BSA License Plates

[bp_mmitchell]

So while going through my Local Area Council's webpage I came across this! I am not only tempted, but compelled! Anyone else's area offering such a program?

 

http://www.baltimorebsa.org/openrosters/docdownload.aspx?ID=64452

[Troop185]

I spend the winters in Florida, but got a Michigan BSA license plate last winter. They send me 3 plates, before they got it right, with 185 on it. I put the other two plates on my wife's golf cart.

 

Last Friday, I was crossing the border, from Ontario into Michigan with the scouts. I was pulling a canoe trailer, and the security guard ask me what my van license plate was. He got out of his booth, to go look at my plate!

[Tampa Turtle]

State of Florida has a BSA specialty plate.

[King Ding Dong]

Missouri has become the CafePress of license plates. There are Eagle and OA plates. $25 yearly donation to the organization plus state vanity plate fees. Would love to see someone personalize it further with "PAPER" and "DASH" respectively.

[bp_mmitchell]

Or write the plate numbers in Morse Code!

[CalicoPenn]

Many states have BSA license plates. Some are generic BSA, like Iowa. Some are just for Eagle Scouts, like Illinois. Missouri may be the only state with an OA plate. Some states have plates for Girl Scouts.

 

The earliest example of a BSA specific license plate I can find (and one that proves specialty plates have existed much earlier than most people think) is a Boy Scout Valley Forge Jamboree plate from 1957 issued by the State of Michigan.

 

Yeah - I've become a license plate geek - I'm a birder with a pretty hefty life list and with the proliferation of specialty plates out there now, I've started to keep a "life list" of all the plates I've seen on the road. At one time, Illinois issued more specialty plates than any other state, and as far as I know, they may still do so - mostly because Illinois, on top of the permanent specialty plates, issues about 400 different special event plates per year - temporary license plates that are usually good for a couple of months around special events and used as fundraisers for those events - for instance Superman Days in Metropolis, or the DuQoin State Fair, or any other of a number of events.

[eagle90]

I have the Eagle Scout plates from Illinois.

 

Dale

[Papadaddy]

There was a similar effort for a BSA plate in Virginia a few years back, but the organizer could not get the requisite 350 pre-paid applications to put the plate into production. If there were an Eagle Scout plate I would def have one on my truck. The closest I can get is a bald eagle wildlife plate.

 

[Scouter99]

If I get a BSA plate, I can't honk at jerks anymore.

 

There was a similar effort for a BSA plate in Virginia a few years back

It's ongoing, there's no time limit on gathering the pre-paid applications.

[CalicoPenn]

If the Friends of Tibet or Bowlers can get license plates in Virgina, surely the Boy Scouts can

[jpstodwftexas]

here is the Texas option From the $30 specialty plate fee, $22 goes to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for making grants that benefit educational projects sponsored by Boy Scout Councils of Texas.

[JasonG172]

Here's mine for Arkansas

 

[Eagledad]

Until recently, you would hav seen "Eagledad" on my car.

[skeptic]

Gee, wonder if I can get one directly from California DMV; or is that another area of the PC pols here?

[CalicoPenn]

California currently doesn't have a BSA specialty plate though legislation for one was put into play in the late 1990's. The hold-up at the time was a Senate transportation committee agreement on a moratorium on any new specialty plates beyond the few they had at the time while an investigation was done to determine if having multiple kinds of plates would be bad for traffic safety. By the time the research was completed, the State was being sued by supporters of an anti-abortion license plate for content discrimination so the State continued their moratorium until after the lawsuit was decided. The State lost the lawsuit then passed a new law authorizing special plates only for state agencies or governmental agendas while grandfathering those already in existence, which appears to reslove the issues the Court has with the original moratoriums. For instance, one of the the latest authorized plate - a Snoopy plate - benefits museums in California through the California Cultural and Historical Endowment, a state agency. Since the State is not deciding that private group A can have a plate but private group B can't, then there is no content discrimination.

 

So alas, there is no BSA license plate - and probably won't be for a long time to come.

 

Oh - and the anti-abortion group may have won the court battle but they lost the license plate war - California still does not have one.