[press release]
ATA to Offer Two Courses

The American Topical Association is offering two courses via Zoom during the month of May.

Wondering How to Mount and Display Your Collection? Make Your Own Album Pages! is three sessions at 6:00 p.m. Eastern on May 4, 6 and 11. It will show how to design pages on a computer and print them or take them to be printed.

The course will be taught by Martin Kent Miller, owner of The Philatelic Press, a design and marketing firm geared to the needs of philatelists. Martin has worked as a graphic designer for 30 years and enjoys making album pages. Also teaching will be Jeff Hayward, ATA first vice president, who works in the computer field and assists ATA with its technology. He is an avid collector who designs album pages for his many topics.

Cost is $25 for ATA members, $40 for non-members. Registration is open on the ATA website at www.americantopical.org.

Thematic Exhibiting: Steps to Success is a five-part course is designed to give students practical information to use in planning and developing a thematic exhibit. The five-part course will be offered on May 15 (4 p.m. Eastern), May 18 and 20 (6 p.m. Eastern) and May 22 and 29 (4 p.m. Eastern). Cost is $35 for members, $50 for non-members.
ATA president Dawn Hamman will present the first session, an overview of the decisions students need to make in planning; writing the thematic story; and acquiring and describing material. There will be a discussion of resources to use along the way. She is a thematic exhibitor, writer and editor.

The second session, taught by Martin Kent Miller, will cover layout and design, including choosing paper, page design basics, matting, typefaces and size. The owner of The Philatelic Press, a marketing and design firm geared to the needs of philatelists, Miller edits numerous publications, including First Days and The United States Specialist. He designs many publications for ATA, and edited the 2020 book, Topical Adventures – A Guide to Topical and Thematic Stamp Collecting.

The third session will be a case study, in which prominent thematic exhibitor Phillip Stager will go through the steps he took in developing his award-winning exhibit, The Wonderful World of Bamboo. Stager has been exhibitjng since high school and has won many top awards for his thematic exhibits. He is a retired philatelic judge who served as chief judge for the National Topical Stamp Show several times. He wrote the chapter on thematic exhibiting for Topical Adventures – A Guide to Topical and Thematic Stamp Collecting.

Jean Wang will lead the class on May 22: How to Choose a Wide Variety of Philatelic Items for Your Exhibit. She is the grand award winning exhibitor for Blood: A Modern Medicine, CANPEX, 2019, and one of the foremost thematic exhibitors working today. She will describe how she selected a wide range of philatelic items to tell the thematic story.

The final session of the course will be a wrap-up for students to report on their progress and ask questions.

[press release]
Ronnei To Coordinate Exhibit Efforts for FDC Society

The American First Day Cover Society has chosen Todd Ronnei, a gold-medal exhibitor himself, to coordinate its exhibiting programs and promote FDC exhibiting.

Ronnei was awarded the Reserve Grand and a Large Gold medal for his U.S. Winston Churchill (Sc. 1264) exhibit at the AFDCS’s Americover 2018 and at Minnesota Stamp Expo in 2018. [One of the covers is shown below.] He has a number of other FDC exhibits, including the 1967 Urban Planning stamp (Sc. 1333) and 1970 Fort Snelling stamp (Sc. 1409), and is the Exhibit Chair for Minnesota Stamp Expo, a World Series of Philately show.

Ronnei and his family live in a Minneapolis suburb. He has been the AFDCS.org webmaster for a number of years and also served on its board of directors, five years as its chairman.

The AFDCS presents unique awards in special categories at its Americover shows, created by Kerry Heffner, and Randy Smith distributes a general AFDCS award to shows upon request. “Todd will pull together these efforts, while adding others and encouraging more FDC collectors to try their hand at exhibiting,” said AFDCS president Lloyd A. de Vries.

The AFDCS, a 501(c)(3) educational not-for-profit organization, also recently reorganized its Education Department and is putting more emphasis on those programs.

The society publishes its award-winning journal First Days six times a year, as well as handbooks and directories, and is a co-sponsor of the big U.S. summer philatelic event, Great American Stamp Show (Aug. 12-15 in the Chicago area) or its equivalent virtual show.

For more information on the AFDCS, visit its website www.afdcs.org, email afdcs@afdcs.org or write to the society at Post Office Box 246, Colonial Beach, VA 22443-0246.

Todd Ronnei’s Winston Churchill exhibit can be seen here.

[press release]

Kris McIntosh is the new chair of the Education Department of the American First Day Cover Society. The retired high school social studies teacher in Fort Worth, Texas, schools has already been demonstrating FDCs as teaching aids, both online and at social studies teachers’ conventions. This new position will expand upon her advocacy of covers in education.

The department also includes youth activities, audio-visual programs, and online programming. Gary Denis, the previous Education Chair, continues as chair of the Publications Committee. The AFDCS earns its not-for-profit status as a 501(c)3 organization for its educational activities.

As Education Chair, McIntosh will have a seat on the society’s Executive Committee. She was also just elected, separately, to her first term on the AFDCS Board of Directors.

McIntosh lives in a recreational vehicle, and spends the year traveling through several western states. She is a member of the Fred Sawyer North Texas Chapter of the AFDCS, and collects and exhibits the 1936 Susan B. Anthony (Sc. 784) and the 1948 Progress of Women (Sc. 959) issues.

The AFDCS’ publications include handbooks, catalogues, directories, and its award-winning journal First Days. The society also produces some FDCs, advocates for first day cover collecting and exhibiting, and is a cosponsor of the big national stamp collecting show each summer. The Great American Stamp Show is currently scheduled for August 12-15 in the Chicago area.

For more information on the AFDCS, visit its website www.afdcs.org, email afdcs@afdcs.org or write to the society at Post Office Box 246, Colonial Beach, VA 22443-0246.

[press release]
AFDCS Offers Members Free Online Collecting Interests Registry

The American First Day Cover Society, the world’s largest not-for-profit FDC organization, is now offering its members a way to find other members with similar collecting interests and to seek out wanted items.

With the new “Member Connect” benefit, members may submit their collecting interests in a secure area of the AFDCS.org website, accessible only to other members. There is no charge for the service. Commercial ads and cachetmaker ads are not permitted in Member Connect entries. (Separate ads on the website may be purchased.)

An individual’s Member Connect entry may include any topic of general philatelic or FDC interest, or can be used to seek specific items (such as “want ZIP block on FDC for Sc. 1306”). There is a limit of 25 words per listing, and one listing per member. Members can submit changes or delete their listings at any time.

Member Connect can be found in the Members Area of the website, accessed via the “Member Login” button on the homepage. AFDCS members who do not already have access to this area can request it by sending their names and membership numbers via email to webmaster@afdcs.org.

In that same area, members can download copies of First Days, a full-color magazine published six times a year by the AFDCS. The organization also publishes handbooks, catalogues and a free directory of current cachetmakers, cosponsors an annual stamp show, and otherwise promotes first day cover collecting.

For more information on the AFDCS, visit www.afdcs.org or write to the AFDCS, PO Box 246, Colonial Beach, VA 22443-0246, or via e-mail at afdcs@afdcs.org

[press release]
CCC Digitized Philatelic Handbooks Availability

Since 1968, the Collectors Club of Chicago, has published 34 original research specialized philatelic handbooks, compendia, and anthologies. As the handbooks are issued in limited editions, the published handbooks are available only from libraries, or whenever private philatelic literature libraries receive copies through private treaty or auction.

The CCC maintains the copyrights for the handbooks, and has completed a digitization program that allows about 30 of the publications to be available for the Good of Philately for downloading at a nominal cost by the collector or dealer (https://www.collectorsclubchicago.org/handbooks-available-for-download/). The titles are diverse, ranging from specialized United States collecting areas, to esoteric foreign subjects.

The CCC actively solicits for publication all manuscripts reflecting original philatelic research, regardless of the subject matter, or their perceived esoteric content. Complete details for potential authors are available on www.collectorsclubchicago.org.

Members of the American First Day Cover Society, the largest not-for-profit organization in the world specifically for FDC collectors, have elected six people to its Board of Directors. The 279 ballots cast this year was much larger than usual, more than double the number in 2019.

The four candidates receiving the most votes will serve four-year terms beginning January 1, 2021:

• Foster Miller 227
• Gary Denis 161
• Mark Thompson 140
• Kris McIntosh 130

Two candidates will complete the unexpired terms of Tom Peluso (two more years) and Doug Kelsey (one more year), and take office immediately:

• Tamsie Goyer 126 (through 2022)
• Michael Lake 117 (through 2021)

Three other candidates were not elected:

• • D.A. Lux 93
  • Ron Klimley 65
  • A.Francis Kohut 39

There was one write-in vote, for Eric Wile.

Miller, Denis and Thompson are incumbents and are respectively Membership Chair, Education Chair and Treasurer. McIntosh is a retired high school history teacher who splits her time in several Western states. Goyer lives in Oklahoma but flies to Southern California for meetings of the AFDCS chapter there. Lake lives in Connecticut and works for ESPN Sports; he joined the AFDCS as a junior. Board chairman Cynthia Scott and President Lloyd de Vries thanked Elections Committee chair Otto Thamasett and committee members Neal Parr and Jack Ginsburg, all members of the Robert C. Graebner Chapter of the AFDCS, for their work in counting the ballots in this year’s election, and the Nominating Committee chaired by Michael Litvak for recruiting the candidates.

Four seats on the AFDCS Board of Directors are elected each year for three-year terms, beginning Jan. 1. In addition to the 12 elected directors, the president, the editor of the official journal First Days, and the general counsel serve on the board ex officio, if not elected to the board in their own right.

The current board, plus directors who will be seated on Jan. 1, will now vote for the elected officers (president, executive vice president, first vice president, recording secretary, treasurer) and a chairman of the board, to serve one-year terms.

AFDCS directors are not compensated nor reimbursed for their travel expenses.

For more information on the AFDCS, visit www.afdcs.org or write to the AFDCS, PO Box 246, Colonial Beach, VA 22443-0246, or via e-mail at afdcs@afdcs.org.

The EFOCC was founded in 1986 in recognition of the fact that collecting printing varieties had become its own specialty, not just adding odd stamps to a normal collection. The international membership is made up of collectors who seek EFOs to make their country album more interesting, and collectors who enjoy studying production methods and the philatelic material that results when it doesn’t work properly.

EFOCC has a 28-page full-color quarterly, The EFO Collector, with feature articles, new discoveries, member information, free member ads, club activities, and an EFO auction in each issue. The EFOC and the broad and deep website, www.efocc.org, are managed by club Vice President Cemil Betanov, from New Hyde Park, NY.

Membership is $20 a year in the U.S. An application form is on the Society website.

The subjects are:

• Topical Collecting 101
• Integrating Errors, Freaks & Oddities into Your Collection
• The Most Beautiful Bridge in Paris
• Maps, Politics and Stamps: Some Examples from the Middle East
• Presidential Grab Bag: The Variety You Can Collect
• Nurse Philatelic Stories with a Sampling of Exhibit Elements
• Stamping in Sequim
• Innovations Seen in US Railroad Topical Stamps
• Indigenous Peoples of the World – on Stamps!
• Telling Stories with Postcards
• COVID-19-Related Philately
• From Me to You: The Philatelic History of Roberto Clemente on Stamps

You see the schedule and register for these events here.

[press release]
Hall of Fame established to recognize major contributors to AMG philately

The Allied Military Government Collectors’ Club (AMGCC) is proud to announce the initial class of inductees to the newly formed AMGCC Hall of Fame. These three individuals were instrumental in establishing post-World War II AMG philately as a challenging and respected area of collecting; creating resources that encouraged involvement in the field and further study. They are:

Joseph V. Bush (1917-2001) Joe Bush established his mail-order company specializing in AMG stamps and postal history in 1946. Virtually every philatelic publication carried his advertizing, and he is credited with popularizing the field. But he was not content to just sell stamps and covers. He was passionate about publicizing the history and the production information about them, and worked with researchers such as the other two inductees to produce monographs, catalogs, album pages, and to provide copies of documents that helped to understand the importance of AMG philately and facilitate collecting.

Harry W. Wilcke, M.D. (1925-2007) Dr. Wilcke was a researcher and prolific author on AMG philately; producing over 80 articles on a wide variety of AMG topics. Among his most important contributions was serving as an author, and primary editor of the Bush AMG Catalog-Handbook, and author of The AMG Story, a 150-page collector’s manual, published in 1994 by the U.S. Possessions Philatelic Society.

Harry S. Cass (1912-1957) Cass was the primary researcher documenting the production and use of AMG stamps. He was a co-editor and driving force behind the initial editions of the Bush AMG Catalog-Handbook, and the primary researcher for the Bush-Cass Catalog of AMG Revenue Stamps published in 1956.

It is truly said that we stand on the shoulders of those who established a firm foundation for the modern collecting and study of AMG philately. AMGCC is proud to begin with this group of contributors to recognize the people who devoted a life time of effort to promoting and explaining the stamps and covers we love.

The AMGCC was established in 2012 to promote and study the stamps and postal history of post WW-II allied occupation stamps used in Western Europe and Asia. It has a website, www.amgcollectors.org, and a full color quarterly journal, “A.M.G. Courier”. Collectors interested in membership may contact Secretary/Treasurer David Arking, 223 Williamsburg Rd, Lansing, MI 48917, or at arkmail@comcast.net

The American Philatelic Society, the largest stamp collecting organization in North America, has honored the folllowing people, with these awards in August 2020:

Nicholas G. Carter Award for National Service:

• Deane Briggs
• Jack Andre Denys
• Charles DiComo
• Larry Fillion
• Eric Jackson
• Bobby Liao

You can get more information about the winners and their accomplishments on the APS website.

For local service, the APS this year recognizes Tony Bruno.

The APS also named Timothy A. Hodge as Outstanding Young Adult Philatelist (Age 25-40). Their accomplishments also are detailed on the APS website.

The Luff Award is the APS’ highest award for service. Those honored this year are

• Yamil H. Kouri, Jr., for Exceptional Contributions to Philately;
• Kenneth Grant, for Outstanding Service to the APS; and
• James Peter Gough, for Distinguished Philatelic Research.

Luff recipients are almost always still living. The APS Hall of Fame honors those who have passed away. This year, that includes

• Sophie Buser (1907-1997);
• George Griffenhagen (1924-2019); and
• Ann Triggle (1935-2018)

You can learn why they deserve the honor here. Former APS executive director — but also a former member of the boards of the APS and American Topical Association, former Deputy Secretary of State and U.S. Ambassador — Robert E. Lamb received Ernest Kehr Award, which is bestowed annually helping to guarantee the future of the hobby.

Ken Lawrence received the U.S. Stamp Society-Barbara Mueller Award for best article in the APS journal, American Philatelist.

And dealers Stanley Richmond, Jack Nalbandian and Richard Champagne share this year’s John Walter Scott Dealer Award.