thunderbolt 10 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Is there a limit to the number and or age for ribbons on the troop flag? when I took over as SM the flag was already well supplied with ribbons and I just added the new ones as we received them. We now have a new charter rep. who sees them as tacky. so what is the view from the scouting world? I need some differing angles of perspective. Link to post Share on other sites
5yearscouter 52 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Our troop has been chartered for 82 years. so when the flag gets full of ribbons and it just seems like too much and ribbons start to get tattered and torn up, they take off a set of ribbons and hang them up in the meeting room to make room for new ribbons. That seems like a reasonable thing to do, find a place to store the oldest ones and show off the newest ones, you'd have to determine how many ribbons look ok on the flag a certain number or a year or two's worth or more. Link to post Share on other sites
Pack212Scouter 10 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 The limit is what the unit wants. BSA like giving out ribbons. Ribbons for Quality unit...ribbons for attending camp...ribbons for tieing your shoes... Our unit has only be around 20 years and the flag was getting ridiculous. A couple of years ago it was decided that we would only put on it ribbons that we truely "earned", such as quality unit. It looks alot better without 100 ribbons on it! Link to post Share on other sites
Eagle92 110 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Yeas all those ribbons can be both ridiculous looking, and a PITB when putting flags away. What one unit did was create a separate "Ribbon Pole" that only comes out cor COHs. Another one has one of the round ribbon holder attachments that can hols a bunch of them. However I bet those are filling up completley at this point. I know sometimes patrol ribbons, or in the case I'm familiar with Den ribbons, have been placed on the unit's flag b/c the patrol, or den in my case, is representing the entire pack. me personally I'd weed those off and give them to the patrols/dens. Link to post Share on other sites
83Eagle 11 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Our pack flag had about 40 hanging on it to the point where it looked like a shaggy mess when presented. Someone asked what all ther ribbons were so I took the time to take them all off and display them. It was so much easier to appreciate them that way and the flag looks much better plain in my opinion. No one has complained either way. Link to post Share on other sites
skeptic 992 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 We have wires strung across our meeting room with ribbons and other smaller dangle items. The only things on the pole are honor or quality unit streamers. We also have a wire with old, defunct patrol flags, which adds to the overall museum look in our main meeting area. Of course, we are in our 90th year, and have been in our basement cave since 1928, when they build the current church building. Link to post Share on other sites
AvidSM 11 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Too many ribbons on a flag and it gets very top heavy. In my old troop, it got so bad that metal decoration on top would get broken off when the flag fell over. I had to replace it twice - and that thing is not cheap! Link to post Share on other sites
Wëlënakwsu 57 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Let the Patrol Leaders Council decide. Link to post Share on other sites
gcnphkr 11 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Last year we switched to a coup-stick approach. Nice long staff with the ribbons threaded on a runner. This has an advantage of not getting tangled. The scouts set it up at COH and take it to summer camp and camporee. It looks much better than the mess on a flagpole. Link to post Share on other sites
eisely 13 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 I agree that cycling ribbons off of the troop flag is an acceptable and a good idea. I would not discard them. Stringing them across the ceiling of a dedicated meeting space sounds intriguing but probably violates fire codes. I would suggest investing in a larg album of some kind where they can be displayed. Historical or explanatory notes could be added to such an album. Link to post Share on other sites
Scoutfish 16 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 "......ribbons for tieing your shoes..." WHAT? Somebody owes me some ribbons! What we do in our pack is this: If the ribbopns get to be too much and the flag is top heavy, we strip it down to the year that our current 2nd year Webelos were Tigers. That makes sense? It doesn't read the say way I say it out loud. Whenever we have to strip it down, we only keep the ribbons from the past 5 years . That way the oldest scouts can still see ribbons from their first active ( Tiger) year. Link to post Share on other sites
dkurtenbach 348 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 For our troop's 40th anniversary I built a display for all the ribbons that had been gathering dust in a leader's attic. I took a six inch wide pine board about 4 feet long, and attached some 1/4 inch plywood pieces cut into the shape of an eagle's head and wingtips, and wooden letters with our troop number on the front and Boy Scouts of America on the wingtips. Stained brown (except for the head -- white -- and the letters -- clear), I put a bunch of small eye screws on the back, then strung the ribbons on safety pins five at a time, and pinned them to the eye screws so that they hang down from the "wings." Made a matching folding stand for it. It comes out for courts of honor, and hangs on my den wall when not in use. (We meet in a school cafeteria, so no permanent display space.) We add a few new ribbons to it each year, and they don't get all smashed and wrinkled like they did when hanging on the flagpole. Link to post Share on other sites
Alabama Scouter 14 Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Like others here, we had so many it was unkempt. I mailed the old ones to the parents of the scouts that had Eagled or aged out with a note to send on to their sons. They earned them! Link to post Share on other sites
SSScout 1615 Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 The ribbons are the Troop's history. I would not discard them. I also would not send them to some unsuspecting Eagle or their parent. They might have shared in that history , but you are then diluting that history. The recipients then have to decide what to do with them. I like Dk's idea, but it would prove to get unwieldy eventually. Here is what some Troops and Packs have done: Go to your local hobby shop, and buy some acid free display boards, maybe the trifold kind such as kids use for their "science fair" displays. And get some acid free double stick tape, maybe in the scrapbook department. Take the ribbons off the flagpole and sort them out as to type or year or both. Using a COOL iron, not hot, smooth the ribbons out, print side down (the printing may melt off the ribbon!). Arrange them on the display boards and double stick tape them to the boards. Makes a nice display for B&G banquets, CoHs and the like. Portable, too. Admire the fact that your Troop has been to so many places and done so many things. Use as an inspiration to the PLC for future endeavors. Link to post Share on other sites
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