With the 2012 SR-7A conclave just hours away I decided to publish a checklist of issues by SR-7A and its Lodges for the annual Conclave for others who might be interested in tracking their Conclave patch collections.

In its 15 year history the Section has issued 189 items and the Lodges attending the annual conclave have issued 114 delegate flaps, and those numbers are sure to increase very soon.

Have a great time at conclave and remember that the best part of trading patches isn’t the new item for your collection , its the friendship you made or strengthened with the fellow you traded with. 

Nawakwa Lodge 3 held their 2012 Trail Crew weekend March 30-April 1, concluding their three year project to complete a section of trail in the George Washington-Jefferson National Forest named the “ArrowCorp Loop” which connects Peters Ridge to Dry Run trails in Allegheny County, Virginia. The conclusion was celebrated with a “vine-cutting” ceremony on March 31.

Work in the National Forest originally began in the summer of 2008 when Lodges across the nation participated in ArrowCorps5. In 2009 Nawakwa Lodge committed to completing the unfinished work on the Loop and coordinated efforts from other Virginia Arrowmen by scheduling annual events in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Crews were limited to 100 participants each year, but demand was so high in 2012 there were 124 trail crew participants. Shenandoah, Blue Heron, and Wahunsenakah Lodges contributed to the efforts over the four years of the project with Shenandoah organizing work weekends in 2009 and 2010 with commemorative patches for each.

Nawakwa issued special flap patches for their work weekends in 2010, 2011, and 2012 to commemorate the event and raise money for the project. Many were limited to participants and multiple year crew members. GW/Jeff Trail Crew Advisor Michael Lynch and youth Co-Advisor Adam White kindly provided the following pictures of each patch and detailed information including insight about their unique designs.

2010 – Theme: Building a Legacy;  Arrow is connecting the trails.

• Red Border – unrestricted Lodge Flap – Fund-Raiser; anyone in OA can purchase; 350 commissioned.
• Silver Border – restricted Lodge Flap – Each participant received one and only participants could purchase extras; 350 commissioned.

2011 – Theme: Building a Legacy;  Cardinal Chill, ready for more trail work; The band in the middle signifies the complete rough-cut of the trail.

• Red Border – unrestricted Lodge Flap – Fund-Raiser; anyone in OA can purchase; 400 commissioned.
• Green Border – restricted Lodge Flap – Each participant received one and only participants could purchase extras; 350 commissioned.
• Red Ghost – restricted Lodge Flap – Addition of a roman numeral II to signify 2^nd year status – Only participants returning for their 2^nd tour of service received one and only 2^nd year participants could purchase extras; 250 commissioned.

2012 – Theme: A Living Legacy; The band signifying the completed trail running through a band to represent a unending commitment to service, the band is encased in yellow which is the color of the Allegheny Trail System Blaze markers; the right-slanted III hash marks signifies the 3^rd and final year.

• Red Border – unrestricted Lodge Flap – Fund-Raiser; anyone in OA can purchase; 450 commissioned.
• Silver Border – restricted Lodge Flap – Each participant received one and only participants could purchase extras; 300 commissioned.
• Black Ghost – restricted Lodge Flap – Only participants returning for their 2^nd  or 3^rd tour of service received one and only 2^nd or 3^rd year participants could purchase extras; 300 commissioned.
• In addition, the black ghost flap had an optional “Recruiters” pin issued to any 2^nd or 3^rd year participant Arrowman who recruited a new Arrowman that had not previously participated in the event.  Only 14 pins were issued.

Sources:

• Nawakwa Lodge Trail Crew Advisor Michael Lynch and Trail Crew Youth Advisor Adam White
• Nawakwa Lodge newsletter, The Tom Tom
• August, 2009
• April, 2010
• August, 2010
• December, 2011
• US Forest Service: Order of the Arrow Returns to Build More National Forest Trails
• ArrowCorp5 GW Project Map (4.8MB PDF)

Lodge 349 just issued a new flap patch honoring Preston Marquis, a Blue Heron Arrowman who was elected National Vice Chief in January. Marquis previously served as both Lodge Chief and Section SR-7A Chief.

There are three border varieties of the patch. Blue and white versions are available to Lodge 349 members while a blue mylar version is intended to be used for gifts.

Congratulations to Preston on his election which brings great honor and distinction to his Lodge and Section!

Marquis photo courtesy National OA web site. Patch pictures and information courtesy Michael McCaughan, Dan Wood, and Dan Press

In 2004 Lodge Advisor Mike White designed and compiled a landmark history of the Lodge he led as Chief a decade earlier, Shenandoah 258. Recently JD Broughman of that lodge noticed that this document was missing from the Reference Archives of this web site, and not only obtained permission from Mike to post an online version here, but arranged a replacement copy from Mike since I could not quickly locate the copy he so kindly sent to me when it was originally released.

The 48 page booklet is now available here as a 10.7MB PDF document, and includes not only a history of Lodge 258 but information about Area and Section affiliations, Pow Wows and Conclaves, and a list of Shenandoah Lodge emblems which makes it a fascinating read for anyone interested in Virginia Order of the Arrow history. My sincere thanks to Mike for his efforts to preserve the history by compiling this document and allowing me to share it online, and to JD for pointing out my egregious omission and helping me rectify it so quickly.

Nawakwa 3 Lodge of Richmond joined Wahunsenakah 333 of Newport News by issuing a special flap patch for the upcoming Section SR-7A conclave to be held at Camp Rock Enon on April 27-29 this year. The flap features their cardinal totem on a black background with a silver border and gold lettering of the lodge name at the top and “2012 SR-7A Conclave” at the bottom.

You can view all of the patches issued for the 2012 SR-7A conclave including event emblems and contingent and trader flaps here.

Nawakwa also issued three additional flaps, two of which match the design of the conclave flap. A new standard flap features a red border and omits the conclave lettering. The 2012 NOAC flap features a gold border and “2012 NOAC” lettering. In a departure from any prior design, a new youth designed flap has a blue background and white border with ghosted arrow and twin fleur d’lis and a cardinal with wings spread composed of form lines.

Click the thumbnail images below to view all of the new flaps and let us know what you think in the comments.

Thanks to Trey Walls for the pictures of the Nawakwa flaps.

When the remaining needs for my Kecoughtan Lodge collection became scarce and expensive I started collecting Wahunsenakah and Chanco Lodge emblems. When the same thing happened with those collections I added nearby Blue Heron Lodge as my next area of interest. Then I was encouraged by my friends Joe Klos and Mike McCaughan to pursue other Virginia OA lodge issues and took that bait like a hungry catfish, not fully realizing that I was expanding my list of needs from about 1,000 to over 2,300.

But adding new lodges to my collection has really helped me gain a broader appreciation for the history of the Order of the Arrow in Virginia as I learn more about the background of issues from Lodges I have never focused on before.

A perfect example is a recent addition to my collection pictured above, the Tutelo Lodge S-62 flap that was issued in 2004 to recognize the amazing achievements of their Arrowmen at prior National Order of the Arrow Conferences. The central feature of the design is a volleyball with three crossed arrows that have the years ’98, ’00, and ’02 superimposed upon the arrowheads.  When I was getting ready to slip this patch into a protective sleeve with a labeled descriptive card and then into my Tutelo Lodge album I noticed some letters and numbers ghosted into the black tips of the feathers that hang from the bottom of the flap. Curious to know their meaning, I consulted via email a longtime trading friend and member of Tutelo Lodge, Arvid Englund.  When I saw Arvid’s comprehensive answer I knew I had found the right expert:

The Letters are the initials of the dancers from the Lodge that made it into the top ten in their style at NOAC and got to dance on stage in front of all the NOAC participants during the AIA show. CB is Chris Bryant (lucky number 57) 5th place Northern Traditional Style in 1996(?), ME is my brother, Micah Englund– 2nd place Northern Traditional in 1998, JB is Johannes Bosch, Top Ten (we think 7th) Grass Dance in 2000, BG is Brandon Gregory, 5th place Northern Traditional in 2002 (Then was National Champion in 2004).

The “3 Peat” is not actually about the Dancers, it refers to Tutelos 3 consecutive National Championships in Volleyball… Of which I am the only Arrowmen to play on all three teams, and the 4th time where we were runner up in 2004

Learning the background of this patch gave me insight into achievements of Tutelo Arrowmen that occurred over a decade ago that I would otherwise never have appreciated. It’s a perfect example of how the hobby of collecting Scout emblems has a much deeper background and purpose beyond simply checking off another item from your needs list. If you stop and learn about your acquisitions you’ll be far richer for the experience.

1997 SR-7 Conclave host and standard jacket patches - click to enlarge

The 1997 SR-7 conclave hosted by Catawba Lodge 459 at Clear Creek Scout Camp near Midland, NC on April 18-20 of that year included over 1,500 attendees from the 12 lodges that comprised the Section. The host lodge flap declared it “The Last Cardinal Conclave” because afterwards the Section would be split into SR-7A (Virginia) and SR-7B (North Carolina) due to the great distances between the lodges which made travel to Section events difficult.

Larry Johnson recently provided scans of the two back patches that were issued for this event. They feature the same design as the pocket patch, with the regular issue featuring a red border and the Host Lodge version a gold mylar one, similar to the Host Lodge pocket patch. Each measures approximately 5″ wide x 8″ tall.

SR-7 only lasted for four years, from 1993 until 1997. During that time 54 known conclave and section items were issued, as well as 28 conclave delegate emblems from their member lodges.

Things have been quiet around the VA-OA.org web site since the SR-7A conclave back in March. I was excited recently to see two auctions on eBay for 1978 and 1979 SE-1 conclave items that included the ceramic mugs issued for those events. I’ve never collected mugs other than those from Kecoughtan Lodge, but I really wanted to include pictures of them on this web site, so I bid for and won them.  Still trying to figure out how to store what appears to be a newly expanding mug collection!

If you happen to have mugs from any of the events listed on VA-OA.org and I don’t have a photo please help keep my collection small and inconspicuous by sending me pictures of them!