Wiatava Lodge 99 Standard S-99: The NOAC 2022 FDL Trader Piece
A Special Commemorative Piece from the Heartland
Today I'm looking at the Wiatava Lodge 99 Standard S-99 Solid Flap, a piece that represents something special in my collecting journey over the decades. This flap came to life for the National Order of the Arrow Conference in 2022, when Wiatava Lodge brought their finest design skills to create a commemorative Flap for Distinguished Leaders. It's the kind of piece that catches your eye immediately when you're browsing through a trader's table or scanning the eBay listings.
Wiatava Lodge has long been known for their solid, well-executed flap designs with careful attention to color balance and embroidery detail. This S-99 shows all the hallmarks of their craftsmanship - a multi-color background (M/C) that provides visual depth and interest, clean black lettering for the lodge name and issue number, and a pale blue border with that distinctive rolled edge treatment. The rolled edge finish tells us something important about the era. Many lodges moved to this technique during the late 2010s and into the early 2020s specifically to give their flaps a more refined, finished appearance compared to the traditional cut-edge style that dominated earlier decades.
Speaking of eras and fabric types, this piece was likely produced using embroidery on felt or possibly a felt-blend material, which was standard for high-quality lodge flaps during this period. You can often identify these through their weight and the way the embroidery sits slightly raised on the surface. The palette tells us a lot too - the multi-color background with black lettering is a combination that started appearing more frequently in the 2015-2023 window, making this flap easily datable by its design language alone.
The FDL designation (Flap for Distinguished Leaders) carries significant weight in the trading community. These pieces celebrate leadership within the lodge, honoring members who've gone above and beyond in their service to the OA and their lodge. They're often produced in more limited quantities than the standard annual issues, which automatically creates scarcity. The fact that this is marked as part of a set with item X143 adds another critical layer of collector value - set pieces frequently command premium prices because serious traders want both parts to complete their collections.
I've found that Wiatava Lodge pieces from the 2022 NOAC era are gaining real recognition among serious collectors who follow regional trends. The multi-color background is particularly striking compared to solid-color issues, and the pale blue border works beautifully against the darker lettering. Condition matters tremendously with this style - look for sharp, clean embroidery lines, consistent color saturation without fading, and minimal wear around the rolled edges. A crisp example can be worth 30 to 50 percent more than one showing signs of age and handling.
What draws me to this flap personally is the sense of occasion it carries. NOAC pieces represent high moments in our OA brotherhood - times when Arrowmen from across the nation gather to celebrate leadership and service. Collecting these commemorative pieces is like keeping a timeline of where we've been as a fraternity, lodge by lodge, year by year. This S-99 fits right into that important tradition. I've been tracking Wiatava's output over the past decade, and this NOAC 2022 FDL ranks among their finest limited-run issues. I currently have this piece on my needs list in the Collectiblz app, hoping to complete this particular set before the year's end.
If you're hunting for this flap on the secondary market, expect to see steady demand from collectors focused on NOAC commemoratives and Wiatava series pieces. The combination of lodge reputation, NOAC significance, and set membership makes it a piece that's actively pursued. Keep a close eye on eBay sales - when they do appear, they tend to move quickly, especially if the condition is pristine and the set is complete.
