Scout Patch Collectors

SHF Radio: Building A BSA Council Memorabilia Website w/ Boyd Williams

Rocky Top Collector

When Boyd Williams attended the 1981 National Boy Scout Jamboree and traded a few patches he probably never thought he’d eventually become one of the well-known collectors in Tennessee. However, after moving back home to Franklin, Tennessee in 1994 and getting back active in Scouting he soon caught the patch collecting bug. As an active Scouter in the Middle Tennessee Council and Wa-Hi-Nasa Lodge 111 he started collecting everything local.

Going Local

Along the way his passion for that local stuff led him to dig deep for council and district activity patches – something that many collectors ignore. In fact one of the reasons he states for getting into that niche is that others were’nt interested in it. So back around 2005 even though he admits to not being a computer genius he started building a website to document his collection and preserve the history of the activity patches from his council. http://www.mtcpatches.com was built using a now defunct software program so when it crashed in 2013 he got help from a local Scouter and set about building it back from scratch.

Homemade Council Website

Today, the website has neat district maps and every council and district patch that he knows of. Boyd has even expanded to add a category for the Grimes Canoe Base and the shoulder insignia of the MTC. In our interview Boyd and I talk about all this and I share how his site is an inspiration for me and should be to others.