Report
The show was a postal historian’s paradise, with hundreds of thousands of covers available for viewing in the exhibit frames and for purchase at the dealer booths. There were lots of presentations and seminars offering a vast potential for the education of collectors who attended.
The MPHS was actively engaged in the proceedings, with meetings of both the board of directors and general membership being held. Our society table was open during the entire show and provided a “hangout” where it was a pleasure to meet so many of our members for a chat, the asking and answering of questions, and the showing of new or unusual covers. In fact, during the eight days, 106 visitors signed the registration book.
The recruitment of new members was a key activity, and I am pleased to report that we signed up 26 of them at the show, which must be a new record for such activity at any given event.
A particularly innovative aspect of the exhibition was that the participating societies had the opportunity to fill an exhibit frame with pages providing information about their activities, how to join, and other aspects of collecting their particular subject, as well as showing samples of the kinds of material that we actually collect. For the MPHS, we showed examples of military mail from various wars and campaigns extending from the American Revolution to Vietnam. This display will be kept for use at future society conventions.
All of the officers and directors attended the board meeting, which included reports by the Secretary, Treasurer, Editor, Auction Manager, Awards Chairman, Conventions Manager and General Counsel. In addition, there was a discussion of recent and forthcoming publications, and a decision was made with regard to a site for our 2011 annual meeting. The good news is that the Society remains solvent, with assets of more than $50,000 (which provides good support for our publications activity) and that our budget was in the black – aside from a special gift made to the American Philatelic Research Library.
The membership meeting was attended by about 25 persons, with a presentation on “Registered Mail Follows the Troops” by our esteemed general counsel, Eliot Landau. The special award for the best article in the Bulletin during 2005 was presented to Louis Fiset for his study on “The Diplomatic Exchange Voyages of World War II.”
MPHS society booth
{a.n. other}, Jim Boyden, Dave Kent & Myron Fox
MPHS – Society display frame at Washington 2006
