CSP Corner Blog

I’d like to welcome anyone visiting from New York OA Trader after he posted about CSP Corner on his blog.

There are big dreams for this site!  I’ve never been happy with any of the resources out there for CSPs.  Personally I want Scans!  I want Details!  I want everything listed in one resource, not one for JSPs and one for CSPs!  (I know I’m picky)

Functionality is not all here… you can tell that.  First off the design ended up not suiting us well, not enough content space so that will be fixed eventually.  The marketplace is going to be the last feature of this site activated.

What are we working on?

We are working on getting all of the Councils listed and at least one CSP from each Council listed.  While this is happening, we are trying to fix the back end (the administrative features) to make updates easy.  Eventually what we want to have is one or two “experts” from each Council who will be in charge of keeping their Council’s issues up to date.  The local individuals are the best resource on knowing what is what from their Council.  We have already started collecting realized prices from various sources, however they have not been analyzed or formatted yet.

The major promblem we are facing:

What classification system to use?  Everyone we talk to suggest we just use An Aid to Collecting Selected Council Shoulder Patches, however due to copyright restrictions, that is not possible.  So we’ve been trying to come up with a new system, which is a lot harder than it seems.  If you have any thoughts or have a good system let us know!

Please post any suggestions or thoughts!  They will be considered.

Some of you have probably seen this patch before, especially if you read John’s Blog at OAImages.com.

Patch Details: http://www.cspcorner.org/dir/patch/143/

This was my biggest fear with the new Centennial Uniforms. Everything was more subdued and less colorful, I was afraid CSPs as we know them would end and we would switch to a simpler Council Shoulder Patch. Bringing back the RWS days but with different colors.

In one way I think they would look better with the new style of uniform, especially in contrast to some of the “colorful” CSPs that have been issued. However as a CSP collector I would have been devastated.

What do you think a Khaki and Green CSP restriction would do to CSP collecting? Would everyone jump ship or would demand skyrocket?

Things have been progressing slower than I had hoped.  Here are the answers to a few questions I have received…

1) I am keeping the 2010 National Jamboree Shoulder Patch (JSP) list up to date.  I decided to add the Buckeye Council Pre-Order JSPs however I am now regretting adding them before they have been produced.  I will probably leave them up for now.  My goal is to list every 2010 NJ patch as I am made aware of them.

2) I was only going to add Councils when I added at least one patch from that Council.  I decided to add all of the Councils at once which is making the data entry process a lot faster.  The main problem this is causing is a lot of “empty” Councils appearing in the directory.

3) The design will be modified.  My initial sketches turned out not being very productive for the information that is being displayed.  My goal at this time is to set up the back end and populate some more of the database.  Once I have good testing data set up I will open up a Beta area with a new design.

4)  My plan for images is to soliciet scans from Council “experts”which will allow me to add of a Council’s scans at one time.  The goal would be for these “experts” to assist with the approval of new scans and to answer questions related to discrepencies that may occur.  I need to get the programming finished before this will happen.

5) I am still looking for a good solution for a classification system to use.  If you have any ideas for an all inclusive classification system for CSPs feel free to drop me a note.

6) I started collecting sales data on 9.1.08.  This will be analyzed and used for the price guide.

I would like to say progress will be noticable starting now, however that is probably not going to be the case.  Other things in life have been slowing me down a bit.

When I saw this patch on eBay I decided I had to have it.  I know its not a CSP but it is at the moment my favorite Boy Scout patch.

Why is it my favorite patch? It highlights things I enjoy and is a unique design.  I really enjoy cooking for large groups; my first job in the Army was a 92G (Food Service Specialist) and I spent three summers running the brand new kitchen at the Ed Bryant Scout Reservation.  Plus the design is great, looking at the patch you know without a doubt that it represents the commissary staff.  The fact that its in the design of a chef’s hat makes it even better!

Do you know of any other patches that highlight cooking or commissary staff?

I had the pleasure of attending the Midwest Tradefest in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday. When this Trade-O-Ree started I was on the organizing committee taking care of registration and assisting with promotion, this year I returned to instruct Collections Merit Badge. I also set up a table and sold some dupes and displayed my Glacier’s Edge Council CSP Collection.

It was great seeing how the event had grown. There were some great collections on display and the walk-in traffic was steady. I was impressed to see all the regional walk-in traffic that showed up through out the day. I didn’t see much local stuff (Four Lakes, Tichora, Glacier’s Edge) but there was a lot of regional items and some big collections on display and for sale.

I enjoyed explaining and showing all of the Glacier’s Edge CSPs that had been issued. Most were surprised that we have issued that many CSPs already (we are only up to 17). I was also able to help some friends fill a few of their Ed Bryant Scout Reservation needs.

We were able to attract a fair number of youth to the event. I had 9 Scouts earn Collections merit badge and more just showed up to browse the tables. Its always great seeing the youth get excited at these events.
Here are a few of the highlights that were posted on Patch-L by Kurt, the event’s main organizer:

* The Wisconsin state collection from the John Conley Williams collection sold and is being broken apart.

* There were also a number of experts in the room with book authors, ISCA Journal contributors, and Blue Book editors present. I was truly amazed by the crowd we attracted to our trade-o-ree.

* There were some great displays: Tony Lazewski - diamond hat patches, Dave Pede - Leekwinai 157, Bruce Richardson - design collections, and Jeff Gruenke - Wisconsin community strips.

* Twenty-seven collectors rented over 60 tables.

Kurt, his organizing committee, and Troop 144 did a great job! (The Troop did all the set up and tear down and were the main beneficiary- they also provided some great chicken and steak sandwiches for lunch) I’m hoping I’m stateside and can attend this great event next year. If I do attend next year hopefully I’ll remember to bring my camera!

Mark your calendars:

Midwest Tradefest
March 28, 2009
Madison, Wisconsin