Through the Collectors Club we have been making a lot of new friends. We call them “new members”. My mother used to say that the best part of making new friends is turning them into old friends. Indeed, more than 100 new members have joined since the pandemic hit us in March 2020. It is going to a particular focus for all of to turn all these new friends into old friends.

The Collectors Club believes that our mission is to bring members and friends together, virtually and in person. We do this at our clubhouse in New York and also around the country at shows and special gatherings to educate, inspire and support hobbyists in pursuit of their philatelic goals. All of you reading this message belong to the Collectors Club and are engaged because you fundamentally agree with this proposition.

The key to fulfilling this mission is action.

We intend to increase our presence at major shows. You will see the Collectors Club hosting speakers at WESTPEX, NOJEX, NAPEX, and Chicagopex. This is in addition to the big August show in Chicago, GASS.

At these shows we will be available to meet with our members, we might have a table, we may organize some talks and we might even sponsor or participate in a dinner. Having a physical presence is important as ultimately it is through these physical encounters that we bond people together. We look forward to seeing and speaking with you at these shows and we are excited to be able to re-engage with our friends in real time and space. It is all part of “educate, inspire and support”.

Speaking of virtual time and space. We have been very active this season with our Zoom presentations. Following on this wave, thirty virtual programs have been scheduled for 2021. You may be interested in reading some of the feedback we have received:

However, the quality and value of the presentations this winter and spring have accelerated—if that’s possible—and I find myself finally appreciating philately in ways that I haven’t experienced before; the hobby now feels more like a pathway to an historical adventure than a window from which I can can gaze at pretty stamps and covers.

Even as a kid I felt that I was messing around with bits of significant historical artifact; the Collector Club’s webinars have created a substantial foundation for this sensation and have helped me turn my own helter-skelter accumulations of truly common material into (small but meaningful) collections that serve to teach; my European History prof must be smiling from his perch in the nether world.

The talk … inspired me to find the boxes of material I have that were unloved and buried deep in the back of a cupboard.

Best wishes, and thanks again for stretching my philatelic boundaries.

It’s nice to hear this feedback and there are a lot of people who deserve credit. If not for the effort of our VP & Chief Technology Officer Joan Harmer none of this would have happened. We are indebted to our program chair, Steve Reinhard for arranging for the speakers and their topics. There is much work that goes on in the background with the help of Mark Banchik and Wade Saadi. Our technical run throughs are smoothly managed and the programs themselves are effectively managed. It’s a team effort of members who make the effort and act.

We can all see that we are now on the best side of the pandemic, and we are working on our schedule for 2022. We are committed to delivering two virtual programs per month. We expect to resume programs from 22 East 35th Street in the new year, and we are thrilled to share the Clubhouse with you once again. These program from the Clubhouse will be live streamed. We want you all, both those local to New York and not, to be “close” to us and to feel a part of our club family.

We believe that the best way to make our new friends, old friend is stay true to our mission: “to bring members and friends together, virtually and in person”.

We intend to make our new friends, old friends.

 

–Lawrence Haber

Far be for me to suggest that we are out of the woods, but maybe, just maybe, we are getting there.

Here is some good news for you: as you may note elsewhere in this journal, we are beginning the process of reopening our Club house at 22 East 35th Street. With prior reservations, members who wish to conduct philatelic research in the Library will be welcomed back Your Club plays host to a number of local chapters of national specialist organizations. Each has been offered the opportunity to return. In addition, we expect to resume hosting live programs from the Club house, which will be live streamed on the internet for you in September and October. As you know, we still are committed to our Zoom programs every other Wednesday.

Traditionally, you have looked forward to the Governor’s Open House in December. This was obviously not the case this past holiday season. Instead now, wouldn’t it be a wonderful for all of us to enjoy a pre-summer Open House? A welcome back, in a sense, for our Club family. The event would not feature a live program. This will be a much needed chance to reacquaint. Perhaps, we’ll twist the arms of some of our Board members to place some material in the frames. Now, wouldn’t that be great, real material in real frames? Picture yourself enjoying time among your fellow club members while enjoying some light refreshments. Hold your calendars open for June 23 to join in. We will send an email around with details as we get closer.

And, yes, just in case you’re unsure, all the proper protocols will be observed and safety first. We’ve all been through too much to take our re-opening lightly, or without proper precaution.

It is just not in New York where we will be re-engaging. Your Club will be at the WESTPEX stamp show, July 30 to August 1. WESTPEX is always a highlight of the philatelic year for avid collectors from around the country. Your Collectors Club is supporting WESTPEX as a convening society. Subject to all the responsible precautions, an informal group of club members plan to enjoy dinner and if you’re interested, you are definitely invited to join along. The Collectors Club will also be hosting speakers giving a philatelic program, a video of which will be posted on our website..

A bit later in the summer, we will be supporting the Great American Stamp Show in Rosemont, Illinois, just next door to Chicago’s O’Hare airport, August 12 to 15, 2021. Once again, we will be meeting members and friends at a table on the show floor along side our friends from the Philatelic Foundation, and hosting a dinner on Wednesday, August 11th after the Tiffany program. The Collectors Club will also be hosting speakers giving a philatelic program. Later on, a video of the program will be available from our website.

Summer moves into Fall, we expect to support both NOJEX (October 15 to 17) and then a week later NAPEX (October 22 to 24). As we get closer to these dates, the specifics will be become clearer.

The bottom-line message for WESTPEX, GASS, NOJEX and NAPEX: we want to see and speak with you and re-engage in person, while our club continues to also increase our virtual presence through our popular Webinar programming.

Finally, the Club plans to finish off our year off with an extraordinary event. This year is the 125th anniversary of the Club and the 100th anniversary of our journal, the Collectors Club Philatelist. At this event we will be conferring the Lichtenstein Award on three very well deserving winners: John Barwis (2020), Patrick Maselis (2021) and Mark Banchik (2021).

Save the date for this two-day anniversary festival spanning November 10 and 11. On November 10, you are invited to compete and attend our long-standing single frame exhibit competition. In the evening, expect a wide variety of dining and entertainment options. On the following evening, you can expect a celebratory dinner at the renown Harvard Club. An exceptional venue to cap off our anniversary celebration.

As you read this column you may drop back in thought to see a lot of activity and a determination, if we might say, to get back into the flow of a vibrant and active philatelic calendar. You might ask why? Why not just hang back and let things come back? Why not go with the flow?

We have spent a great deal of time thinking about our role and our mission in the hobby as your Club. We are convinced that our mission is for the Collectors Club to bring its members and friends together, virtually and in person, at its home in New York and around the country to educate, inspire and support them in pursuit of their philatelic goals. We are your club, the club for the avid and engaged philatelist, wherever you may live. Everything your club does is with this mission in mind: the Zoom Webinar programs, re-opening the Library, the presence at major shows, our sponsorship of our own single frame competition, our honoring our past and the leaders who have brought true excellence to the hobby we all love.

This is who we are. This is your Collectors Club.

 

–Lawrence Haber

One of the great pleasures of being president of this Club is contacting those individuals who have been awarded the Lichtenstein Award. Elsewhere in this journal you will read more extensively about Patrick Maselis and Mark Banchik, but if I would be permitted to add my perspective.

The Lichtenstein Award process starts with nominations being solicited from our membership and these being considered by a committee headed by Steve Reinhard. All the committee members are past winners of the award and the only reason I was admitted to this august group was because of the presidential ex-officio entitlement. There were ten nominations in total and each supported by papers attesting to their contributions to the hobby. All the nominees are extraordinary and they have all made huge contributions to philately. I was and remain in awe of them all. Choices would not be easy. Four nominees were forwarded to the Board of Governors for their final consideration.

When the Board voted, it was clear that for the first time that we were selecting co-winners. The caliber of the nominees made breaking precedent easier than we might have thought. After the vote was completed, I had the honor of informing the winners. When I spoke to each gentleman, one in San Diego and the other as he was about to board a plane somewhere in Europe, I heard genuine surprise, humble appreciation and a quiet undercurrent of emotion. Not only are Patrick and Mark huge contributors to this hobby, but they are good and genuine men, their reactions were humble, they were both very touched and appreciative. There is no question that the process worked.

The question then naturally follows: having had to defer last year’s annual Lichtenstein dinner on account of COVID, but what of this year’s event? (You’ll recall that John Barwis was selected last year.) But, first, we must digress.

Having been diverted by matters viral, we have come to recognize that in 2021 The Collectors Club will celebrate its 125th anniversary. 1896 to 2021. AND, in addition, this journal, celebrates its 100th anniversary. These are two estimable events we must mark.

Circumstances present their difficulties but we would like to strive for a very special event occurring over a two-day period in New York on November 10th and 11th, in which we will mark the 125th anniversary of this Club, the 100th anniversary of this journal, bestow the Lichtenstein award on 3 individuals and maybe more importantly, start to bring us all out of the dark places we have had to be while this virus has had its way with us all. We recognize the difficulties and the challenges, but we expect that we will be almost all vaccinated, that NYC will be re-opened and that life will start returning to normal. We understand the challenges but we believe we have to persevere since otherwise we surrender to despair.

Specifically, on Wednesday, November 10th, we will hold our single frame competition in the Club house and we hope that this will be an exhibition for the ages. In the evening, we will arrange multiple dining and entertainment options for all attending.

On the evening of November 11th, we will hold a special dinner at a landmark location to mark our multiple anniversaries and honor our award winners. As I write this in late February, I expect that many will have concerns and some trepidation, but we will only hold this event provided we have confidence in the prudent health measures in place. We have all come too far and dealt with too much to do otherwise.

Oh, and did I mention that we will be preparing a very special book, 100 years of the Collectors Club Philatelist? A book which will contain the best, the most representative, the most evocative articles that have appeared in this journal. It is going to be great.

We have started work on all the details and as those details firm up we will be sharing those with you. But please, circle these dates. No need to make a commitment now. Get your single frame in shape and please stay safe and healthy because it is going to be a great and safe party.

 

–Lawrence Haber

Disappointed to see 2020 in the rearview mirror?

None of us are, I’m sure. It was a terrible year filled with awfulness. It is good to be rid of 2020. May we never see its like again. However, despite the temptation, let’s try to avoid over-focusing on the past and let’s all agree it is best to look forward, forward to a much much brighter horizon.

What determines success for this club and how could we measure success? These could be aligned along multiple dimensions: programming, this journal, the Collectors Club Philatelist (CCP), our library, outreach to our members, and the ambience at our Club house. Each of these must be excellent. I would submit that excellence will be self-evident and that must be our goal.

Programming: Clearly, our virtual programs have resonated across the philatelic community. It is typical for us to have more than 350 people register for each program and somewhere around 275 of those are with us on the day. These numbers and the notice we have gained, have placed us at the forefront of the hobby. We also believe that this has led to significant gains in members during a period that could otherwise be best described as bleak and miserable. We will not be leaving this virtual venue so long as the audience is there. Elsewhere in this journal you will see the calendar for the coming year. We are sure that you will agree that the depth, breadth and quality of our speakers and their topics is extraordinary. You will note that our speakers will be coming to us from across the globe and their topics will reflect this diversity. We have little doubt that cumulatively our programs for 2021 will be the best that the Club has ever hosted.

We will also be striving to go beyond our usual program format. We are currently working on arranging for special presentations that we will host in conjunction with five leading philatelic groups. This effort will be very special and as soon as we have the details worked out, we will announce this new series which no one would want to miss.

At this time it is very difficult to prognosticate on the date at which we will be able to resume running programs from 22 East 35th Street. Considering the availability of vaccines and timing considerations, one guess might be in the Fall. But whenever that date comes, and it surely will come, when are able to resume running programs in the Club house, these will be in addition to the current schedule we have announced, and we will strive to be innovative in our physical programs. We are committed to live streaming all our programs delivered from the Club house.

CCP: Content in this journal is critical to our success and our goal is that this journal will be without peer. We are in the process of assembling a first-rate team of philatelists who will work with our editor, Wayne Youngblood, in sourcing articles and strive to ensure that this becomes the place to publish. They will be deployed across geographic criteria. It will be our aim that they will help to proactively source articles and add to the already rich content we currently have.

Library: It is not easy breaking through the physical boundaries that define a library, but we are committed to bringing the library closer to you, our members. We’ve introduced a lending by mail program and will shortly be able to provide members with a light scan service so as to facilitate your research efforts.

Outreach: When life eventually returns to a newer normal, we want to be there. Being there means being at shows, in the field, not tied just to the New York metropolitan area. There has been a provision in our bylaws for regional representatives. By this time next year, you will know that this provision will no longer be dormant. Our goal will be to have a meaningful presence at at least 4 major shows a year. Being there to greet members, meet new members, run impactful programs and extend our reach beyond the Hudson River.

Club ambience: We will return to New York, but more importantly, you will return to New York. It is just a matter of time. If you are visiting the city, we want to you to be comfortable coming by, saying hello, resting your feet and maybe even have a cup of coffee. Pick up a book and journal, sit down and have a read. If you live outside the metropolitan area and are visiting the area on business or pleasure, even more so, we want to you stop by the Club. And, once there, we want you to feel like you’re at home.

Lastly, we want to thank all of you, our members, for your support and confidence. We hope that by laying out these criteria for success that you will hold the leadership of this Club to account and ensure we strive to fulfill these promises. From this point forward, our focus will be to emerge from the darkness of COVID and head to a brighter and clearer future, together.

 

–Lawrence Haber

Have you noticed that we’ve been using a new logo for the past year, an image of a globe? Not the New York skyline. Nor the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. But why a globe? Is this because of the typical archetypical perspective of the New Yorker, whose view of the world is reflected in the Saul Steinberg cover cartoon from “The New Yorker”? Is this because we are the preeminent city, the city of cities, the modern equivalent of Rome? Is this why the globe befits us?
 
No. We are using a globe as our symbol because that is who we are. Did you know that only around 20% of our members live in the New York metropolitan area? Or to be more direct, did you know that 80% of you do not live in New York? Or that we have more members residing overseas than in New York?
 
I would suggest that one of the benefits from these difficult times is that we have opened the Club up to you, our members, including the 80% who live out there, in a manner never before imagined. Yes, we all receive this journal (which is a peerless journal and once again I suggest this is the best place to place an article where you want a wide dispersion of your efforts. Think judges and those extra points you’ll earn.) But, our meetings truly being open and available to all is wonderful. It’s been a pleasure to meet and engage with you.
 
We are committed to continuing to run two virtual meetings a month. Once things re-open, the we will run one meeting each month in the Club House. This meeting will be live streamed. Let us not forget that all our meetings, in person and virtual, are available for offline viewing on our website. We are now in the midst of arranging the schedule for the coming year. If you’d like to do a program, please let us know. We’d welcome more volunteers. As a virtual program, I am sure you will find that the travel logistics are somewhat easier. Now, obviously, we will need to react to the unexpected, but there is simply no going back to the pre-Zoom days.
 
But being global is more than telling a tale and selling you that bridge which crosses the East River and connects lower Manhattan to Brooklyn. We need to broaden our Board and I am delighted to report we have done that. In the masthead, you may notice a new name, Kathy Johnson. She is not a New Yorker. She has lived in the Midwest for more than 30 years, currently lives in Galena, Illinois and most decidedly does not share my accent. In addition to her peerless background and contributions to our hobby, she brings a perspective that is not held captive to Steinberg’s cartoon.
 
This is a world wherein we are reaching multiple states, countries and continents during our programs. I just saw our fabulous effort at Stampex (thank you Joan Harmer for a superlative result, and Ed Grabowski, Colin Fraser and John Barwis for your talks and Wade Saadi for the introductions), we need to reach you all in other ways. Beginning to geographically diversify our Board is a good first step. Another step we are considering is establishing regional representatives so we will be more than a virtual organization and will be in position to make the connections, at a personal level, that will be so important once the world and stamp shows are open again for business again. We’ve seen during our programs how important the “social time” is. Obviously, right now the emphasis is on the virtual, the digital, but we also know that person to person contact is still critical.
 
Our Club House at 22 East 35th Street is a peerless asset and lies at the core of our identity. We are undertaking steps to make the Library our building houses more available to you both through a lending by mail program and initiating a light scanning service for members.
 
But, we are more than a building or a city, we are you and we hope to undertake concrete and meaningful steps to draw you closer and not to be held captive to Steinberg’s view from 9th Avenue.
 
As I write this in very early October, I know that you’ll be reading this with holiday season upon us. I do not wish to close without wishing all our you and yours a joyous holiday season filled with positive hope for a future and ample opportunities to fulfill our philatelic and personal dreams. Surely 2021 will be an improvement on 2020.
 
At the end of each of our virtual programs, we ask for comments. I would like to conclude this message by making that same request, for your comments and suggestions. The email is easy to remember and simple to use: president@collectorsclub.org. We do want to hear from you.

 

–Lawrence Haber