I am back in my hometown this week helping my mom get out of the hospital after a brief illness and settled back into her house today. Last night I got invited to attend the Iswa Chapter meeting at a church just blocks from the hospital. I tell you honestly, I have not attended a chapter meeting for my hometown chapter since the 20th century. They were discussing a chapter patch, tshirt and upcoming events. One of my camp staff members is finishing up his term as chapter chief so it was great to see the tradition continuing.
I was not able to stick around for the entire fellowship last time but I was reminded last night that somehow it’s cool again to have a patch briefcase. I told Jake Cooper that I’m going to have to bring one of mine out of retirement. Apparently, you are supposed to decorate it with stickers. I never would have predicted that both of the two lodges that merged together were in this season where patch trading was becoming more popular. Certainly, it wasn’t anything I can take credit for but many other guys younger than me carried the torch and made it cool again.
So how can you replicate this for your lodge? The only thing I can really put my finger on is the older guys who caught the bug at conclave or NOAC or Jamboree started carrying their stuff around. When the cool kids were all circled up at the tables in the dining hall the younger kids leaned into see what was happening and caught the patch bug. I will certainly try and feed this renaissance with some free patches, supplies and advice. When I got in the lodge in 1986 all the “cook kids” traded patches and we all jumped right in. It was a ton of fun and obviously I never got the vaccine.
As I ramp up my auctions on Santeeswapper I am up to 201 live auctions. If you are from Baltimore Area Council be sure to check these out. I also have SAPs, OA and community strips this week.
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