Santee 116 Dixie Fellowship Host Flap Broke the Mold
If you go back and take a look at lodge host items issued for either the Cardinal Conclave or Dixie Fellowship I think 1983 marks the beginning of a new era. Up until that point I'm not aware of any patches being issued by host lodges unless you want to count some of the early Dixie staff patches that were not necessarily meant for the Council of Chiefs folks (that will be a future post). I believe there were some host lodge neckerchiefs from North Carolina but I need to confirm that. But in 1983 Santee 116 hosted the Dixie Fellowship at Camp Coker and issued a Dixie Host flap that sorta gave birth to an idea of lodge issues for these events.
However the Dixie Host flap was not really an idea that came from the youth of the lodge. 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. This was a big deal at the time because in the 45 year history of the lodge this was S9. The boys from Florence were very conservative when it came to issuing new flaps.
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.
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Ok you patch hounds – somebody give me some feedback. Are there earlier conclave/dixie patches that were made by lodges. I’m not talking about semi-official staff patches but real host or delegate issues? Any prior to 1983 when this baby came out?