John Athayde and his collaborators on Patchvault.org are ready to turn back control of Order of the Arrow memorabilia listing to the people. With a background in software and a core group of collectors supporting the effort they have expanded the site from it's roots as Virginia OA specific to now include about 70 lodges. What sets this site apart...Read More
Mike Clinch is a great example of a Scouter and collector who is willing to invest hundreds of hours of his own time into building something for others. A few years ago he published an amazing two volume set of books detailing in color the merger history of all Boy Scout councils and OA lodges. Teaming up with the likes...Read More
Listen to "#84: Teaching Scouting Heritage & Collections Merit Badge With Stuart Tucker" on Spreaker. Scouting collectors who have spent time learning about Scouting history have an obvious way to give back to the program. Collections merit badge allows a Scout to take a patch collection and with the right coaching fulfill the requirements. Scouting Heritage teaches Scouts about our...Read More
The National Scouting Historian Summit will take place June 9-15, 2019 at the Philmont Training Center. This week long course will teach over 100 Scouts and Scouters the rules, tools and strategies needed to preserve and share Scouting history in your troop, lodge, council and community. In this interview the two co-leads Bill Topkis and Jeff Morley share the details...Read More
Andrew Silverstone could teach us all a thing or two about the Scout Oath and Law. When he heard that some Scouts had lost their patches at the 2017 National Scout Jamboree he sprang into action organizing rescue boxes. Using social media he gathered donations and made sure that these Scouts first experience with trading patches wasn't a disappointment. In...Read More
Scott Wheeler is a Boy Scout memorabilia collector who has a collection with over 100,000 unique items. The only way he can keep track of all these items is by creating checklists. That has led him to create the best 2017 National Jamboree checklist of council issued items. By Scott's estimation there are around 2000 items issued for this...Read More
Nick Wolf, the Patch King, has a Top 10 list just for folks headed to the Jamboree. As a veteran trader of several Jambos now Nick has come up with ten important tips he shares with the listeners. I was able to sprinkle in some stories and commentary on Nick's list to give you some good examples. The bottom line...Read More
In getting ready to host a Boy Scout memorabilia show (we like to call them Trade-O-Rees) I was asked by the troop committee chairman to come give a patch trading class to the Scouts of Troop 33. Episode 79 is the audio of that patch collecting talk that I gave to about two-dozen Scouts ranging from fresh Tenderfoots to high...Read More
Becky Byrns was the first collector to host a national Girl Scout collectors show back in the 1990s. Now with 15 shows under her belt and another coming up in a few weeks she is my guest on Scouting Hot Finds Radio. Becky and I talk about the unique points of Girl Scout memorabilia including badges, dolls, jewelry and more....Read More
Shot this quick video to demonstrate a Boy Scout patch storage system I'm building in my garage. This is my first "behind the scenes" type video. I also used the opportunity to promote episode #77 of my podcast where I interview Nick Wolf on his patch trading blankets.
Today on the podcast I welcome Nick Wolf who many of you know as the "Patch King". After using some customized patch trading blankets at the 2015 National Order of the Arrow Conference Nick set about seeing if he could design and produce a patch trading blanket for the hobby. After six months of development he released his blanket which...Read More
Join me as Russell Smart shares details on this summer's Boy Scout National Jamboree. As the Program Chairman he has spent many hours planning since the 2013 National Jamboree to iron out the wrinkles and make this summer's event amazing. During July 2017 over 40,000 Scouts and Scouters will descend on the Summit Bechtel National Scout Reserve in West Virginia....Read More
In this short video I recap the details shared by Russell Smart the 2017 National Scout Jamboree Program Group Chairman in our interview regarding patch trading at the event. If you would like to listen to the entire episode of Scouting Hot Finds Radio and hear additional details about the program changes for the Jamboree please visit my website at...Read More
Listen in to hear the wisdom of Uncle Nick. My interview with Nick Loesch will trace his history in the hobby and get his impressions on how it's changed over the years. Nick attened the 1964 Jamboree as a boy and caught the patch collecting pretty hard. It was at the 1965 NOAC that he burned a Blue Heron Lodge...Read More
In a recent post in the Scout Patch Collectors Facebook Group I had trouble remembering when the hobby's largest online watering hole got started. Luckily I have a very good reference that I went back to in order to get the date straight. Back on February 22, 2012 I interviewed Brad England for my podcast Scouting Hot Finds Radio. I...Read More