in helping me enjoy the additions, keep track of them, or store them properly either.

I know that I want to get more patches in 2008, but I’ve suddenly realized that what I really want to accomplish is organization of my collection. To that end I am setting a goal for myself of locating all of my Scout memorabilia, identifying it, properly protecting it (in a ziplock bag or non-PVC album page), labeling it with the issue information and a unique asset tag, and cataloging it so that I will know without a doubt what I have, what I need, and how I can help fellow collectors with their needs.

In my New Year’s zeal I’ve bought an inexpensive barcode scanner, a package of labels, and spent a day cataloging my Kecoughtan items. I got through the arrowheads and chenilles before I lost initiative because I haven’t decided how I want to store the flaps. But at least it’s a start, and now that I’ve shared my goal with the world you can keep me motivated by asking how I am progressing, and sharing tips with how you manage your collection.

Craig Leighty, President of the International Scouting Collectors Association, posted a message to the Patch-L mailing list on January 11 advising that new versions of their invaluable OA and CSP checklists are now available. I was thrilled to read this, since I include links to both on the Scout Patch Collector’s Base Camp, and the checklists had not been revised since July of 2006.

Not only are the new checklists updated to include all of the latest mergers and such, but they are also available in a variety of formats, including PDF, Excel, MS Word, PageMaker, and HTML. The lists are available to everyone, and include a handy membership form to join ISCA. You’ll find them on the ISCA web site here:

OA: http://www.scouttrader.org/References/oa_reference.shtml
CSP: http://www.scouttrader.org/References/csp.shtml

Thanks to Craig and everyone at ISCA for providing these excellent resources!

While researching information about a 1919 Boy Scout Handbook for a coworker I came across an excellent site that I immediately knew belonged on The Scout Patch Collector’s Base Camp.

History of the Boy Scout Handbook is actually part of the web site for Troop 97 of Fort Collins, Colorado. Scoutmaster Jeff Snowden has compiled a vast amount of information and pictures of every single edition’s cover in a well-organized and enjoyable site that is sure to be appreciated by anyone seeking to learn about the book most every Scout has studied, dog-eared, and marked off their advancement in. You’ll find it linked in the Scout History and Museums section of the Base Camp starting today.

The picture above is the cover of the edition I read cover-to-cover to learn the Scout Promise, Scout Law, how to pitch a tent, tie the correct knot, and so much more.

The National Office of the BSA is seeking assistance from every youth Scout in the country to help design a memorable logo for the 100th Anniversary of Scouting in the United States. The contest is open until November 30 and every entrant will receive a certificate of participation and a patch.

It’s a fantastic opportunity to have your creative efforts recognized. To learn more, check out the 100 Years of Scouting National Logo Contest web site.

Recently within the span of just a few minutes I received emails from different friends recommending that I check out two Scout-related videos on YouTube. The first was for the great Arrow Ads produced by the Coosa Lodge shows team whose members include Ben Killen, Chris Brightwell, and Tim Hall, the hosts of ClothTalk.

The second message recommended that I view a film created by Jake Topkis that features the voice of OA Founder E. Urner Goodman as he addressed Arrowmen during the 1954 and 1956 National Order of the Arrow Conferences. Entitled Our Founders Voice: Dr. E. Urner Goodman, the film literally brought me goosebumps as I heard Dr. Goodman’s voice for the first time in my life.

Scouting is fortunate to benefit from the worldwide trend of audio and video as media now created by the public. Videos shared on YouTube and podcasts like ClothTalk are just the beginning of what I hope will become as ubiquitous as email messages are today in the world of sharing information about Scouting and the preservation of its history and traditions through memorabilia and collectibles.

I’ve added a new section to the Base Camp called Featured Videos which provides links to the two videos mentioned above as well as to the excellent iSash video, also produced by Coosa Shows, which mimics the colorful style of the famous Apple ads for the iPod.

As someone who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Radio-Television-Film and has worked in broadcast production, I can attest to the many hours of hard work that goes into planning and producing something as short as a 60 second video or a 30 minute radio show. Kudos to Jake and the Coosa Shows team for shining a new light on Scout-related topics by honing their skills on projects that will catch and keep the attention of today’s media-aware generation.

The 21st World Scout Jamboree begins in less than a week, and the Scout Patch Collector’s Base Camp is freshly updated to celebrate the centennial anniversary of world Scouting!

http://www.patchcamp.com

The Scout Patch Collector’s Base Camp is a directory of helpful internet resources for pursuing our hobby of collecting and trading Boy Scout memorabilia, and beginning today you’ll find a wealth of new links to keep up with what’s happening as Scouts head for the Jamboree site at Hylands Park, Essex, UK.

From news headlines, blogs, weather, jamboree radio, and youtube videos, the Base Camp aims to be your central launch pad for media related to the Jamboree, as well as all of the collectibles surrounding it.

Additional improvements and refinements include:

- The custom google-powered search engine has been expanded to include over 60 sites related specifically to Scout patch collecting.
- Over 100 select sites linked from the main page to help you find the patch collecting information you are looking for.
- Hovering your mouse pointer over an icon next to each link will popup a small window with a preview of the linked site.
- Over 100 related sites submitted to our “Free Links” page. Do you have a web site, blog, or podcast related to patch collecting? Submit it today!

In Scouting,

Glenn
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Glenn Chase
Webmaster, The Scout Patch Collector’s Base Camp

http://www.patchcamp.com

I finally found some time to read my latest issue of the ISCA Journal, and was inspired by the cover story to add two new links to the Base Camp. One is a link to a comprehensive checklist of Philmont collectible memorabilia which is generously provided free by Chip S. Elliott and Mike McAdams, the authors of Philmont Millennium 1.

Philmont Millennium 1 Volume 1 is a book cataloging and identifying the patches, neckerchiefs and neckerchief slides produced at and about Philmont Scout Ranch from 1939-2000. The checklist spans 64 pages, so you probably won’t want to print it out and carry it on your upcoming expedition.

Also added to the Base Camp main page is a link to Tooth of Time Traders, the Trading Post at Philmont Scout Ranch. I was fortunate to make two trips to Philmont during my youth, and they remain some of my fondest and most vivid Scouting memories.

In my daily Patch-L email digest a fellow Scout asked the collective subscribers for a site related to Sea Scouts insignia. Robert Rodgers quickly replied with a link, and I thought it would be a nice addition to the Scout Patch Collector’s Base Camp.

While I was adding it I used the indispensable Firefox extension LinkChecker to verify all of the links on the main page and Free-For-All links page, and removed the Yahoo Scout Auctions link since Yahoo has decided to retire that service shortly.

LinkChecker highlighted 4 nonworking links on the Patchcamp Free-For-All Links page out of 104 sites listed. I will try to contact the site owners to see if there are newer addresses before removing them completely. The sites that LinkChecker could not find are:

• Visual History of the Totin’ Chip
• Adam’s Patch Zone
• Jim’s Bald Eagle CSP’s
• The Scout Image

Every few months I get an email from a visitor advising me that I have a broken link on The Scout Patch Collector’s Base Camp. Sometimes it’s just a polite “heads up” so I can try to track down the new location. Often it’s a plaintive request that I put it back online, and I have to explain in my reply that the site wasn’t mine to begin with, I just provided a link to it.

Over the years many sites in the world of Scout patch collecting have vanished. As Councils merge their web pages related to emblem history often vanish as a new site quickly replaces those of the merged councils. I witnessed this when my old Council in Alexandria, Louisiana merged with Ouachita Valley Council of Monroe to form Louisiana Purchase Council in May of 2003. The attakapas.org web site featured a great set of pages related to the Council shoulder patches and Ouxouiga Lodge patches. Ouxouiga 264 was my ordeal lodge, and I was devastated when just a few months after the merger attakapas.org was gone, replaced by one of those fake search pages that domain scavengers put up. No where on the new site was any trace of the patch history of Attakapas Council or Ouxouiga Lodge.

The same scenario occurred in the early ’90′s when Peninsula Council and Kecoughtan Lodge 463 (where I became a Brotherhood member) merged with Old Dominion Area Council to form Colonial Virginia Council and Wahunsenakah Lodge 333. I was so alarmed at how the history and tradition of Kecoughtan Lodge vanished from the worldwide web overnight that I was motivated to create my own site to preserve the decades of service that preceded the merger.

If you’ve ever gone to a favorite web site and received the dreaded “404-Page Not Found” error here are a couple of ideas which might help you find what you were looking for. Both are ways for you to see previous copies of the web server content.

The first is use the Google search engine for the site you are looking for. Point your browser to http://www.google.com and enter the exact URL of the site you were unable to connect to.

When Google presents its results it will show you a link to the site (which probably still won’t work if the site is offline) and also an option to view a cached (saved) version of the site. Click on the “Cached” option and if you are lucky you will see what the site included the last time that Google successfully visited and saved it to cache.

Sometimes, though, a site has been offline for so long that Google can’t show a cached version. Or, the site may not have ever been visited by the Google search engine.

In this case I recommend that you try one of the most wonderful free tools on the internet – the “Internet Archive Wayback Machine” at http://www.archive.org

This incredible site lets you view saved copies of web sites which span several years. You can actually go “wayback” to see how a web site has evolved since its inception. The Wayback machine was able to display the Ouxouiga Lodge emblem page complete with pictures of the patches just the way I remembered it.

Next time your bookmark comes up with a “404-Not Found” error don’t just delete it. Search for traces in google’s cache and by using the Wayback Machine at archive.org!

If you aren’t keen on the effect that pops up a small preview window of the web page when you roll over a link, the folks at snap.com have made it very easy to turn off. Just roll over a link, snort with derision at the unwanted window that appears, then notice the link in the upper right corner of that window that says “Options & Disable.” Cross your fingers, click as best you can, and watch in wonder as the preview window changes to a list of options including Disable Snap Preview Anywhere. Click the appropriate link for This Site or All Sites depending upon how seriously you want to banish the effect from your browsing experience, close the window, and be sure to reload the page. The preference is stored in a cookie so if you ever delete your browser cookies the previews will return with a vengeance and you will need to repeat this process.
Personally, I think the effect is very cool and provides useful visual cues about each site linked from the Base Camp, but I can see how those connecting to the internet via dialup would prefer to disable it to make their browsing experience more efficient.

Glenn