Vintage Community Strips

[VentureScoutNY]

 

Who remembers Community Strips? These were worn before council strips came around.

 

One would wear a strip with their state on it, and underneath it what town you lived in. Heres a link to what I am describing for those of you who don't know

 

http://www.tradingeagles.com/scout_uniform_patches.asp

 

Anyway... I have a uniform with my hometown community strip and the NY above it. It makes the unifrom stand out to me because there is a familiar word there, and that is my town.

 

I feel that the community strip is more unique than the council strip. Although it is good to represent ones council, we are forgetting ones individual town. Every town has differeces, and I feel the council strip takes a little away from the single town.

 

For instance I live on Long Island, NY. We have two councils, Suffolk County Council, and Theodore Roosevelt Council (formerly known as Nassau County Council, TR's home is in Nassau, and he was an avid BSA supporter, hence the name change).

 

Many towns here on the Island though are very different from eachother. Some towns are farm towns, and some are very urban. Many are on the water, and all have something unique about them. As I'm sure many of you live in towns that are also unique in their own way compared to other towns.

 

At any School sports event, a single town is usually represented. There is a great sense of community and togetherness when rooting for ones hometown.

 

This brings me to the point that the community strip is much more than just the name of ones town, but something to have pride in, a sort of beacon or rally point.

 

I have seen in Rhode Island that the RI patch is still sold at the scout shop, but not single towns anymore. I have yet to see any in NY. The Narragansett Council in Rhode Island covers some spots in Mass. This sort of labels them all to one council, although they are in different towns and different states!

 

ALthough the Council strips brings all the towns together as one entity. The community strip gives a scout something to wear proudly in representation of his hometown, where is Troop may have a long history in that town. We should be able to promote the towns specifially in order to tie us all in as a community and a council.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

[CaveEagle]

I agree with you point about a local identity. Our Troops Activity T-shirt has our town name and CO printed prominantly on the front and back. We also just had a "Troop" identified patch made for the temp position on the pocket. This patch also names the CO.

 

CE

[Fat Old Guy]

"One would wear a strip with their state on it, and underneath it what town you lived in."

 

The state goes BELOW the town.

 

I've long been a fan of the community strips and I think that we lost something when they went away. I've seen some troop with newly made community strips but they never look as nice as the BSA originals.

 

I've seen that in New York the different boros have their own CSP. I've suggested to our people who make the decisions that my council make different CSPs for the different counties. Another option would be to allow the districts to add the district name to the CSP.

 

Best yet would be to go back to community strips. With computer controlled embroidery, they could be custom made just like unit numbers.

 

 

[dsteele]

Before anyone makes age jokes, I have to admit that community strips were around during my father's time as a Scout, but were long gone by the time mine came around.

 

I hear what you're saying about community identification -- but you have to remember that community strips were around during a bit more simple time -- geographically, that is.

 

As a kid growing up, I think a community strip would have worked just fine in the town I lived in. However, take a look at any major city that has suburbs, and you'll find that in many cases, a kid from town XXX may well be in a troop in YYYY that meets at MMMM school. Which community strip does he wear? Hometown, Troop's town or School's town? If they all wear different strips, how is that uniform or unifying? If they all wear the strip of their troop's community, how does that build pride in the Scout's own community?

 

Do you have kids in your troop who live in the next door town? I know many in the district I serve do.

 

I like the council strip concept. I think it provides a large enough area to have many Scouts wearing different unit numbers, united under a larger banner (the council) working together and meeting one another at district and council activities to realize they are part of a bigger picture.

 

It also avoids the idea that Thistown, USA is better than Thattown, USA.

 

Unc.

[Fat Old Guy]

" a kid from town XXX may well be in a troop in YYYY that meets at MMMM school. Which community strip does he wear? Hometown, Troop's town or School's town?"

 

Does the troop have different flags for each kid? Noooooo. They'd wear the name of the town that's on the unit flag. Simple, no?

 

"It also avoids the idea that Thistown, USA is better than Thattown, USA."

 

Oh, how New Age. I suppose that you dislike cheers at football games that say things like, "Our team is better than your team. . ."

 

Now, let's all sing "We are the world . . ."

[dsteele]

Fog:

 

I'll pass on the song, thanks Who knows or wants to know how well you may or may not sing?

 

The troop spirit should be just that. Troop spirit. Same with Patrol Spirit.

 

Like it or not, in recent years the view of community has been expanded beyond local municipalities. As a witness, I call . . . you. Different council strips for each county, you suggested. I'm not opposed to that idea -- but is there only one community, town, or other govermental jurisdiction in each county?

 

Unc.

[Fat Old Guy]

". Different council strips for each county, you suggested. I'm not opposed to that idea -- but is there only one community, town, or other govermental jurisdiction in each county?"

 

Baby steps. Gotta start with baby steps. I'd love to see a return to community strips but one frequent arugument is that there are too many towns to stock. My council covers 17 counities, so a leap into the idea of unique identifiers would shock too many people although there are no towns today that weren't around in 1970, they've just gotten bigger. Well, the post office thinks that there are new towns but they've just applied new names to parts of old towns.

 

Another option would be CSPs with the District Name on them but that would be pretty useless. We have 40+ districts and I'm much more likely to know where East Awfulgosh is than to know where Pondondonkonk District is.

 

I've seen a number of troop from other areas with troop number patches that have the town name on them. That's a half-decent compromise, it keeps the CSP and let's you know where the troop is from.

 

 

[dsteele]

FOG:

 

I could live with that compromise.

 

Unc.

[FScouter]

Does anybody use the troop flag anymore? It's got your community name on it.

[Fat Old Guy]

"Does anybody use the troop flag anymore? It's got your community name on it."

 

Don't usually take the troop flag to the University of Scouting and don't usually have it out when we stop at McDonalds on the way back from camping. However, it is a thought . . . unfurl the troop flag everytime we stop for a break at a reststop. A bad thought but it is a thought.