Five years ago, I wrote the following for this space:

I am writing this message for the May/June issue of the Collectors Club Philatelist during the third week of March. For more than two weeks, we have had our daily routines disrupted as we practice the latest neologism, social distancing. As you read this, you have a much better idea of how all this plays out than I currently do. I envy you. I hope my envy is well placed.

To paraphrase Dr. McCoy (from the Star Trek TV show), “I’m a stamp collector, not an epidemiologist,” so there is really nothing that I can add regarding these circumstances other than what I’ve heard. No point in parroting back my misinformation, so I am not going in that direction.

For many of us, the COVID-19 virus and the disruptions it gave rise to are a memory. Many of us strain to make it a more distant memory. Many lost friends and loved ones to that calamity. Many suffered from the disease and long Covid. Some have forgotten, and that is a blessing.

But on the positive side, it was from that horror that our virtual program series rose. Since that time, we have hosted more than 130 individual programs. These programs cover a huge span of philately, and we heard from an extraordinary group of presenters. Our presenters came from across the United States and from across the globe. Our viewers have been representative of a worldwide source.

In the beginning, we did not restrict viewership to only our members. How could we do otherwise in the face of the pandemic and everything shutting down? With the pandemic behind us, we have kept to this policy. What was true then is true today. One of our roles is to support the spread of this hobby we love and to support those who wish to know and understand more. Many of these non-members have elected to become members, and we are proud of them, as well as our outreach.

However, the more we consider those who participate in our virtual programs and continue to avoid membership but nevertheless are repeat viewers, the term “non-member” may not be the correct term to describe them. In a sense, they are members, but they neither pay us nor provide any formal paperwork. However, their ongoing alignment is clear. Our challenge is how to bring them closer and deepen the relationship.

For many of us, joining an organization is a natural step. This is true not only for philatelic organizations, but also for voluntary organizations of all kinds. The membership model is facing increasing pressure and is being overtaken by the fee-for-service model. Managing these transitions, which most voluntary organizations confront – whether they realize it or not – is challenging. The answers are not obvious, yet the challenge is present, and it is one that we have no choice but to face.

–Lawrence Haber

 

 

As you will read elsewhere in this journal, we are honored to report that Yamil Kouri has been awarded the Lichtenstein Award for 2025. For me, both the selection process and Yamil’s choice are particularly special.

First things first. I had the opportunity to sit in on the Lichtenstein Award Committee – not because I was a past winner (far from it!), but because, as president, I am ex-officio on committees. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been there. For me, it was an eye-opening experience. For every nominee, we receive not only a completed nomination form but often their philatelic CV, which is usually a marvel to behold.

Yamil’s philatelic CV spans 14 pages. Keep in mind, he is a physician with an active clinical practice. Within that CV, I counted 196 published articles across 24 different journals. He has presented at numerous meetings and conferences. As an exhibitor, he has earned countless Gold and Large Gold medals at World Series of Philately (WSP) shows, as well as many international and Fédération Internationale de Philatélie (FIP) Gold and Large Gold awards. His Gold and Large Gold exhibition awards alone take up more than a full page.

In addition, Yamil has served as a philatelic juror, chief juror, commissioner, vice president of the APS, member of the Federación Interamericana de Filatelia (FIAF) board, chairman of the Spellman Museum, and director of Boston 2026.

He is a member of nearly every philatelic organization I have heard of and has also served as president of the Cuban Philatelic Society of America and the Postal History Society. Notably, he is the only numbered member of the Real Academia Hispánica de Filatelia e Historia Postal and serves on its governing board.

He has been a journal editor and contributor to numerous American philatelic publications. His body of work includes seven books and 10 monographs.

His achievements have been widely recognized: he is a recipient of the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society (USPCS) Ashbrook Cup, a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society, a USPCS Distinguished Philatelist, a Luff Award winner and a signer of the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists.

There is one more thing I want to highlight. On Dec. 30, 2021, at 3:53 p.m., I sent Yamil a question about a postcard. I needed help understanding the circular datestamp on the card. It read “Bagley, Cuba,” April 22, 1909. The name “Bagley” didn’t sound Cuban to me. What gives?

At 4:02 p.m. – just nine minutes later – I received his response:

“It was a U.S. post office within the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay that opened in 1907.

“It was named after the first U.S. officer killed during the Spanish-American War, Ensign Worth Bagley. I have a few letters to his family and remember his statue on the grounds of the North Carolina State House (one of my daughters lives in NC).”

This amazes me – not just his encyclopedic knowledge and lightning-fast recall, but also his eagerness to share and help. To me, this is the true measure of his character.

Sitting in the committee meetings has been a privilege. It has given me insight into the commitment and dedication of some of the finest philatelists we have walking about. The Lichtenstein requires performance at the highest levels across several criteria:

• Philatelic leadership
• Philatelic Research & Publication
• Philatelic Exhibiting or collecting achievement
• Previous honors and awards

If an individual has contributed at the highest levels in just three of these four, the gap from the missing fourth will stand in the way. There has to be excellence across all four. Not a trivial matter.

There is a video monitor on the wall of the lounge of our Club, and the names of all past Lichtenstein winners flash through on the screen in sequence. It is an enormous testimony to the contribution each has brought to our hobby and an inspiration for us all.

–Lawrence Haber

Welcome to the last year in the first quarter of the 21st century. Astounding, isn’t it? I am quite sure that I am not alone among this group who once felt that 1984, or for that matter 2001, was a far-off science-fiction date that lived only in the imagination and was unimaginably far off into the distant future. But here we are. It’s something to be excited about, and we should all be excited about the year ahead for us and our Club.

Elsewhere in this issue, you should be able to review our program of presentations for calendar year 2025. We are very proud of the work of our programming committee: Kathy Johnson, Kimberlee Fuller, Chip Gliedman, Steve Reinhard and Wade Saadi, chaired by Behruz Nassre, and the result of their work. Perhaps hid- den, but maybe not, there is a change in the design of the annual program. Non- atypically, the set of programs we assemble strives for great presenters covering interesting topics, but the topics do not necessarily bear any relation to each other and might appear to be a random assemblage. This is not a criticism but a reflection that we are a generalized society, we are not, as a group, a specialized society. Our members – you – collect just about everything in the book, or in the back thereof. Consequently, we have always striven to provide a broad set of programs that will appeal to the broad interests of our members. But this year we are trying something different.

Among the “random” assemblage, you will note an over-arching theme. We are very much aware that the year is 2025. We are, therefore, at the beginning of the semi-quincentennial or the quarter-millennium of the United States (that’s 250 years). The committee felt that it would be appropriate to have a number of programs during the course of the year that recognize the anniversary approaching, especially as we anticipate the upcoming international show in Boston in May 2026. I would remind all of us that Boston is less than a year and a half away. We hope that we do our part to help get people in the mood. And we especially want you to enjoy the programs we’ve put together for 2025.

There is one other major change in our programs for 2025 that I would like to point out. Most, but not all, of our programs will be hybrid programs. They will be delivered live from the Club and simultaneously “broadcast” out to you via Zoom. We are delighted that so many of our presenters have agreed to come to the Club and take advantage of our fabulous capabilities. As promised, we remain thoroughly committed to the Zoom platform, but we are also thoroughly committed to personal interactions among our members in real time, in real space, at the same time. There is a substitute for the personal via virtual media, but the person- al is truly special—hint, hint. Visit us.

The library has largely gone back onto the shelves – not an easy task. It is now possible to casually walk from section to section, well lit and easy to access. Not a day goes by without a visitor marveling at the library and its depth and breadth.

–Lawrence Haber