Scout Patch Collectors

Sunday Scouting Hot Finds Newsletter January 23, 2022

There are seasons when my role as a summer camp director heat up. January has become the month to assemble and hire the staff. For me that means reaching out to dozens of candidates and trying to herd the cats towards making decisions. Yesterday, I sent group text messages to about 4 dozen people trying to push them towards filling out paperwork and signing up for interviews. Tonight, I have a zoom with some of the senior staff to engage them in helping with next steps and taking some ownership over decisions.

In the last few years we have scrambled at the end to fill some of the vacancies. I’m hoping we have a deeper bench this year to choose from. As always I’m going to need to find some rock star adults to come on board as area directors. Right now I am trying to find a Handicraft Director, Scoutcraft Director and potentially a Dining Hall Manager.

On the patch front I’m looking forward to heading out for the Indy TOR in about 10 days. We’ve had some rare ice and snow the last two weekends in Charlotte so I’m really hoping that the first weekend of February is free of the white stuff. As you know people in the south are allergic to driving in the snow.

I have 268 live auctions on eBay with a bunch of OA and SAPs ending tonight. This continues a run of really nice Texas OA that I’m selling from a collection I picked up in August.

Some times being a collector can kinda muddy the waters with trying to do this as a business. This week I bought a small collection that was way more expensive than I would ever want to pay because it had 21 needs in there. I really don’t think there is a way on this deal to get my money back out by selling the other items The collector in my decided to pull the trigger anyways so I could mark those patches off the list. I am sure some of you thread heads have faced this decision and made the same choice that I agonized over. I started this thing as a collector 35 years ago and it still makes this hobby incredibly fun to chase after needs.

CLICK HERE TO OPEN THE JANUARY 23, 2022 ISSUE OF THE SCOUTING HOT FINDS NEWSLETTER