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POLICIES
All
Uniform
left shoulder
Other Unofficial Position Insignia
Other Official/Unofficial Emblems
(This page was originally posted before the BSA approved the Webmaster (and later Campmaster) badges of office
for youth and adults. The information here has been updated but is posted here as historical and background
information only.)
APO Brother Jason Selkowitz responded to a question posted on both APO-L and Scouts-L:
I saw a "position" patch yesterday on some guy (beats me who) who visited our OA meeting for 5 minutes and
left. It was a royal blue background, Gold border, yellow lettering (which is similar to cub positions, I
thought) which had the eagle and flor de leis and stated "Alpha Phi Omega Liaison". Is this a real position,
and is there a nationals-certified position/ patch?/
Jason, of the Alpha Phi Omega national service fraternity, wrote:
No, it's not, and no, there isn't one. It'd be interesting to have seen this, and I'd love to know what this
guy thinks he's doing though.
Hey, Mike Walton (yeah, you! :-), do you know anything about this?
Who me?? *heheheehe* Yeah, I know a *little* about it!!
In 1992 or 93, they started popping up, which was one of the smaller catalysts for the big APO-BSA meetings and the
"split thereof". In about three or four Councils, mostly in the West and South, a volunteer Council position was
created called "APO Volunteer Liaison" and became part of the Council's membership committee.
There wasn't an official position badge made for it, which prompted local Councils to either give the person a Council
Committee patch or a nametag with that on it.
Some Councils STILL have this position, even though officially the relationship between APO and the BSA isn't as close
as it used to be. The role of this person is supposed to be to work out relationships between the various APO chapters
in the Council's territories and the Council, and to encourage ways that both organizations can work together on service
and leadership projects.
Don't know what he was doing at an OA meeting, unless he was a friend of someone there....
I've SEEN two versions, one in that dark blue (which doesn't make sense, but it was there) with both the BSA FDL and
Eagle along with a gold "upside down horseshoe" emblematic of the Greek letter "Omega", to symbolize APO, with the
lettering in gold (yellow) and border in gold...
...and the other on the khakitan, with tan border and background, with a dark blue OMEGA behind the regular BSA FDL
and Eagle with the same lettering.
The item is NOT an official BSA nor APO emblem.
I don't know what you mean by "special office" in a BSA context. The only patches authorized for "left sleeve position #3 "
are those nationally produced position patches, the majority of them are listed in the BSA's Insignia Guide.
(And the majority of these emblems are also posted here as part of the Badge and Uniform Site. A future project will have
me to post all of the ones I have access to and which others have contributed toward the site's completion.)
... and
those authorized or approved by local Councils for wear, such as the Webmaster insignia (shown below, see note) and other
patches (like this one, if the local Council approved the patch).
While there's nothing wrong with the council having this position, there is no authorized patch for any "customized"
positions.
While there's no "official patch" for Council-specific positions, local Councils can indeed create special patches and
wear them with National approval if it supports either the national or local Council programming and/or services. For
instance, I've seen in some Councils Campmaster patches (instead of the metallic "Campmaster" nametag)...
(The BSA approved the Campmaster patch, shown below, in 2003...)
Campmaster badge of office
...District Vice-Chair patches (the only official patches are for the District Chair and Committee members) and "Council
Volunteers". It was several local Councils that created special insignia for District Directors, Exploring Executives
and Directors, and Senior District Executives and Senior Exploring Executives that later the BSA said "that's a good
idea" and produced the patches and made them available nationally.
I've seen the APO Liaison patches worn in Atlanta Area, Seattle Area, DuPage Area, and Heart of America Councils. I've
also seen them in Councils in Sacremento, California, Redwood California, Mobile Alabama, and Birmingham, Alabama, which
tells me that it's got to be a regional thing or a APO-developed item.
I don't know how many Councils still have a APO person as a member of their Relationships or Membership Committee....but
I personally feel that it is a good thing and not anything to be really concerned about. APO Chapters can provide a
wealth of activities and service to a local Council, if the Council understands that they are NOT Vnentures, Explorers
nor members of the Council and that the APO chapter understands that anything they do with the Scouts reflect upon the
entire Brotherhood of Alpha Phi Omega!
(My second wife Jessica is also a member of Alpha Phi Omega, a national service
fraternity based upon the ideals of the Scout Oath and Law. All members, to include female members, refer to each other
as "brothers")
Jim Peterson and a couple others wrote me privately asking about...
Webmaster insignia? Where do you get one of those? I mean, I gotta have one of those!
The Webmaster patch is shown below:
First version of the Webmaster badge of office. Scouter Ed Henderson designed and made
these unofficial badges of office available -- Scouters needed to get permission from their
Council's Scout Executives to wear the emblem. It's a nice design, considering that it's not an
official BSA patch and considering that I still think the border color should be dark blue as
opposed to yellow, to correspond with the other "special position patches" (Chaplain, Chaplain Aid,
Physician, Reserve) that could be worn by unit, District, Council, and National Scouters, I still
recommend it.
Current version of the Webmaster badge of office. The BSA created the official badge of
office shown here in 1998.
There are other unofficial emblems for camp staff members, Zone Commissioners and other positions. As long
as your Council's Scout Executive has approved them, they are "okay" to wear. Ask FIRST -- don't wear it
and expect "automatic approval".
Settummanque!
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