With the formation of the International Scouting Collector’s Association we should take time to look back at our origins.

In 1953, at the National Jamboree, the roots of the newsletter The Trader were laid down. It’s organizers thought it would be a good idea to organize traders and to publish a newsletter. They wanted to guard against fakes, invite comments and publish a newsletter. Mike Diamond was the first editor, followed by Forest Reynolds, Paul Meyers, Dave Leubitz, and Guy Hatfield amongst others. In 1978 The Trader was merged with Scouting Collectors Quarterly. The Scouting Collectors Quarterly began with the Texan Traders Den, which published the Traderoo Magazine. This publication gave way to the Scouting Collectors Magazine, with the National Scouting Collectors Association [later to be named the National Scouting Collectors Society (NSCS)] as the sponsoring organization.

The humble beginnings of The Trader led to the current magazine style publication, with articles by nationally recognized collectors.

In the West, in 1969 the California Traders Association was founded, at the 12-D Conference, with the idea of promoting communication between traders and collectors. In 1970 it became the Region Twelve Traders Association. In 1972 the name was changed to the Western Traders Association. This name remained until a merger with the Southern California Association of Traders in 1984-5. SCAT was founded in 1973 as the Southern California Traders Association, the name was changed to SCAT in 1975 so it would be easier to remember. For one year in 1985 the organization was simply called WTA/SCAT. In 1985 WTA/SCAT changed its name, once again, to the American Scouting Traders Association (ASTA).

ASTA has become nationally known for its articles aimed towards the collector. ASTA has led in working with the National Order of the Arrow Conferences since 1990, establishing a presence at Founders Day and in coordinating and organizing the trading events at the conferences.

The California Traders Association started as an eight-page mimeographed paper. By 1985 membership had grown to over 400 members when the ASTA name was taken. In 1994 ASTA reached the milestone mark of 1,000 members.

Now both of these long-standing organizations have merged to form the International Scouting Collectors Association (ISCA).

Today the merged organization boasts over 1,500 members, with issues being sent to all 50 states and over 11 Scouting countries worldwide.

From humble mimeographed beginnings we have seen the newsletters grow and improve. The addition of photos was a leap, then the size and format of the newsletters has changed. 1996 saw the introduction of full color covers and internal pages [on a selected basis]. The production process has progressed from typewritten, to 'cut and paste,' and now on computer with the data being sent to the printer electronically.

In the past few years we have seen the development of our Web-Site with full color scans and member information available on-line.

While it is hard to tell what future will hold for the ISCA, we have the track record of being up to the task. As we look back at almost 50 years of history, we look forward.

It is important to look back, and remember that it all started with a patch[es]…

This information is compiled with historical information from Ken Wiltz [AstaReport Vol. 10, No. 1], Raymond Lee [SCQ Vol. 18, No. 4] Joe Maloy and Dave Minnihan.

* ITEMS BEING RESEARCHED