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.

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?

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.

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?

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?

For those that don’t know about it, the Midwest Tradefest is a Boy Scout Patch Trade O Ree held in Madison, Wisconsin. This year it is on Saturday, March 29, 2008 at Immaculate Heart of Mary School. The hours are 9am - 3pm. Admission is free, we do ask that you wear your Boy Scout Uniform. Snacks and lunch will be available for purchase.

This year we are also offering Collections Merit Badge from 10am - 12pm. It was being published as being taught by a former dynamic camp staffer, but its really just me. It should be a good time, I actually committed to teaching the badge without looking at the requirements in detail. It could be interesting depending on the variety of collections that show up but I should be able to pull it off. I’m pretty good at researching this kind of stuff, plus I’ll have my laptop and internet card ready to go just in case. So far I’ve heard of 4 Scouts that will be there, and that is without requesting that they register.

I still have a lot of work to do before Saturday:

- Finish the Collections Merit Badge Presentation

- Find a way to display my Glacier’s Edge CSP collection. Right now its in two boxware cases but I want something I can put on an easel and get eye level. Since this is a fairly new Council I want to make sure folks are educated on all the issues, and I have the most complete collection. I’m missing one CSP from the Council, hopefully I will be able to find it at this event! It slipped through my hands once, but not again!

- Lookup prices for all the OA flaps I want to liquidate. I have a large number of flaps that I want to convert to CSPs or cash, since I’m not collecting random Flaps anymore. I plan on trading them here, then I’ll put whats left on eBay.

- Label the patches in my Four Lakecs CSP collection. This is also one of the more complete collections of Four Lakes Council issues. I want to try and make sure that I am displaying them in the correct chronological order. In order to facilitate this, I need to make it easy for people to fill in missing dates on some of the issues. I can’t just use the CSP Guide since they don’t list all issues, and some are listed in the wrong order for sure.

- Make up some business cards. Have to be able to exchange contact information easily.

- Go through my Ed Bryant Scout Reservation, Camp Castle Rock, and Camp Tichora collections and determine the needs I should be looking for.

I know I won’t get it all done, but hopefully I get most of them done.

I really enjoy this TOR along with the Milwaukee TOR since my collection has become very localized.

If you are in the area, you should check it out!

The disturbing thing is its been around since 2007! I’ve heard two different stories about this Connecticut Rivers Council JSP, the first being it was to promote the National Jamboree, the second being it was used to raise funds for the National Jamboree. I’m leaning towards the promotion story, anyone know for sure?

Either way I have now set up automatic searches to keep tabs on any 2010 National Jamboree Shoulder Patches that hit eBay or appear in Google searches. Our goal is to compile a list of all 2010 National Jamboree Shoulder Patches (JSPs) as a reference for the hobby. If you know of a 2010 JSP that has been issued that is not on our list please let us know and if possible include a original full size scan.

Classification System
I still need to come up with a solution for what I am going to use for the issue numbers. The majority of folks that I have talked to want me to use the “industry standard.” I have two concerns about using the classification scheme that is used in “An Aid to Collecting Selected Council Shoulder Patches, with Valuation Guide.” The first being, possible copyright issues. While I am not going to use the guide to populate my database, I’m sure by using the same classification system I am opening the doors to potential legal issues. The second being, I have never liked the fact that they don’t include all shoulder patches (ie. JSP, RWS, etc.)

At the same time I understand having two classification systems will cause confusion. I also can’t get a group to agree on a potential scheme. Everytime I think I have something that would work, I find a show stopping problem or someone else finds a problem. Its a lot harder than I would have imagined.

Backend (Database Technical Stuff)
Once I get the front end somewhat functionable I have to target the back end to make adding issues to the database easier. Right now I enter every piece of data by hand to the database, which isn’t very friendly. I also have to finalize the structure of the membership system to allow for the “council experts” to be able to edit and approve submissions. I think this is the real key to making this project feasible and scalable.

Price Guide
I’ve started to look at possible solutions to collecting price information. I’ve looked at the program that I believe OAImages.com uses, but I didn’t find it very user friendly. I want to discuss this with John, if he is willing, but with his technical issues I decided I would wait a little bit. I also need to decide how I wish to handle user submitted price data, I want to include private sales but at the same time I don’t want them artificially inflating the “values”.

Marketplace
I’ve done nothing with the market place. This is a feature that I will probably remove until I build up a user base and have the database populated.

I think I would have got more accomplished today, but my power went out. Not too fun when its 6 degrees outside…

There is a status page available at http://www.oaimages.com for those who wish to stay up to date on the progress of the site. The last update was posted on 2/19/2008 at 7pm: “File uploads are in progress. This will continue well into tomorrow, or longer. Right now there’s not much to see, but you can track my progress at http://12.47.45.91.”

When we heard of John’s difficulties on Patch-L, we offered him use of some server space to host his update page, but he was able to place it on his home server. We wish him the best of luck, as technical issues are never fun.

UPDATE:  The OAImages Blog is back up and John is uploading all the site files.  The normal domain is now featuring a status page.