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
I am home from another successful South Carolina TOR hosted by Chris Jensen. During the weekend I was able to visit with so many old friends and even make some new ones. A midnight run to Waffle House being one of those opportunities. With Dallas and Indy up next on the calendar the TOR season is really in full swing....Read More
South Carolina Trade-O-Ree this Weekend Making history last night! We had 25 female Scouts attend our Commitment night last night for Troop 233 in Charlotte. It was rainy so the Scoutmaster had them out under the shelter going over how to pack for a camping trip. Most of these girls have turned in applications and will be ready to roll...Read More
The Video Blog Cast with Brad England returns One question I get over and over in talking with collectors was when is Thread Heads coming back? Back in November of 2014 Brad England and I debuted a 30-minute video call show. The concept was pretty simple - get two patch collectors talking with short segments to keep the show structured. ...Read More
The Boy Scout collectors show is back after a long hiatus. Brad England and Jason Spangler are the co-founders of the largest online community for Scouting memorabilia collectors. Thread Heads is a video blog show that hits topics that members of the Scout Patch Collectors facebook group will enjoy. In episode #12 you can hear Brad discuss some recent comments...Read More
Take a Coffee Mug No Please Take Another One man's junk is another man's treasure! In the collecting community Scouting coffee mugs are kinda a curse. Many of us have boxes of them through purchasing collections or just years spent in the program. Last night I discovered that at a round table meeting featuring dozens of Scouting volunteers mugs are...Read More
85 Scouting History Data Crunching With Mike Clinch This morning I published episode #85 of my Scouting Hot Find Radio podcast. Some of you may not be familiar with my guest Mike Clinch but we will all come to appreciate his effort to document and publish Scouting history of councils, lodges and camps. I became a fan of his work...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
The Video Blog Cast with Brad England Returns One question I get over and over in talking with collectors was when is Thread Heads coming back? Back in November of 2014 Brad England and I debuted a 30-minute video call show. The concept was pretty simple - get two patch collectors talking with short segments to keep the show structured....Read More
1st TOR of 2019 in Myrtle Beach, SC Saturday Later today I'm driving about 3.5 hours to the Santee Lodge 116 TOR in Myrtle Beach, SC. Along the way I'll drive through two towns where I worked for a total of 5 years when I was teaching in some of the most rural school districts in the state. I think...Read More
How an email a decade ago changed my life 10 years! The first Hot Finds Newsletter came out 10 years ago in January 2009. I have never tried to keep up with how many I've published over the years but safe to say it's over 1,000 and still going. The very first Hot Finds was meant to push people to...Read More
Ride along as I share video shot during an epic picking trip. When the day started I thought I was only getting one collection but a timely text message sent me a little further down the interstate to pick a 2nd collection while I was on the road. I often hear from families that have Scouting stuff that nobody in...Read More
Take a look at the auctions ending this weekend Yesterday we had a super productive work shop with many of the key staff members at Camp Barstow to plan curriculum. In 2019 we have 15 different programs and over 1/2 of them were represented in the meeting by the key staff member leading that piece. We are miles ahead of...Read More
Previewing the Dallas National Trade-O-Ree with Ron Aldridge Today I've got a preview of one of the big TORs coming up in the new year. In my interview with Ron Aldridge you can get all the details on the Dallas National TOR coming up the last weekend in January. This continues my push on the website to help promote TORs...Read More
Closing out 2018 with a bang tonight With this being the last Sunday before Christmas its a natural day to end auctions in the category. With so many people visiting family or otherwise tied up next week I expect today to be a banner day for listings to wrap up. Last night we had Christmas dinner with my side of...Read More