Follow the progress on the Consolidation Study Website

The 20th Annual S.C. Winter Trade-o-Ree is almost here!

JANUARY 15-16, 2010
FRIDAY 4PM – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY 8AM – 3PM

SMART STORAGE
115 Saco Lowell Road
Easley, SC 29640

Registration:
Adults $3
Scouts 17 & UNDER FREE
Tables $25/$30

FREE PIZZA PARTY FRIDAY 6PM!!
100+ SILENT AUCTIONS FRIDAY & SATURDAY!!
Buy / Sell / Trade ALL types of Boy Scout stuff!!

Your Trade-O-Ree has moved, but this time we own the building! We now own a 32,000 square foot building. In this building we have located all of our Boy Scout stuff and collecting supply inventory with the offices of Streamwood. In the same building we have also built 84 climate controlled self storage units that we rent to locals needing a place to store their good stuff. And, behind this …… drum roll please……. Is one big ole’ Trade-O-Ree room of 13,900 square feet. This space is nearly twice the size that we have ever had for a South Carolina TOR.

The Easley Comfort Inn is located just a short jaunt away and has given us some special rates. Just ask for the Boy Scout Trade-O-Ree rates of $58.49 (+ tax) per night (double occupancy). This rate includes FREE Hot Country Breakfasts.

DON’T FORGET THE FRIDAY NIGHT FREE PIZZA PARTY FOR EVERY PRE-REGISTERED ATTENDEE! Immediately after everyone has eaten the free pizza, our famous 1000+ Silent auctions will begin. These silent auctions have become a big part of our TOR’s. We will be auctioning until late Friday night, and then begin again with more neat stuff on Saturday morning. So, please join us to see some old friends, and do some trading – buying – selling.

TRADE-O-REE HOTEL:
Easley Comfort Inn
5539 Calhoun Memorial Hwy (Hwy 123)
Easley, SC 29640
Phone (864) 859-7520
Fax (864) 644-2002

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Streamwood Company
Chris Jensen
PO Box 1841
Easley, SC 29641
Phone 864-859-2915
E-Mail CJENSEN@STREAMWOOD.NET
Web WWW.STREAMWOOD.NET

Right now they just have their “PATRON” (ie. fundraiser) JSP available. There is believed to be approximatly 100 left at the Council. Otherwise this is one that you see on eBay from time to time.

According to the Council’s website:

The new council name, “Seneca Waterways”, was chosen to represent the two former councils, “Otetiana” and “Finger Lakes” and the five counties of the merged council.

“Seneca” reflects the fact that many local names, such as Seneca County, Seneca Lake, Seneca Park, etc. are found within the five counties and that Otetiana came from a Seneca word and was the name of a Seneca Chief who lived in the Finger Lakes region. Also, the historic Seneca Nation boundaries were similar at times to our new boundaries.

“Waterways” includes the abundance of local freshwater bodies such as the Finger Lakes, the Genesee River and Lake Ontario and the Erie Canal, so this name again includes the area of both former councils.

While “Waterways” alone could signify many parts of the U.S., “Seneca Waterways” is unique to our area.

They have also issued a design for their new CSP. No word on when it will be available.

According to the email, they are not interested in trading, but are attempting to sell the entire collection. They have posted the list of CSPs online and will be updating it after a decent amount of the patches have been sold. Requests for scans can be facilitated. There are about 3,600 unique CSPs with many duplicate issues.

You can see the entire list, and the email address to arrange purchases or scans at http://www.the-cables.net/csp.html

This was seen on a Detroit Area Council District Executive’s twitter page earlier today:

I am now a charter member of the NEW MICHIGAN COUNCIL. Council Board Members from DAC & CVC voted overwhelmingly in favor of consolidation.

No information about the votes outcome has been posted on either Council’s website, the Consolidation Study website, or released in a press release yet.

The last official news was that on June 16, 2009, both of the Council’s Executive Boards met and overwhelmingly and enthusiastically voted to support a consolidation.  The voting members of both councils (Executive Board members, Council Members at Large and Charter Organization Representatives) will vote on the proposed consolidation Tuesday, August 4, 2009.

Start collecting those Detroit Area Council and Clinton Valley Council patches today before word gets out!  We will keep you informed of the new Council as information such as name and first CSP are released.

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.

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?

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

Anyways, I wanted to wish everyone who celebrates it a Happy Easter. I went searching for an “Easter” themed CSP, and at first I thought I was going to have to settle for the Killer Rabbit Patrol Patch. Yes, this was the first patch I thought of when I thought “Easter.” The second patch I thought of was actually the 2006 NOAC Set issued by Ku-Ni-Eh Lodge #145, if you haven’t seen it just picture pedro stomping on the energizer bunny. I know these aren’t CSPs, so I kept looking…

I was just about to give up when I ran across this CSP while browsing ebay:

According to the auction it’s the SA21 from Buckeye Council. Right now its at $15.51. I’m declaring it the most Easter themed CSP. Do you know of any CSP that screams Easter more than the above nice fluffy bunny?