DISCLAMER:
Santee Lodge It is not officially affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America, the Girl Scouts of the USA or the World Organization of Scout Movements.
At the 2007 LLDC the lodge leadership was informed by the scout executive of a new policy approved over the summer by the OA National Committee. This strict policy banned all forms of flaps issued to commemorate honors such as Brotherhood and Vigil flaps. The scout executive informed the lodge officers that Santee would be following the policy. The lodge chief informed the lodge members about the situation and it was decided that at the 2007 Fall Fellowship a decision would be made in the business meeting as to how to move forward. The lodge voted to continue selling the current inventory of flaps rather than enacting any drastic measures. As 2008 rings in it is unclear what the lodge body will decide to do regarding possible changes to a one size fits all combination honors flap.
In the Fall of 2004 Duncan Norton proposed a new standard issue flap designed by Kyle Hughes to replace the Moritz ordeals. The reasons stated for changing was that some people wanted to go back to the original Audubon bird from our first issues. There was also an itch for change as the Steven Askin’s S12 had been around for nine years. The changes for the Brotherhood and Vigil flaps were not approved until the next fellowship in Spring 2005. There was a delay in selling the new designs since the lodge still had an inventory of the flaps from Moritz. It appears as if it was not until Fall 2005 before the new flaps were sold. Vigil flaps were not sold for many more fellowships because of inventory in the box. When the Vigil flaps were ordered they were lost. At this time it is believed that the lodge adviser simply can’t find them. None of them have turned up. These missing Vigils would be Krelman made flaps to match the Ordeal and Brotherhood flaps. However, by the time the decision was made to order another batch of Vigils fate would have them come from yet another patch company. During 2006 the BSA decided to license their memorabilia so that only patch companies who paid the BSA royalties were allowed to produce patches for councils and lodges. This new merchandise would have the BSA seal on the back noting it as an officially licensed product. At the time that the new order of Vigil flaps was being placed the Krelman Company had not obtained it’s license. Therefore, the new run of Vigil flaps were ordered from the A-B Emblem Company. These new Vigil flaps were sold for the first time in 2007.
One of the concepts that became a part of the lodge lexicon during this time was the idea of a patch being the lodge totem. This was a concept that the scout executive brought and basically said that the one flap that you wore – the Ordeal flap – was the “lodge totem”. This was the flap that could be restricted and sold only to lodge members. All other flaps he considered to be special issues including the Brotherhood and Vigil flaps. The new trader flap also fit into this category. By taking the proverbial trigger off the conservative ways of the lodge in just the year 2003 the lodge had three new special issue flaps. It should be noted that from 1997 to 2004 the lodge executive committee made all decisions regarding memorabilia without consultation with the entire lodge through a business meeting. In fact many brothers lamented that business meetings lost their cantankerous flavor during this period of ECM power. Some will point to the Fall 2007 business meeting – 10 years in the making – as the possible return of youth led great debates about the memorabilia of the lodge.
The first special issue of 2003 was a first for Santee. Jay Carlson designed a “Night Vision” set that would have a special 65th anniversary flap accompanied by three fellowship segments called by many chevrons that would fit under the flap making eventually a full pocket set. His original design called for the use of iridescent glow-in-the-dark thread which was a new curiosity in the early years of the new century. However, when the price quote came back excessively high for this thread the lodge staff adviser squashed the idea and instead ordered the set with regular embroidery. We will never know what the “Night Vision” set would have looked like glowing in a dark space. Even so the set was popular with Arrowmen and many purchased the flaps as they were reordered at least once and sold out by the end of 2003.
Santee hosted the 2003 Dixie Fellowship at Camp Coker. The ECM supported by the Dixie Committee voted to have two flaps available to brothers in conjunction with this event. The first was the Dixie Service flap again designed by Jay Carlson. This flap had to be earned by a brother taking part in Dixie work weekends. The flaps were not distributed until the event and sales were tightly controlled by the staff adviser. The other flap issued for the Dixie was a conclave delegate flap. Ironically, neither of these Dixie issues was allowed to use the words Dixie Fellowship by order of the scout executive. The 2003 Conclave Delegate flap was sold at the event. There was a reorder on this flap because of confusion over when and how they were sold to members. It was also during this time that the lodge began using the Krelman Company again to create its patches. The Dixie Adviser David Surrett became the lodge adviser shortly after the Dixie in April. Since Krelman was used to issue the Dixie memorabilia they were given the lodge’s business. It is worth noting that the ECM in later years approved delegate flaps for the 2005
After the summer of 1999 Santee Lodge was in turmoil. The lodge chief had been removed, the lodge adviser had resigned (the third in three years) and the scout executive decided to suspend operation of the lodge and reorganize it. During the shut down a district executive who had worked at Camp Coker in the summer of 1999 decided to order a batch of three dozen flaps because the lodge had been closed down. The Death Flap was an all red ghost flap with a black border ordered directly from the Stadri Company and delivered to the council office. He gave out the flaps to various people such as other members of the professional staff and some adults in the lodge. Eventually all of the flaps were collected back up from the people and turned over to the scout executive. David Lee and Jimmy Duffy later burned the flaps behind the dining hall at Camp Coker. However, of the 36 flaps made only 32 were burned. No one seems to know the whereabouts of the 4 missing Death Flaps.
Stadri Flap Sold on eBay without rolled edge border or plastic backing
Eventually several of the death flaps surfaced on the Internet auction site eBay and were sold by a trader out of Missouri. It was also during this time that some of the Stadri patches including the One Arrow Vigil showed up on eBay for sale by a Canadian wholesale patch dealer. Apparently he got patches from Stadri’s overseas supplier (some missing the border and plastic backing) and sold them starting at $3 each.
The story of the Death Flap is also the beginning of the story of the “Island” flaps. When the lodge was reorganized after having missed the 1999 Fall Fellowship and 2000 Winter Banquet the first event was a February workday held at Camp Coker. The executive committee met and voted to undertake the project of turning Belk Island into a new staff city area. A motion to sell the Death Flaps as a fundraiser was debated at the meeting. However, the majority of the youth on the committee voted the idea down and no decision was made for a fundraiser.
At the first fellowship after the reorganization in the spring of 2000 the business meeting saw the issue of the Death Flap come to a close. The lodge voted to ask the scout executive to destroy the flaps.
Jumbo Island Flap
The next day at a long Sunday morning executive committee meeting a compromise was reached to meet the goals laid out in the budget to support the island project. The youth finally decided to create a brand new fundraising flap. The flaps were to be sold for $100 to adults and $50 to youth who provided at least 10 hours of service to the camp. The design was done by David Lee, the interim lodge adviser and sent off to the company. However, the first run came back looking “jumbo”. In fact there was some question as to whether they were more of a back-patch than a flap.
Regular Island Flap
The decision was made to order another set of flaps and this time make sure they were the standard size. The executive committee later decided anyone buying the Island flaps would get both the Jumbo Island flap and the Island flap for $100. At the 2001 Fall Fellowship the executive committee made the decision to drop the 10 hours of service requirement and sell the flaps to youth for $50. After over a year of selling almost none of the patches the Executive Committee voted to drop the adult price to $50 and the youth price to $25. By the time this order of slap was completely sold out the price had dropped all the way down to $10 for the Jumbo and $5 for the regular Island flap. Ironically, staff city was never built on the island but the money did go towards the construction of the staff city birdhouse cabins below the dining hall.
F3 - Trader Flap
At the 2001 LLDC in August the executive committee approved a new “Trader Flap” for the lodge. The vote came at the direction of the scout executive in order to have a Santee flap available for open sale in the Florence office. Several designs were drawn up around tables in the dining hall. However, the design which won out was from Brian Howe who used his computer to take the classic Santee twills and create a white twill. Brian added an fleur-de-lis under the “WWW” but otherwise kept the same look as the twills. The youth approved his design because it was very traditional and also because as a twill flap it would not be as desirable as a fully embroidered Santee flap. The flaps arrived in time for the 2001 Fall Fellowship but a little bit of controversy came with them. The Moritz patch company had switched the bird that Brian had proposed and used the bird from the 2001 Fall Fellowship patch to the surprise of the executive committee. Another impact of this change was to drop the fdl that Brian had added to the classic twill look since the 2001 Fall bird has a hidden fdl in the parakeet’s neck. The committee met on Saturday to decide whether to sell the flaps anyways or send them back. The committee decided to send sell them anyways. Randy Dargan wisely made a motion in the business meeting that night that if the patches were reordered that they should keep the design that Moritz sent them instead of going back and using Brian’s design which would have made another lodge issue.
The original order of the Trader Flaps was for three hundred. Most of them were sold at Fall Fellowship to Santee brothers who were not used to being allowed to buy a Santee Flap open sale. Some flaps were taken by the Staff Adviser to be sold in the council office which of course was the first time this had happened in the lodge. By January 2002 all the flaps in the first run were sold out. The lodge eventually reordered 400 more in the fall of 2002. There is no variation in the second run. The last trader flaps were sold at 2006 Fall Fellowship.
Santee Lodge was again hosting the Dixie Fellowship in 1983. James Potter, who was the lodge staff adviser, was given permission to design a special staff item for Santee members to have at the Dixie. He designed and ordered a flap for brothers to wear at the Dixie. The background of the design was blue and it contained the words, “DIXIE HOST”. The 300 flaps were sold at the pre Dixie weekend and at the Dixie Fellowship.
Another flap designed and ordered by James Potter was for delegates to the 1984 Dixie. Without consent of the lodge, Potter ordered a flap that used the color orange in place of the traditional red outside border. This color went with the spirit theme of the 1984 Dixie delegation from the lodge which was, “Orange you glad we came”. The flaps were sold three per delegate at the Dixie. Although the origins of this patch are unofficial it has always been considered a lodge issue since Potter was the ex-staff advisor and the flaps were sold to lodge members.
Santee Lodge 116 issued its first lodge flap in 1957. The name “flap” refers to the shape of the patch which was designed to be worn over the right pocket flap on the uniform. This first Santee Lodge flap was designed by Calhoun Cunningham and is known as the “Black Twill”. Its background consisted of a black twill material, hence the name. It signified Ordeal membership in the order and was issued before the summer of 1957.
F2 - Blue Twill
This flap was accompanied by a Brotherhood flap which is called the “Blue Twill”. It was to be worn by Brotherhood members of the lodge. There were only a couple of Vigil honor members at the time and so there was no flap made specifically for Vigils. It is believed that both of these flaps were sold without any restrictions on how many could be purchased.
S1 - Exploding Palm Tree
The third flap of the lodge and the first to be fully embroidered came out in 1961. It was designed by Gene Waddell and was in use between the summer of 1961 and the summer of 1964. This flap was worn by all members of the lodge. The design featured a black background with an arrowhead and palmetto tree. The flap is called the “Black Embroidered” as it was the first fully embroidered patch the lodge issued. It is sometimes called the S1 or the “exploding palm tree” as well. According to the an issue of the Santee Arrowmen, Volume 8 Issue 3, there was a restriction put on the purchase of the new embroidered flaps. The restriction was a brother could buy two flaps at first and then one the next year. The total number a brother could ever buy was three. The restriction made the patch more valuable and respected because it was limited. Other lodges were using similar restrictions and Santee followed with a restriction on its flap. For example Klahican Lodge 331 of nearby Wilmington, NC had a one per life restriction on its early flap.
