FIP POSTAL STATIONERY COMISSION

Message from the Chairman. 2001

It seems amazing that a year has passed since the previous Newsletter but whichever school of thought you subscribe to, the 21st century has now well and truly started and I wish everyone well for 2001.

A major development for communication between the Commission and the global population of collectors has been the launch of our own web-site with the Internet address www.postal stationery.org. This has come about, following discussion at the Madrid Commission meeting, through the dedicated work put in by Ross Towle of the USA, and we all owe him a considerable debt of gratitude for creating the structure and content which is an excellent shop-window for postal stationery collecting and the activities of the Commission - see seperate note in this Newsletter.

As ever Commission activities have focused on events aimed at promoting the collecting, exhibiting and judging of postal stationery. Apart from Regional and National presentations by various members of the Commission a joint meeting with the Postal Stationery Society was held during THE STAMP SHOW 2000 on May 28 and was most successfull being attended by over 50 people. The other major gathering of the Commission during 2000 was held just before the 66th FIP Congress in Madrid on 13th October. A full account can be found elsewhere in this Newsletter but it is worth noting that membership of the Commission has now risen to 63 and I would like to extend a warm welcome to the following Federations - Emirates, Hong Kong, Latvia, Pakistan, Paraguay and Slovenia.

More recently in early February I visited Berlin to go to BEPHILA 2001, a German Regional exhibition which also celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Berliner Ganzsachen Sammler Verein which appears to be the oldest specialised philatelic society in the world - a remarkable achievement of which they can be justifiably proud. Is was a great pleasure to meet many fellow postal stationery enthusiasts at this exhibition and on behalf of the Commission Hans-Georg Meissner and I gave a presentation on "The Evolution of British Postal Stationery to 1900".

An open meeting of the Commission is being arranged by Luc van Tichelen on the 15th June during BELGICA 2001 which will feature several short displays and talks. A further meeting of the Commission will take place just before the 67th FIP Congress in Seoul - details to be announced later.

Finally I should like to warmly thank all those who have assisted with the work of the Commission and those Federations which provide resources to fund its activities.

Alan Huggins
Chairman
February 2001-03-06