The effort to catalog and describe all known Order of the Arrow issues has been ongoing since the 1950s.  Many old collectors will remember the Bill Price books that had a picture of each flap and attempted to describe the restrictions.  David Leubitz had a book – the original Blue Book that tried to catalog the issues and introduced the vocabulary that many collectors are familiar with today such as “S” for solid embroidered flap and “F” for not fully embroidered flap.  Later Albertus Hoogeveen and Richard Breithaupt revolutionized this effort with Arapahoe that was published in 1976 with pictures.  The Arapahoe II Supplement was published in 1988 and reorganized the original catalog based on new information.  Perhaps it was this renumbering of issues that led some collectors to begin work on a new Blue Book effort that would have a structure of national (4), regional (18) and lodge (100+) editors to make the final determinations on cataloging Order of the Arrow memorabilia. 

In this session that was recorded at the Dallas TOR in 2013 there is a discussion led by Roy More of TSPA that catches up on that history and explains what is going on with Blue Book 2.0. The Blue Book was published in 1996 and eventually the printed book included 5 editions that came in two year intervals.  The final version was released almost completely as a digital product in 2006. 

Johnny Sneed of Louisiana is also  in on the session and he served as one of the original regional editors and volunteered his time and talents to lay out the massive book.  You can also hear the voice of Todd Rogers who chimes in with some good points. Much of the second half of the session is a brainstorming chat about how to redo the numbering and classification system of OA patches. Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

In the conclusion of my interview with Dan Coberly regarding American Scouting overseas we talk about what BSA Scouting has looked like in the War on Terrorism.  Dan discusses how Scouting has popped up in Iraq and Afghanistan led by soldiers who are reaching out to the community.  He also gives a neat history of the Overseas Arrowmen Association.  This is Part II of my interview so if you missed the first part I invite you to listen to it in the archives or in iTunes. Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

Growing up on an Air Force Base in rural South Carolina I knew all about the Transatlantic Council and even had some members of my troop that had been in the Far East Council.  So when I got in touch with Dan Coberly and found out he is a Distinguished Eagle with an incredible knowledge and history with American Scouting overseas I had to get him on the show.  In this interview Dan talks about what BSA Scouting looks like in the far corners of the globe.  I discovered many things I didn't know about a big Scouting including some information about the Direct Service Council.  Since this is a show about patches of course in the interview we also zero in on the famous memorabilia from Baluga, Achsin and other far flung outposts. Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

While patch trading wasn't the only thing happening at the 2013 National Boy Scout Jamboree it was just as popular as ever with the Scouts, Scouters, and visitors.  On tonights episode I'm going to give my personal take on patch trading at the Jamboree.  I'll give my opinions and share my experiences having gone in for all 7 days that visitors were allowed to do so.  My guest is Rick Bedsworth who was in charge of the Collections merit badge staff representing ISCA.  Rick will share news of the 600+ Scouts who earned the badge along with his take on how the patch trading went at the Jamboree. Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

For the better part of a year I've been tweaking my own online strategy for selling Boy Scout memorabilia.  From closing my eBay store and Prostore in 2012 to reversing some of those decisions in the Spring its been a time of transition and testing.  Tonight I'll talk about all that and include an interview with Jody Tucker with details of one of the platforms that I've built a store on.  http://www.listityourselfauctions.com is a collectibles alternative that focuses right now on Scouting and military items.  Jody is the owner of Manions Auction House and he will give us the deal on this platform that he has been working on for a few years now.  I've been out of the studio for more than a month with Jamboree and I'm excited to get back into the loop with a new show! Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

Tens of thousands of Boy Scout youth and adult members are packing their bags and heading out for the 2013 National Boy Scout Jamboree this week.  You can count me among the crowd that is going to stream into a sleepy corner of West Virginia for the big event.  In tonight's episode of Scouting Hot Finds Radio I've got an update on the Mt. Hope Trade-O-Ree from Todd Kelly.  The TOR is going to run concurrent with the Jamboree and is opening Saturday!  I will also share some important information from Russell Smart regarding patch trading at the 2013 National Jamboree.  I hope to see some of you up in the mountains of WV over the next two weeks. Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

Join me for the launch of a new and invaluable resource for the Boy Scout meorabilia collecting community.  Brett Estrade and I are formally launching http://www.patchtrends.com in this episode.  Roughly a year ago I published an episode of the radio show that finally comes to fruition tonight.  In that show on the Prices Realized Guides I longed for an online solution that would make the whole project more robust, searchable, and easily accessed by all collectors in the hobby.  When I was approached to partner with Brett Estrade on a new website that would do all that and much much more I jumped at the opportunity.  After several months of tweeks and feedback from beta users the site is now live as an online prices realized search tool for the hobby.  Catering strictly to the Boy Scout category of eBay this powerful program captures all completed sales listings (including images!) in an off-site database.  Subscribers to this new service can then type in any search term and pull up all results that match the query.  The database already has results from 500,000 listings and is growing every day.  I really feel this site will become as indispensible to collectors as OAimages.com.  However, since it is open to every niche in the hobby from OA to camps to Eagle medals anybody can use the service to value and research items.  This could be a game-changer!  Listen tonight as Brett and I explain how the idea came about, a little bit about the mechanics, and how for only $2/month you can test out the service with a money-back guarantee. Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

Mike McAdams with help from Chip Elliott has just published Philmont Millennium 1 Second Edition which can be found at http://www.philmontm1.com.  This book is the definitive guide to memorabilia issued for everyone's favorite high adventure base in New Mexico.  I was able to catch up with Mike at a trade-o-ree this year when he sat down with a group of collectors to discuss the project and impending publication.  Now that the book is out I'd like to share that audio and suggest you consider making the investment in purchasing a copy for your reference library.  Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

Tonight you will hear the conclusion of my interview with Deryl Radder who was the founder of the Scouting Collectors Society.  At one time this Yahoo club was the largest Scouting gathering of Scout patch collectors on the web.  In this episode he will share the story of the Y2K trade-o-ree and what led him to eventually pull the plug on the groups. Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.

Way back before there was the Scout Patch Collectors Facebook Group there was a time Yahoo was doing some really cool things with groups.  From 1999 - 2006 the largest place for Scouters to meet up online and swap stories and patches was the Scouting Collectors Society.  With a brilliant strategy to use club patches as incentives Deryl Radder grew his Yahoo group into a prolific trade-o-ree on the net.  Just when everyone was worried that the lights were going to go out on Dec. 31, 1999 he hosted an incredible Y2K TOR that went on for a couple of days straight.  The SCS also spun off the Lodge Members Society for OA collectors and included state rooms and groups for other topical trading and collecting areas.  As Deryl has noted online it took just about a year for the new Facebook group to eclipse his peak numbers and he sees the potential for a 10,000+ member Scout Patch Collectors Facebook Group.  Listen in to hear Deryl share the story of the Scouting Collectors Society including the details of his incentive plan that involved producing perhaps 100+ unique club patches.  When he suddenly pulled the plug on the Yahoo Groups in 2006 not everyone was happy but he will share his reasons in this interview. Find more Scouting memorabilia content and all of my podcasts at http://www.scoutpatchcollectors.com.