FIP POSTAL STATIONERY COMISSION

Message from the Chairman. 2005

It seems hard to believe that the Singapore FIP Congress is already six months in the past. This was the best attended Postal Stationery Commission meeting ever and much fruitful discussion took place.

Our hard-working Secretary Erik Hvidberg-Hansen continues to do outstanding work in the production of our Newsletter and he asks all representatives to keep him informed of National and Regional exhibitions, unusual auction results, literature reviews and other national activities.

The Postal Stationery Society in the UK has just concluded a meeting in conjunction with Stampex in London. I heard that over 100 frames of postal stationery were on display. My compliments to all those who worked so hard to make it such an outstanding success.

Ross Towle, our Webmaster, has indicated that he has room a for a number of mini-displays (16 sheets) on our website. Currently we have displays of Chile. Denmark and Australia printed to private order. Please scan your pages at 200 dpi and send them as a gif or jpeg to rosstowle@postalstationery.org or rosstowle@yahoo.com

We are currently in the formative stage of obtaining all the commission representatives e-mail addresses in the hope that an electronic bulletin for the Commission will supplement our regular Newsletter in the not too distant future. If you have not yet supplied your e-mail address to Erik (hvidberg@inet.uni2.dk) or I (sdsch@earthlink.net) please do so as soon as you are able. Our FIAF Bureau member, Enrique Bialikamien, has already obtained the e-mail address of all the FIAF

The 71^STFIP Congress will probably take place in conjunction with ESPANA 2006 in Seville next year. I hope to have a postal stationery seminar take place which would include not only exhibiting and judging but also displays of interesting areas. If you would like to participate please contact me.

As many of you are aware, Ray Todd is our liaison with the FIP Board of Directors. We are fortunate in having such a very knowledgeable postal stationery collector, exhibitor and juror "in our corner" so to speak. If you have any items that should be brought to Ray's attention, my e-mail address is above.

In closing I would be remiss in not mentioning the one person who has dome so much for so many years in the exhibiting, judging and promotion of postal stationery: our immediate Past Chairman, Dr. Alan Higgins. Alan led the commission for many years and did much to bring postal stationery to the attention of everyone in the philatelic world. Much of the appreciation today of the difficulty of acquisition of postal stationery and the importance of postal stationery to a country's postal system is due in no small part to his efforts. Thank you Alan and I hope that I can continue doing your work in the future.

Stephen D. Schumann

Commission Chairman

March 28, 2005

Message from the Secretary. 2005

I still advertise for information of exhibition results from national and regional exhibitions, literature reviews, information of unusual auction results, and of course reports of national activities to promote the collection of postal stationery, to be brought in the next Newsletter.

I also ask that you all send me your e-mail address, so that we in the future don´t have to print the newsletter on paper, and send it out by snail mail, but can be able to send it electronically to all of you. Enrique Bialikamien, our new bureau member from Costa Rica, representing FIAF, has done a great job in collecting e-mail addresses from all our Commission members in the Americas. You can se them at the enclosed revised name and addresslist.

Also a warm thank you to our honorary member, retired chairman Dr Alan Huggins for his contributions to this newsletter.

It was a pleasure to meet so many old, but also new faces during the Singapore exhibition, and I am looking forward to seeinb most of you again in Spain in 2006.

Erik Hvidberg Hansen

Secretary.